Executive Spotlight: Monica Johnson, Senior Director of Supply Chain at First Watch

SCS: Let’s start with your career progression. Your LinkedIn profile shows you’ve been promoted several times.  How did you work your way to where you are now?

MJ: I’m proud of my start. I began as a dishwasher at a local pizza place down the street. We knew the franchisee and ate there every Friday. One year around Christmas, I wanted to buy my family presents with my own money, not my dad’s. He said, “Let’s go talk to Mike at the pizzeria,” and Mike hired me as a dishwasher for five dollars an hour. I worked the Saturday lunch shift. It was the best decision I’ve ever made—it sparked my love for restaurants at an early age.

I knew even then I wanted to be part of this weird, wonderful food world, so I leaned in and kept growing. I started in operations—busser, then prep cook, then pizza ovens and expo. One day my sister didn’t show up for her shift, and that pushed me into the front of house. That’s where I learned how important hospitality is: having a pleasant face at the door, making guests feel taken care of.

My love for operations grew from there. I helped open restaurants across the country, built plans and trainings, and learned how to make engagement exciting for the young teams we were onboarding. That opened doors. Then, out of nowhere, an entry-level role opened in supply chain. They were just looking for someone to help schedule meetings and get coffees but when they realized I had operational experience and that I understood how each of the items were being applied to our back of house, then it was almost like a light bulb went off, at least in my head.  I understood how everything I'd learned from that point really connected to supply chain.  I was able to be a bridge for supply chain and operations and 11 years later, here I am.

SCS: From your time in the business, what’s changed in your view? How much shift have you seen in awareness of supply chain and its value?

MJ:  Things have changed a lot. Eleven years ago, it felt like our job was mainly to keep inventory coming in and manage deliveries to the last mile for restaurants—just enough product, just enough visibility on when trucks would land, and hope to get by.

Since the pandemic, companies really saw how critical it is to focus on supply chain and get ahead of disruption. If you’re always reacting, your options are limited. But if you assume something will go wrong—because in this business, it will—it might be a late truck, a pandemic, a tariff—you can still prepare and pivot quickly.

What makes the difference is knowledge and strong relationships with suppliers: knowing how they communicate, what they need, and how to stay first in line. That’s the biggest change I’ve seen. It’s become more collaborative and less transactional.

SCS:  How do you manage volatility?

MJ:  I learn—every single day. I ask my team to do the same. There’s always a question we haven’t thought of or an angle we haven’t tried. Everything’s moving and changing constantly, so you pick up something new and a different way to approach it, daily.

When we see smoke, we raise our hands and start asking questions. I encourage my team to keep strong relationships with suppliers—quick 15-minute touch bases once or twice a week—to hear what’s happening in their world. The more we know about our suppliers, their supply chain teams, how they buy, and how they’re structured, the better equipped we are when a disruption hits.

SCS: What’s your approach to Artificial Intelligence?

MJ: I really lean into AI. I’m a kid who grew up through the evolution of game systems and I’ve watched tech advance for 30 years—it’s amazing what it can do. But I don’t think technology replaces an intuitive person on the other end of the button.

Tech runs on formulas that (hopefully) give you the right output. When there are big swings the formula didn’t account for, you need a person to guide it so it serves the business. I love the visibility—inventory tools, GPS tracking for trucks—knowing where things are helps a lot. But if a bus full of kids show up on a random Tuesday afternoon, technology won’t anticipate that or react in real time. The people in the building—working the counter, the server, the cook—they have to manage it. So you need both technology and people working together.

SCS: Do you feel like you’re at a bit of an advantage?

MJ: I do, because I’m old enough—and started my career early enough—to remember how things worked before all the tech. I’m young enough to use it comfortably and adapt as it changes. But I also know one certainty about technology: at some point, it fails. You have to be able to go back to the basics and still get to the right answer without it.

You need to be trained both ways. If you don’t know how to get from A to Z with and without technology, you’re leaving yourself open to a lot of potential disruptions.

SCS: How do you see the role of foodservice supply chain professionals evolving—especially with technology? And for people entering or trying to advance in the field, what skills and habits do you think matter most?

MJ: I see supply chain getting much more finance-focused. The advancements in technology will aide in visibility. Instead of limiting ourselves to being order and truck chasers, we’re using technology to capture KPIs throughout the supply chain and leaning deeper into our partnership with finance to negotiate. You can’t leverage your buys or your supplier relationships if the pocketbook isn’t clean all the way through. Supply chain professionals need to understand how the money flows for the whole organization and what your role means to the P&L. Technology will keep evolving for efficiencies, but that finance lens—and working more with CFOs—is going to be crucial for real success in this industry.

For advice: build strong relationships across the business—finance, operations, culinary, marketing. Learn how their worlds work and help them understand ours. Avoid working in silos. Every decision has a domino effect. If marketing runs a promo and you haven’t lined up inventory because you weren’t engaged, nobody wins. Care enough about your company to keep regular standups with other departments, stay curious, and communicate early and often. That’s how you last—and grow—in supply chain.

SCS: Introverted personalities are common in an analytical field like supply chain, yet you still have to talk to marketing, work cross-functionally, and negotiate with all kinds of different personality types. How do you balance that?

MJ: I’m very much an introvert, which surprises people. What gets me past it is my curiosity and passion for learning—I love learning more than I love staying in my comfort zone. I want to understand other perspectives and how people arrived there; there’s almost always a nugget I can use to better engage with them. You can’t negotiate or build real partnerships if you only look at things from one angle; you have to be multifaceted and willing to lean in—sometimes just listening tells you everything you need to know. There’s a lot of emotional intelligence involved in supply chain so I try to read the room. I can show up socially when the work needs it—and when I hang up my hat, I go home, take a bath, put on Columbo, and recharge in the quiet. The reward is worth the energy it takes.

SCS: What are your thoughts on mentorship in supply chain?

MJ: Mentorship isn’t just top-down. I learn from senior leaders, but I get the most value from peers and cross-functional partners who share what they’re seeing day to day. That’s the social piece—leaning in, listening, and letting their experiences make me better. Have a few different mentors on different levels. Executives may only have 30-45 minutes to chat every blue moon, which are good for over-arching strategy conversations, but make it a point to connect with the people on their teams who run the daily work too. Those peer- and partner-driven mentorships often move us faster than relying only on formal senior-level guidance.

SCS: Last question - how many times have you been to the Supply Chain Expert Exchange Conference and what advice would you give someone who’s thinking about attending for the first time?

MJ: This will be my fifth or sixth year. I usually go in the fall in Orlando—since moving to Florida, it’s an easy hop—and I’m fortunate to work for a company that invests in my growth and encourages me to attend. I’d say go, and go prepared to engage. You’ll get a lot of data and forecasts in the sessions, but the best value for me is networking with peers—what they’re watching, the strategies they’re trying, and the issues hitting them right now. Those conversations often plant a seed I can take back to my team because I know where finance, operations, and culinary are trying to go. For first-timers: take full advantage. Network, exchange info, and show up with your own questions and goals. Don’t expect everything to click all at once—some sessions are long. If you listen and know what you’re listening for, you’ll find real value.