Shadowing Practice: The Power of Logistics | Terry Esper | TEDxOhioStateUniversitySalon - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Good evening.
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Thank you.
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So by a show of hands,
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how many of you are online shoppers?
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Almost everyone.
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In fact, I guess the better question would be how many of you are not online shoppers,
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especially in 2019.
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Well, I've got a scenario for you.
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So you've purchased something online and you were promised two-day delivery
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and sure enough within two days or less your package arrives at your home,
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it is exactly what you purchase and it is exactly in the condition that you expected it to be in.
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How does that make you feel?
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It's a pretty satisfactory experience, right?
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Well that feeling of satisfaction that many of us experience several times a week,
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sometimes four to five times a week.
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That feeling of satisfaction, that's what I study as a professor here at Ohio State in the Fisher College of Business.
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Essentially, my research can be represented by this photo.
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I study home delivery logistics,
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and in particular, I focus on people like her,
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this consumer that is clearly satisfied with this delivery service.
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My research focuses on how we can better satisfy customers through home delivery services.
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In fact, I do a ton of research
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that focuses on her expectations to get an understanding of what she expects in terms of delivery services
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and how companies can best design their logistics infrastructures in order to meet those expectations.
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I've been interested in this topic for a very long time.
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I started my career working for a big retail organization
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when we started our first online retail store
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and in fact my first opportunity with the company was to develop its first home delivery logistics infrastructure
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so I've been involved with this for a very long time
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but I've got a secret to tell you about this work
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that I do I think it's interesting and I enjoy it
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but my secret to be honest with you I've struggled with
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connecting with the work in a really deep level here's an example I've got a friend
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that does research on diversity and inclusion within corporate organizations.
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And as an African-American woman who worked in a corporate environment before she became an academic,
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her research is an extension of who she is as an individual.
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I've got a friend that does research on entrepreneurship,
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and she grew up in an entrepreneurial family that had a family-owned business,
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and she worked in that business as a child.
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So her research on entrepreneurship is an extension of who she is as an individual.
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I've got a friend that does research on consumers that have undergone significant body transformations.
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And she herself has traveled an interesting journey and has lost a considerable amount of weight along that journey.
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And so her research is an extension of who she is as an individual.
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And for me, I do research on logistics.
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It's interesting.
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But to be honest with you,
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I really struggled with the connection to the work as it
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relates to it being a part of who I am as an individual.
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Well you know, that all started to change for me and it started to change around mid-October of last year.
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I was reading a series of articles about one of this country's great business organizations, Sears.
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It was mid-October 2018 and Sears had recently declared bankruptcy.
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And so because of that there were a series of articles about Sears that were dominating the business press.
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And so I was thumbing through those articles and I got intrigued
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and essentially snatched by a few headlines that really captured my attention.
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Like this one from the Washington Post that talked about Sears
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and their radical past as it relates to servicing customers during the era of Jim Crow,
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which was the time in this country that was plagued by racism and discrimination.
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Or there was this headline from the New York Times
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that talked about Sears putting black customers first and making them a priority.
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As an African American that captured my attention
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and I read more about what it was about Sears that made them so groundbreaking at that time.
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And I learned some really interesting things.
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It was Sears and their home delivery services
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that provided African Americans in this country with a way to
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shop where they did not have to be subjected to racism and discrimination.
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That was a light bulb moment for me.
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It was something that connected to me personally.
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I went back to the times when I shopped with my grandmother in downtown retail stores,
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even as a child.
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We used to have to put on our Sunday best to go to these stores
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because we needed to project to those retailers that we belonged there
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and that we could afford the things that they sold us.
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But even as a child,
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I was very aware of a difference in my grandmother.
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I could sense that there was no joy in her during this time.
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In fact, I sensed fear.
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But then I recalled when she would get packages delivered to her home from Sears,
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and the excitement and the joy.
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Now I used to think that she was excited because she was getting a package delivered to her home.
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But after reading these articles,
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I stopped, I paused, and I was thinking about whether or not,
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the joy that she experienced was not because she was getting a package,
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but because she was getting a package that allowed her to maintain her dignity.
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Well that connected to me personally,
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and at that moment I started to feel
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that my connection to logistics was starting to unfold in a very interesting and insightful way for me as an individual.
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So I started to explore other things that have inspired me throughout my life
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that have a a heavy dose of logistics associated with them.
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Like this gentleman, this is an artist's rendering of a gentleman by the name of Henry Brown.
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In fact, he's more affectionately referred to as Henry Box Brown.
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Now the interesting story about Henry Box Brown is that he was born a slave in the state of Virginia.
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But in order to get to freedom,
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he literally put himself in a wooden crate and shipped himself using logistics to freedom.
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In 1849, he climbed into a box and shipped himself to Philadelphia in order to be free.
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It took 27 hours and seven changes in logistics and transportation modes.
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So Henry Box Brown, for those of us who speak logistic vernacular,
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he was an intermodal shipment.
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But it was the fact that he shipped himself from slavery to freedom using logistics.
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That was a connection for me.
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Or this photo.
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Many folks see this, oh,
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that's Rosa Parks, mother of the Civil Rights Movement.
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And that's true.
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Rosa Parks was the mother of the Civil Rights Movement.
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It was the Montgomery bus boycotts that triggered the Civil Rights Movement
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and the era that was essentially responsible for my ability to be here today.
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Well, a lot of people know Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King as the heroes of the Civil Rights Movement,
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but there were a lot of unsung heroes.
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For example, this gentleman, a gentleman by the name of Rufus Lewis.
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Now what's significant about Mr. Lewis is that he was a logistician.
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And it was his logistics expertise
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that developed an entire logistics ride share infrastructure in the city of Montgomery
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that allowed African Americans to have an alternative way of getting to and fro and getting access to products and services.
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And it was that logistics infrastructure that allowed them to boycott the Montgomery bus system.
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Now, a lot of times when we think about the Montgomery bus boycotts,
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we think a week, a month.
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The Montgomery bus boycotts lasted for 381 days.
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And it was that boycott that triggered the civil rights movement.
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But that boycott would not have been possible had it not been for the logistics expertise of someone like Mr. Rufus Lewis.
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And well, there's this example, the Green Book.
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Many of you may have heard of the Green Book was just an Academy Award winning movie?
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Well, you know, the Green Book was a reality.
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The Green Book was a directory that was printed for African Americans to utilize when they traveled along U.S highways.
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It was a booklet that had a list of stores
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and gas stations and restaurants and lodging locations
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that were welcoming to African Americans because not all of them were at that time.
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I'm a product of the Great Migration.
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I was born and raised in a state north,
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directly north of Ohio, but my family has its roots in Mississippi and Tennessee.
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So as a product of the Great Migration,
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this period of time when it was suggested that somewhere between five
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and six million African Americans migrated from the south of this country and went to the northeast,
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the midwest, and the west,
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it was during the Great Migration that the the green book became like a Bible.
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But what's interesting about the green book is
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that it was not only just a directory of companies that were welcoming to African Americans,
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but it was a logistics planning document.
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Because from what I've been told,
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African Americans at
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that time would dare not get on the road without developing an entire plan as to where they could go,
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where they couldn't go, where they could stop,
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and how far they could get before they needed to lodge,
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before they needed to get gas.
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So these were important logistics plans
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that were developed before they would ever hit the road to go from the south to the north.
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And these, interestingly enough, are,
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all of these stories are a part of me.
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These were things that have inspired me my entire life.
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I'm a product of these stories.
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And as I went along this journey,
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I realized that I no longer have to envy my friend that does research on diversity and inclusion.
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I no longer have to envy my friend that does research on entrepreneurialism because for me,
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logistics is personal.
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It is something that has been given to me as a gift
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when I think of the shoulders that I have been able to stand on as a professor here at Ohio State.
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So I had a light bulb moment when I realized
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that the work that I do is not something that's just interesting to me,
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but it's something that's a part of me.
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Because had it not been for logistics capabilities and skills,
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I may not have had the opportunity to be here today.
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But I also had to rethink about logistics and see it as something that's quite powerful.
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So when we talk about the fundamentals of logistics,
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we talk about things like time and place utility,
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and that logistics is about getting products to where they need to be
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so that consumers can have access to the things they need to live.
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And that's great from a corporate perspective.
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And that's a really, really,
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really important part of business.
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But the reality is that logistics can be so much more.
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It might actually be something that can help someone gain their dignity.
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Logistics could actually be something that could give someone access to a better life.
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And it could even be something that could potentially spark a movement.
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So for me, I have had to travel this journey
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and it has been a wonderful journey for me to connect to logistics.
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And so for those of us in the room that do work that's associated with logistics and supply chain,
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and I know there are many of us here tonight,
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I would challenge all of us to really think about the work that we do.
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Make it personal.
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Find the links between who you are and what logistics offers to the world.
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But not only that, see it as powerful because the work
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that we do has the ability to unlock so much more than just getting a package to a door.
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So now when I do my research and focus on consumers like her,
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I'm not only thinking about the delivery process and the product that's in the box,
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but I'm thinking about what we're actually providing to customers.
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Because what we might be providing,
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it could be just a product in the box,
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but it could also be dignity.
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It could also be a door to a new opportunity.
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And so for all of us in the room tonight that do work in logistics,
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let's accept the challenge to not only think about product to door,
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but think about providing the world with dignity and access to a better life.
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Thank you.
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Bye.
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Context & Background
The speaker in this TEDx talk, Terry Esper, is a professor at Ohio State University specializing in logistics, specifically focusing on home delivery services. He engages the audience by discussing their shared experiences as online shoppers and the satisfaction derived from efficient delivery services. Esper's work centers on understanding consumer expectations, helping businesses design logistics to enhance customer experiences. Reflecting on his career and research motivations, he shares a personal narrative about finding deeper connections to his work through relatable experiences in the world of retail.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “How does that make you feel?” - A great way to invite someone to express their emotions or opinions.
- “This consumer that is clearly satisfied” - Useful in discussing customer feedback or service effectiveness.
- “Expectations to get an understanding” - A phrase that highlights the importance of understanding client needs.
- “Satisfactory experience” - Refers to the overall quality of a service or product.
- “I have struggled with connecting” - An honest expression useful for discussing personal experiences and challenges.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively improve your English speaking skills using this TEDx talk, follow this structured approach:
- Listen and Understand: Watch the video or listen to the audio without subtitles first. Focus on the general message and tone of the speaker.
- Transcribe Key Segments: Use a shadowing app to write down segments that resonate with you. Pay attention to both content and delivery.
- Practice Shadowing: Utilize a shadowing site like "shadow speak" to repeat the phrases immediately after the speaker. Focus on pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm. This technique enhances your listening and speaking abilities simultaneously.
- Record Yourself: Capture your shadowing attempts so you can compare your pronunciation with that of the speaker. This will help identify areas for improvement.
- Engage and Reflect: After shadowing, take a moment to reflect on how the phrases can be used in daily conversations. Consider writing a short dialogue using the top phrases you learned.
By following these steps, you can harness the power of engaging content, like this TEDx talk, to learn English with YouTube and develop your speaking skills through effective shadowing techniques.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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