Executive Spotlight: Scott Adams, Senior Vice President Supply Chain at SPB Hospitality

SCS: Let’s start with your story. How did you get to where you are now?

Scott Adams: I blame my grandmother for getting me into the restaurant business. When my brother and I were kids, we’d spend summers with our grandparents on the North Shore of Massachusetts. My grandfather is a Coast Guard Veteran and always had several boats in the water—and I just wanted to be out there on his boat pulling lobster traps with him. But the deal was, to earn that boat time, we had to go to work with my grandmother.

She worked at Landmark School in Massachusetts, which serves students with dyslexia. She was the lunch lady, and the chef —Uncle Don—basically gave me the run of the place. I always joke that I’m the reason for every child labor law in restaurants; there I was, running fryers and dishwashers and everything else in the kitchen. That experience really hooked me. I fell in love with the kitchen environment and stuck with foodservice all through high school and college. My first job was washing dishes at a nursing home, so I’ve gone from the dish room to the boardroom over the course of my career.

I actually went to school for architecture, but when I finished, I told my parents I wanted to run restaurants. They were like, “What?” It was the ’90s, and you could see that the restaurant industry was becoming a place where you could build a real career. So I did— I worked my way up through operations: manager, GM, multi-unit leader. I’ve been with our brands nearly 25 years now.

In 2012, the company asked me to step out of multi-unit operations and focus on process improvement at Old Chicago. That really tapped into something for me—I’ve always been a numbers geek. I started digging into how we did things, both in the restaurants and at the home office. It turned into all kinds of projects: from how we made pizzas, prepped dough, to designing a new kitchen layout.

That project was a big one. We pulled together a team of 14 people—VP's, line cooks and dishwashers—to help us rethink the kitchen. We were shrinking the box, so we needed a smaller, more efficient back-of-house. We’d ask: what’s absolutely critical at your station? What do you really need? We also brought in what we called “crazy outside eyes”—like bartenders—to challenge assumptions and push the team to think differently.

We divided the group into two teams.  Each team designed a kitchen layout, we narrowed them down, and eventually agreed on one. Then we built that kitchen full-size out of cardboard and worked in it for a week. That’s when we discovered things like, “This can’t go here,” or “You’re bumping into me when I try to do this.” It was incredibly valuable.

That project led me into speccing and buying kitchen equipment—and then all kinds of non-food items. Around 2013 or 2014, the company said, “Hey, you’re doing great with this—can you do food, too?” I told them I wasn’t classically trained in supply chain, had never really bought food. They said, “That’s fine.”

In 2015, I took over Supply Chain. It was like drinking from a fire hose at first, but I had (and still have) a great team who taught me a ton. At some point, someone also remembered I had a degree in architecture and asked me to oversee the Facilities Department too. So now I lead Supply Chain and Facilities for the broader SPB organization.

SCS: Taking on supply chain in 2015 was a bold move—especially without a background in food procurement. What do you think made your organization willing to take that risk?

SA: It was definitely not without risk. I still remember the first time I signed a futures contract—it was for about a million dollars’ worth of provolone cheese. I told our CFO how nervous I was, and he said, “Scott, you’ve got to trust the data you pulled together. Everything you showed says we should book it.” And he was right. That was one of the moments where my numbers geek side really came through. In supply chain, analytics take over—and they matter.

What’s interesting is that leadership can come from many different paths. In our organization, for example, our CEO came up through marketing—which isn’t always the path. And here I am, leading Supply Chain after coming up through operations. I think that my operations background gave me a really strong understanding of how restaurants work.

Some people on my team have restaurant experience. And that perspective is important. One of the biggest things I’ve learned—especially from process improvement work—is the importance of going to GEMBA. It’s a Lean Principle that means “go to where the work is done.” If you really want to understand a process, you have to see it in action.

That’s part of our culture now. When we acquire a new brand, we go visit. When someone new joins the team, they go into the field. For example, our non-food buyer will go to a new restaurant opening and help unpack the initial order—just to see how things actually get used. It always reveals something that helps us do better next time.

SCS: What changes have you noticed in the industry? Is there anything that really stands out as different from when you started to where things are now?

SA: When I started, Supply Chain was mostly about making sure the product got where it needed to go. It was about ensuring supply, moving boxes—pretty tactical. But today, it’s a lot more strategic. I’m much more integrated into the larger organization and involved in business decisions in a meaningful way.

One of my goals now is to get in front of menu conversations. I never want Supply Chain to be seen as the reason something can’t happen. Instead, I want to help shape when and how we do things—so we’re making smart choices about timing, cost, and availability.

That means working closely with culinary, marketing, and operations—each with a different perspective on what they want out of a program. I try not to say, “You can’t do that,” but instead, “If you do it now, here’s the risk. If you do it later, here’s what could be better.” It’s about getting ahead of the curve and making sure the decisions we make work for the business and for the guest.

SCS: Supply Chain leaders today are dealing with constant disruption. Changes are happening fast—faster than they ever have before—and teams are being asked to respond in real time. How are you managing that uncertainty? How do you assess risk when so much is unknown?

SA: Pre-pandemic, my team spent maybe 10% of their time managing disruption. Now, it’s probably 60 to 70%. Every day is a new day, and I think that’s actually what draws a lot of people to this field—it’s never the same twice. Some days are more straightforward, some are really tough. The difference is how you respond to those harder days.

You have to have a plan, and then a plan behind that plan, and one more behind that. Contingencies are critical. For us, Plan A is always supplying our restaurants with what they need. Plan B might be a different supplier, Plan C might be a different spec or format. The key is staying proactive. You’ve got to know which products are critical to your brands and where your exposure is. That often means diversifying sourcing and having open, honest conversations with suppliers—what are they seeing, where are the pressure points, what’s around the corner?

A lot of disruption is upstream—manufacturers struggling to get inputs. That cascades down to us. So we share early and often with our executive team to help manage that risk at a strategic level. Take beef, for example. It’s a huge part of our business. I’ve been saying for two plus years now that the beef market is uncertain—and I’ll probably be saying it for two more. That doesn’t mean we stop selling beef. It means we get smarter with how we promote it, when we buy it, and how we offset those costs. Sometimes that means leaning more into pork, poultry, or seafood. That approach has been critical for us over the last 18 months, and it’s helped us stay ahead of a lot of challenges.

SCS: Artificial intelligence is one of the most talked about technologies right now, and there’s a lot of speculation around how it will impact supply chain management. In your view, what role will AI play in foodservice supply chains and are you optimistic about its future?

SA: I am optimistic—but I think a lot of people hear "AI" and immediately picture robots doing our jobs. It’s not that. It really comes down to automation and smarter data integration. In supply chain, we’re surrounded by disconnected information: forecasts live in spreadsheets, promos in emails, inventory in databases. And those databases are all over the place—some live in the back office systems, others with our distributors or manufacturers.

What AI offers is the ability to pull all that fragmented data together and make it actionable. It gives us better visibility—so instead of finding out you’re out of French Fries because a restaurant calls you in a panic, AI can flag the issue days in advance. It sees the trend, it crunches the data, and it tells you, "Hey, you’ve got a problem coming if you don’t act now." That’s powerful. It allows us to be proactive, not reactive—and often, no one even knows there was an issue because we solved it before it showed up at the back door.

That’s the real win. It’s not about AI replacing people. It’s about giving teams better tools to do the work. Forecasting still needs input. Promotions still need strategy. Someone has to guide the system. The job doesn’t go away—it just evolves. Maybe you’re not driving the forklift anymore; maybe you’re overseeing the tech that is. But you’re still essential.

At the end of the day, AI won’t remove supply chain roles—it will shift how we operate and free us up to focus on bigger, more strategic work. I see that as a good thing.

SCS: As supply chain has gained visibility over the past few years, how do you see the role of supply chain professionals evolving from here?

SA: With continued market pressures, I think Supply Chain professionals are going to be asked to do even more—especially when it comes to offsetting costs. Inflation has created a lot of urgency around savings, but we have to be careful not to chase numbers at the expense of our brand. Just because you can find a six-figure cost reduction doesn’t mean it’s the right move. If that change makes life harder for the team in the restaurant—or negatively impacts the guest experience—it may cost more in the long run.

I think our role is evolving into something more strategic. We’re not just sourcing products—we’re thinking about how those decisions impact employees, customers, and brand perception. You have to look all the way down the line and ask: is this good for the business as a whole?

We’re also not done with disruption. That’s going to continue, and we have to be proactive—diversifying sources where it matters most and having real conversations with our vendors about what’s coming. And I think sustainability will only grow in importance. Guests want to know the story behind their food and their experience—how it’s sourced, how we’re reducing waste, how we’re being thoughtful stewards of resources. So Supply Chain has to factor that into our decisions too. The job is getting broader, and that’s a good thing—it means we’re being trusted to lead in a much bigger way.

SCS: From a professional development standpoint, what skills or traits are most important for success in supply chain management—and how can young professionals stand out and grow in this field?

SA: That’s a great question. I’ve said before that most people in Supply Chain are a little bit of a math geek—and I definitely am. So strong analytical skills are essential. You need to understand supply and demand dynamics, and problem-solving is critical. But beyond that, technical proficiency is key. Whether you’re working in Excel, an ERP, or a restaurant back-of-house system, you need to become a subject matter expert. If you’re spending your day in Excel, for example, you should absolutely know how to build pivot tables. And if that intimidates you, go figure it out—because it’s a skill you’re going to need.

That said, this is still the restaurant industry. We’re a people business. Communication skills are just as important as analytics. It’s not enough to understand the data—you have to be able to explain it to people who don’t live in spreadsheets. I’ve seen young professionals really stand out when they can translate complex data into simple, visual storytelling. If you can take a dense workbook and boil it down into one clear summary slide, that’s powerful. There might be 14 backup slides showing how you got there, but that one executive slide is what moves the conversation forward.

So if you're looking to grow in this field, build your technical chops—but also work on the storytelling side. That combination of analytical rigor and clear communication is what really sets people apart.

SCS: One last question for you. You’ve attended the Supply Chain Expert Exchange conferences before—does that experience factor into your team’s professional development?

SA: Absolutely. These days, I bring my whole team. When I first started attending—back in 2016 or 2017—it was just me and my chief supply officer at the time. But I quickly noticed other companies bringing larger groups, and I realized how valuable it could be. It’s a great development opportunity.

We’re a remote team—spread across the country—which works well since they’re often out visiting manufacturers or restaurants. But this conference gives us a chance to come together in person. It’s become part of our learning and development rhythm. The topics have been timely and relevant, and the opportunity to collaborate, learn, and grow as a group has been incredibly beneficial. It’s something we now prioritize every year.