The AI in Business Podcast Designing Supply Chains for Volatility - with Dr. Gopalendu Pal of Target
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Apr 28, 2026 
Dr. Gopalendu Pal, Director of Operations at Target known for supply‑chain design and simulation‑based decision making, discusses running hundreds of interconnected simulations to reveal enterprise tradeoffs. He talks about how volatility exposes siloed processes. He stresses simplifying and stabilizing workflows before adding AI or automation. Practical ownership and matching AI to real problems are highlighted.
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Volatility Reveals Organizational Seams
- Volatility exposes seams between teams when each optimizes local KPIs instead of enterprise outcomes.
- Gopalendu Pal explains that procurement, forecasting, and operations optimize different goals causing cascading failures under perturbations.
Pandemic Example Broke Forecasting Assumptions
- During COVID-19 demand spiked while supply plummeted, breaking the assumption that procurement could simply buy to match forecasts.
- Gopalendu Pal uses the pandemic to show forecasting and procurement assumptions collapsed together, causing major seams.
Communication Alone Does Not Ensure Good Decisions
- Communication between teams exists but doesn't guarantee effective enterprise decisions without system-level simulations.
- He compares engineering design tradeoffs (engine vs suspension) to show why isolated optimizations fail when integrated across systems.