<p>One of the Army’s most skilled logisticians, Major General Vincent Boles (Ret.) has decades of experience in managing the world’s largest and most complex supply chain, from the port to the Pentagon, and he gives audiences the benefit of his considerable leadership and supply chain expertise. </p><p>General Boles served in a variety of assignments over a 33-year career, holding command positions at every level and serving in multiple combat deployments. His final Army assignment was at the Pentagon as the assistant deputy chief of staff where he oversaw logistics operations and readiness for the 1.1 million soldier force, including the surges into Iraq and Afghanistan.</p><p>Vinny Boles' expertise is in leading people and building the teams in large organizations to accomplish the toughest tasks, supporting our deployed sons and daughters, under the toughest conditions — combat. As an expert in supply chain management, Vinny provided what our nation's troops needed, where they needed it and when, in order to be successful around the world.</p><p>Retiring in 2009 to Madison, Alabama, he established Vincent E. Boles, Inc., a leadership and logistics consulting practice. He’s been speaking and working with corporate and association groups around the nation and overseas, coaching them on the subject of teams’ “Best Getting Better.” </p><p>He is the author of the book <i>4-3-2-1 Leadership: What America’s Sons and Daughters Taught Me on the Road from Second Lieutenant to 2-Star General</i>. Now in its third printing, the book prompted one reviewer to comment that “He didn’t write this book exclusively for the military audience, and he does us all a great service by putting these leadership lessons into one volume and sharing them.”</p><p>In 2011 he was inducted into the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps’ and Niagara University’s ROTC Halls of Fame. He serves as an adjunct professor of leadership and logistics at the University of Alabama Huntsville and the Defense Acquisition University, South.</p>
Retired Army Major General; Supply Chain expert
<ul><li><strong>Fast Frictionless Supply Chains and Operation Warp Speed, Lessons Learned </strong></li><li>Abstract: Using his over four decades worth of military logistical experience, work in the commercial sector, academia and executive coaching to the DOD, Major General Boles illustrates the lessons from previous historical challenges providing attendees “news they can use” as they work to address their supply chain challenges and opportunities. Specific focus areas: There have always been “times like these” (the lessons of history); Supply Chain “Excellence” Stock Availability; Two critical Supply Chain Equations that Leaders MUST know to address and solve the challenges today; Ensuring your Metrics Matter. In this interactive and engaging presentation Major General Boles shows the intersections and friction points that must be addressed with “lubrication from leaders” to ensure success of their systems and processes.</li><li>He will also highlight the emerging lessons being gleaned from “Operation Warp Speed” and address actions leaders and their teams can begin addressing now. </li><li><strong>Leveraging The Links In Your Supply Chain</strong></li><li>Drawing on his three decades as a career soldier and logistician at every level, Major General Boles will walk through the links in the world’s largest and most complex supply chain, from the port to the Pentagon.</li><li>In presentations as energizing as they are information-rich and full of actionable techniques, Major General Boles highlights four critical issues that pave the way to supply chain resilience, including: the standards you use; the systems you put in place; the people in charge of the most critical points of intersection; and finally, metrics — what and how you measure what matters most.</li><li>Providing real world examples of what worked, what didn’t, and why, Major General Boles will lay out a real-world depiction of a supply chain in motion. You and your team will have "news you can use" to better optimize your supply chain, whether across town or around the globe.</li><li><strong>What? How? Who? The 3 Critical Questions Leaders Must Ask and Answer</strong></li><li>Leaders today often feel they are trying to see forward through the fog: too much data without information; too many choices without criteria; too many inputs masquerading as “need to know” that are in reality just noise. The end result is that leaders and teams are distracted from developing the focus and synergy that determines success.</li><li>Using his four decades of battlefield, classroom and boardroom experience, Major General Boles provides the tools for leaders and teams to optimize performance.</li><li>Leaders and team members alike will leave armed with the three questions they must ask and answer before committing themselves to a task. Questions they can begin using immediately. </li><li>The questions are not complicated but they are vital, starting with “What is the standard you are committing yourself and your team to accomplish?” Once that question is answered, question two: “How will the team attain that standard,” and number three: “Who is in charge of what?” With precision, Major General Boles helps teams cut through the fog to focus on the only things that actually matter.</li><li><strong>4-3-2-1 Leadership: Tools You Can Use Now</strong></li><li>Leaders today don’t require the kind of help that sounds good in a PowerPoint presentation but fades under the heat and pressure of reality. They need practical, easy-to-use tools that hold up when the stakes are high, so that they can be better practitioners of their leadership craft. </li><li>Using his 33 years of experience in leading America’s sons and daughters and providing the right support in the toughest conditions, Major General Boles delivers time-tested tools you can begin using right now, including the four expectations teams have of leaders; the three critical questions leaders need to ask and answer; the two reasons for stress in teams, the three critical questions leaders must constantly ask and answer, and finally, the one truth that every leader must hold onto.</li></ul>