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way back up to forestry, right on down to Kimberly-Clark, and then as seen by consumers in the retail setting in the toilet paper aisle. But I think going forward, it taught us a lesson, and we’re going to see more slack built into the system to be able to withstand these shocks and jolts to the supply chain. I think that the biggest lesson we see coming out of COVID-19 is just a preparedness that we may not have had before. Riley: Do you see that beyond borders? Is that a reshoring of sourcing of materials? Is that having warehouses? Reynolds: Yeah, it can be. I think it’s certainly the closing of the borders was a lesson to begin with, particularly China, which is such a massive supplier. India, secondarily. But I think just the reliance on single sources in a supply chain…that’s been disrupted in the sense that you no longer want to have all your eggs in one basket as the sole supplier of fiber, or the sole supplier of aluminum, or whatever it might be coming from one specific region. That’s a regional way of looking at it. But also from companies, different companies that are multinationals, you’re not going to be necessarily doing business with only one single company…what if their paper mill has an outbreak of whatever the pandemic du jour might be? Well then, does that shut you down? Or do you have an option B, option C? So, it puts a lot more emphasis on supplier relationship management because if you want to be the one getting the packaging and materials you need, particularly in a scarcity environment, wouldn’t it pay to have a better relationship with your suppliers than your competitors have? Would it pay for you to adopt a position where you aren’t just beating up a key strategic supplier on price, but instead are actively engaged with those strategic suppliers and making a relationship aimed at both supplier and customer better? And not all suppliers, but certainly the ones that are the key strategic suppliers. Instead of chipping away at price, can you create a situation where you’re both prepared for shocks to the system, and you’re both diversified? And the supplier’s supplier, and the supplier’s,
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supplier’s, supplier’s, supplier. I think those are all lessons learned from the initial shock to the system. And I think that’ll all be implemented going forward. Riley: Interesting. Using our example of the toilet paper, I went in the store, I couldn’t get it. So naturally, you go home, and you try to find it online, because now you’re picking from thousands of places. So clearly that had to be another shock to the supply chain, or another shock to the system. How did that play out?
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