Executive Spotlight: Megan Posenato, VP Supply Chain and Quality Assurance at Naya

Supply Chain Scene: Give us an idea of where you started and how you got to where you are now.

Megan Posenato: I actually got my degree in finance and didn't intend to go into supply chain, but I kind of fell into it, like many people do. I just happened to do an internship at Finlays, which is one of the world's largest tea manufacturers in supply chain. And it was kind of interesting, because while I was doing my internship there, I actually got an internship at UBS, and that was much more aligned with what my degree was. But Finlays really wanted me to come on full time as an employee, and those student loans were hitting, so I said, well, I need a job. An internship's nice, but I think I'm going to go for the job.

Looking back, that was definitely a pivotal decision for me and for where my career went, because had I not made that decision, I wouldn't be where I am today. I stayed there for about two years, doing international and domestic supply chain. It was a great experience, working on the manufacturing side and understanding that business, working with a lot of large companies here in the U.S. and internationally as well.

Two years in, I looked around and said, I'm in my early twenties in the suburbs of New Jersey, I think I want to go back to the city. So I came across the opportunity at Shake Shack, and at the time it was a bit of a gamble, because they were such a young company, going from a very established company like Finlays, which has been around for a long time, to taking the leap to Shake Shack, which only had 40 locations at the time. But I was early in my career, so if it didn't pan out, I could do something else. It ended up being one of the best decisions I made. I was there for ten and a half years, started when they had 40 locations, left when they had about 400 to 500 here in the U.S. and upwards of 800 globally at the time.

I was very fortunate to work under Lisa Kartzman for most of that time. She'd been in the industry in various roles for decades, and she really taught me everything I know, really old school foodservice. I honestly don't think I would be where I am today if it had not been for her, so she was a huge part of my career development and growth.

Most recently, about three months ago, I left and came over to Naya to kind of do it all over again. They have 47 locations and really aggressive growth plans, plans to get to 200 by 2030. It's a really exciting opportunity to still be in the city; there's not that many chains that start in the city, and I'm a native New Yorker, so when that opportunity came across, it was, for me, just a great chance. How many times does that happen in your career, especially in New York City? So that's kind of my journey and how I've gotten to where I am today.

SCS: You were at Shake Shack for over a decade, a span that covered COVID. What's your perspective on how the business changed across your time at Shake Shack, before that at Finlays, and now moving into the next evolution at Naya?

MP: I was at Shake Shack so long that I built out an entire team, seven people reporting to me, overseeing the whole supply chain. Looking back, I feel like I saw three distinct evolutions of the company, and you come to expect that as a company grows, it's going to keep changing.

Early on, we were still figuring out scale, getting things co-packed, making product scratch in the back of house, doing daily shakes and daily custards. The menu has to evolve as you scale, and part of that evolution is making operations easier and controlling the product going out to the guest.

One thing I think we did really well, especially with Lisa's experience guiding the team, was building deep relationships with our suppliers well before COVID hit. I always say we're in a people business, you need to be able to phone a friend, and I learned early in my career that you never burn bridges. Those relationships are what we leaned on hardest during COVID. We'd already started dual sourcing a lot of our product by that point, so we went into it in a fairly strong position.

Coming out of COVID, we saw there was still more work to do. We needed more tertiary supply, backup on the backup, so that became a major focus afterward. By the time I left, only about 7% of our total SKUs weren't dual or tertiary supplied. We were in a genuinely strong place; if something like that happened again, we had multiple paths we could take.

The biggest lesson out of COVID was making sure you have dual and tertiary supply in place and suppliers you can actually rely on. Being able to pick up the phone, get loads held back, get product moved into freezers since so much of ours was fresh, that only worked because we already had those relationships built. We needed everybody to get on board fast, and we were lucky to have that.

SCS: I'm interested in how you view advancements in AI and technology, its potential, how it's reshaping supply chain, and whether you see it as the next big disruptor in the business.

MP: For me personally, I have mixed opinions on it. I think it's great for replacing monotonous, redundant tasks. One thing I struggle with is writing a big process from scratch, so using AI as a starting point and then making it my own is where I think it really shines.

What I think will be interesting is seeing how much supply chains end up relying on AI, because at the end of the day, there are pieces of what we do that just can't be replaced by it. You're already starting to see that with some brands that implemented AI tools and are now rolling things back. I'm cautious about what its role actually is. It's so new, and what we do can be very nuanced; it still needs that human touch. It'll be interesting to see what everyone does with it in terms of headcount, because I don't think it replaces headcount as much as people assume. I think it just makes us a bit more efficient in the areas where we can use the help, like what I described.

SCS: How do you see the role of a supply chain executive evolving in the years ahead?

MP: I think we're just going to continue being pushed to build resilient supply chains. Going back to what we talked about with COVID, I don't see that pressure going away; it's going to keep being something supply chain executives have to improve on and make sure they have in place.

I also think LTOs are here to stay, and they're only getting bigger. At Shake Shack, our LTO program was massive. My team was tracking anywhere from 50 to 60 SKUs just on LTOs and tests, and almost none of it was off the shelf, all proprietary items. It was a monster of a program. I'm seeing a lot of other chains start to introduce more LTOs too, and even at Shake Shack it kept growing beyond that. I think that's going to keep being something our teams need to be flexible with, finding solutions for speed to market, and managing LTOs well, because they're genuinely complicated, especially with proprietary items. So those are the two big things I see changing for supply chain executives and what's expected of us.

SCS: Beyond practical experience, what skills do you think are most critical for success in supply chain management?

MP: When I'm looking for candidates, I always look for analytical skills and problem-solving skills. Those are the two crucial pieces that you can't really teach, and they're what I'm looking for when I interview, because in supply chain there's always going to be that call: a truck broke down, a delivery didn't arrive. You have to think outside the box and on your feet, because everything's happening in the now while the restaurants are open. I used to joke with my team that the restaurants are open and we're working; there's no such thing as not working. An emergency happens, you're on it. That's something I think is so crucial for a supply chain professional coming up in the industry to understand: it's not monotonous, you're not doing the same thing every day. Every day it's something different you're dealing with.

SCS: Any advice for young people considering supply chain, particularly early in their careers?

MP: I'd say networking is the biggest thing. I had the benefit of Lisa teaching me early on how important it was, and the earlier you start networking, the better you set yourself up for the longevity of your career. I look back at when I started going to NRA Supply Chain Expert Exchange conferences ten years ago; I didn't know anybody, and it's scary to just walk up and say hello to someone. Nobody really likes doing it, even if you're the most personable person, but you have to do it anyway. Every year you go, you know more and more people, and those become the people you can call when you have a problem you can't solve or want another opinion on how to handle something. That's how I've found so many mentors in this industry, people who took an interest in my career and helped me along the way. The earlier you start building that network, the better set up you are for your future.

SCS: You've attended the Supply Chain Expert Exchange throughout your career. What do you get out of it, and what would you say to someone deciding between this conference and another?

MP: Obviously the networking, meeting suppliers, you never know who you're going to meet, but also getting to see the people you work with on a regular basis. Outside of that, the content is great, the speakers are usually really strong, things like commodity updates. It's a place to get everyone together who does what you do, and what I've found over the years is there aren't that many of us; for the most part, everybody knows everyone.

It's nice having that community come together in one spot, and even beyond the networking, it's useful for problem solving. I'd always tell my team before we went to the Supply Chain Expert Exchange to be prepared: what do we need to get out of this conference, what problems are we currently having, what are we looking to solve for. We'd always come in with a plan of what we wanted other chains' input on. That's the real value of the conference, being able to get all of that done in a day or two, with everyone who does what you do in the same room.