Turning Industry Disruption into Thought Leadership Success | Kerim Kfuri

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Leveraging Expertise to Elevate Your Business in Any Market

We explore how thought leadership can transform complex, overlooked industries into strategic advantages. It highlights the role of clear communication, credibility, and long-term positioning in standing out—especially in B2B environments. The conversation provides actionable insights on using thought leadership to attract clients, gain visibility, and drive sustainable growth.

In this episode, Peter Winick speaks with Kerim Kfuri, global entrepreneur, author of “Supply Chain Ups and Downs,” and CEO of Atlas Network. Kerim reveals why he stepped into thought leadership—especially when his industry became the center of public attention overnight.

Kerim discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant gaps and misunderstandings about supply chain processes. He shares insights into why investing in thought leadership provided not just visibility but also credibility, distinguishing his company from competitors who focused solely on price.

Learn how Kerim leveraged his expertise to educate and inform, turning a complicated topic into accessible knowledge. He explains how thought leadership helped him open doors, win larger clients, and attract top talent. Kerim also shares practical advice for businesses aiming to use thought leadership strategically, emphasizing patience, clear
metrics, and the power of investing in yourself and your business.

Are you ready to turn your expertise into your greatest competitive advantage?

Three Key Takeaways

Thought leadership is a powerful differentiator. It helps smaller companies compete against larger players by showcasing unique expertise and credibility.

Education builds trust. By making complex topics like supply chain more understandable, you position yourself as a go-to authority in your field.

ROI takes time. Thought leadership isn’t a quick win—it’s a long-term investment that pays off through visibility, client acquisition, and talent attraction.

If you found Kerim Kfuri’s insights on leveraging thought leadership to elevate brand credibility and attract top clients compelling, you’ll appreciate Episode 23 of the Leveraging Thought Leadership podcast, featuring Erica Dhawan. Erica, a leading authority on 21st-century collaboration and CEO of Cotential, discusses model building, content development, and business growth. She shares how she developed assessment tools with a data-driven mindset and translated that data into targeted sales strategies. Both episodes highlight the
transformative power of thought leadership in distinguishing a brand and driving business success.

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Transcript

Peter Winick And welcome, welcome, Welcome. This is Peter Winick. I’m the founder and CEO at Thought Leadership Leverage, and you’re joining us on the podcast, which is Leveraging Thought Leadership. Today, my guest is Kareem Kafoury, who’s an interesting guy, to say the least. He is a global entrepreneur. He served as president and CEO of the Atlas Network, which is a Global Supply Chain enterprise. He’s the founder of Global Crosswalks. He’s the author of Supply Chain Ups and Downs and he’s a great example of. someone really investing in and using thought leadership to sort of elevate the brand elevate his business and do all those sorts of interesting things. So welcome aboard today.

Karim Kfuri Thank you so much Peter, appreciate it and looking forward to a nice conversation with you today.

Peter Winick Yeah. So given that you’re running these businesses, given that you’re a busy guy, when did you decide to say, you know, I need to spend more time in my day developing and curating and, and researching and becoming a thought leader of sorts.

Karim Kfuri I mean, for me, it really started during the pandemic time, I would tell you more than anything else, most specifically regarding my industry, more than anything else because the supply chain industry and the word supply chain became part of the common vernacular during this these days, where people So it’s-

Peter Winick Stay there a minute, right? Because supply chain didn’t come to be during the pandemic, right. It always existed, but with all due respect, nobody really cared because the stuff was what we needed it when we wanted it to be. So why would I even think about it? Then all of a sudden, Oh, take my toilet paper away. Now I’m really concerned.

Karim Kfuri Exactly. You take my toilet paper where I’m really concerned, or in more serious matters, medical workers not having a PPE, or whatever really was impacting our daily lives, our ability to get carbs. The whole car market was disrupted, and microchips, and things that we use every single day buy and sell our commerce, our economy was impacted. Uh, workers couldn’t go to work and people couldn’t truck goods from ports to final destinations and containers were sitting out in, in the ports outside of Long Beach in California and outside of New York. And you could see them in the distance, just like hundreds of ships, just sitting in a room.

Peter Winick But was it that the macro forces going on beyond your control led you to say, ah, the world needs to know more about this. Now’s an opportunistic time to jump in and sort of grab the microphone. I think it was that.

Karim Kfuri but not so much opportunistic. I think the problem was, is there was a lot of misinformation. People just didn’t understand what supply chain is, why it mattered, how it was going to be able to be improved. Being a global supply chain solutions company for more than two decades, this is like a playground for us because our entire world revolves around solving disruptions. So any time that there’s a major disruption, and whether it’s a- because of force majeure, a political shift, a war, quality being poor for a company, or timeliness, or price hikes, or any of these kinds of things that actively can disrupt a end-to-end supply chain, my company plugs in with those entrepreneurs, small, medium, large-sized businesses to provide to them more accurate solutions. We have a network of almost 2,000 suppliers that we’ve built in the past two decades, so.

Peter Winick Right. So your company, I’m sure has lots of competition as do most of us right out there, but the opportunity for you to come in and say, okay, let me share this knowledge, let put this out there. Let me, there’s a market that will value what I have to say in the way that I have say it and the by-product of that, or a by- product of that is I’ll elevate the brand. I can compete at a higher level. I, I can differentiate the brand because it’s kind of the ultimate commodity supply chain, right? Moving my stuff from A to B. Yeah. It doesn’t get more commoditized than that. So talk a little bit about the advantage and the benefits to the business. Because my assumption is, we had a chat the other day, you’re not a hundred billion dollar business, right. You’re good. Not yet. Not yet, good. Well, we’ll tune in for more. No, but it’s not like you’re the, you know, the IBM in its day of your business that can afford to do or the McKinsey or whatever. So how did, cause I think that one of the beautiful things about thought leadership is it democratizes things in that you could be as smart or smarter than competitors, 10 times your size or a hundred years old with you. All right. Well, you’ve got something to say. So what’s been the benefits to the business?

Karim Kfuri Yeah, I mean, the benefits of the business again, have been the ability to put out some best practices and best protocols around this industry. There’s other competition, as you said before, but I think the way that we’ve always done things here at Atlas has been quite different than many other groups within my category, where for many, many years, when it came to supply chain or procurement or sourcing solution, Right. It was all about the lowest cost solution. It was all about –

Peter Winick Right? Give me the, give me the cheapest.

Karim Kfuri Correct. And, and we never sold that way. We never represented that way the way that we always represented was on the things that people talk about now, the non-sexy stuff, visibility, transparency, resilience, robustness, being able to make sure that you have a dependable supply chain. And a lot of this background came from my work as a regulator. So I worked in the financial industry for many years. I was at the securities and exchange commission. I was the, I was NASD FINRA for many years and I ran a lot of their risk mitigation kind of a Sarbanes, Oxley, and sort of corporate governance related activities. And it was through those experiences that I then transitioned that to an entirely different industry, which was global supply chain. So I came at this industry from the very beginning saying is a Pandora’s box of fraud. There’s a lot of kind of low-cost solutions that are being provided and in the end there isn’t enough protections or recourses for the businesses that need it the most.

Peter Winick But go back to benefits in terms of, are you requiring new clients because of this, are existing clients staying longer? Were you invited to bid on opportunities that are far larger than you might have in the past? Sure. All of the above. I mean,

Karim Kfuri of the above, but it all started with that foundation. We had very business policies and practices in place, because I don’t believe that you can truly be a thought leader without having the concrete foundation to stand upon to say, this is the reason why I’m a thought leader. I’m a-

Peter Winick But you can, in a B2B environment, have all of that foundational stuff and not be putting the energy into broadcast and amplified. That’s where I went today. Yes, correct. That’s true. That’s right. It means that B2B marketing is not easy, right? Talk about the ROI of the investments you have made and continue to make in thought leadership relative to Whether it’s the growth of the business, the value of the business, met new client, like that sort of stuff. Cause I think a lot of people sure miss point often that it’s actually a really amazing marketing and client acquisition vehicle.

Karim Kfuri It absolutely is. I mean, we have been able to break into new industry categories. We’ve been able to get new clients that are in our current industry that just see certain levels of visibility. The company itself just holistically has been able to be more readily positioned as an expert in the field of global supply chain, even though we’re not a massive company, as you said before, and that all comes through having that more. that more outward appearance and using the thought leadership side of this.

Peter Winick So what’s your point of your weight, right? So if somebody’s in somebody is a potential client or a current client and they start to see you’re speaking at conferences, you’re reading, you’re publishing your book, there’s an implied like, wow, these guys are kind of a big deal. How cool is it that I, they’re my vendor, they are my partner. They’re my distribution partner, whatever. So there’s sort of that piece of it, right. Yes.

Karim Kfuri Absolutely. And then you have a FOMO piece of it as well, where you have other groups in a category that say, oh, these guys are all working with these people and I see them out and about doing things. I would like to now get involved in this kind of, you know, successful train. And so that happens too, for sure.

Peter Winick And you, you mentioned earlier, and I love this, that, you know, you’ve never, you you’ve never sold on price as an organization. Is this yet another justification for you may, and I’m not saying you’re, but yeah, you’re going to pay a bit of a premium working with us, but here’s why.

Karim Kfuri Right. Absolutely. Absolutely, but, and the, why the explanation is, is you may pay an extra 50 cents, but we’re going to owe you, we’re gonna save you those $5 in headaches. I mean, when you make these moves to delegate the supply chain management function to professionals who are looking after your interests every single day, you safeguard the interests of your business, the success. And honestly, in many cases, sometimes the ability that your business won’t implode or possibly go out of business. I mean, there have been so many nightmare stories I’ve seen where clients or companies went for a low cost solution. They had no visibility, they had no recourse and they end up missing sales cycles, have to then fire people and then their business essentially takes a major hit or potentially even goes out of a business. So it’s very important. that, you know, we always sold on the idea that we’re bringing true strategic value and that’s valuable to your to your organization.

Peter Winick If you’re enjoying this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, please make sure to subscribe. If you’d like to help spread the word about our podcast, please leave a five-star review at ratethispodcast.com/ltl and share it with your friends. We’re available on Apple podcasts and on all major listening apps, as well as at thoughtleadershipleverage.com/podcast.

Peter Winick So touch on for a moment, if you would, the access that it gives you, right? Because pick a target ideal client for you and your sales team could be banging on their doors for, you know, months as other competitors, there’s really two calls they can now make to a potential client, right. Or you can make, Hey, we’re supply chain solution company, blah, blah. Blah, who cares, right, or Hey, would you like to talk to our CEO? He literally wrote the book on.

Karim Kfuri I absolutely, I mean, and that is, that is definitely a calling card. I mean we talk about when you write a book, what’s the purpose and the intention of it, you know, anybody who’s written a book or is involved in it, it’s not really necessarily a big moneymaker. So what it provides is it provides that backbone of, of some level of credibility, especially if you’re doing something which is about best practices and protocols. I mean to give you an idea, you know, I launched this book at ASCM. which is the Association of Supply Chain Management. It’s one of the largest organizations in the space, which is all about the dedication to best practices, protocols, and with chapters across the world. And so I’ve always sort of taken an approach here to not just have it be for consumers or people who just want a nice general read, but it also to be a respected resource in the arena of education in this space too. So- I don’t know what I did.

Peter Winick It’s important that oftentimes thought leaders and authors are not realistic, right? Like your book is not necessarily a book that’s going to hit the New York Times bestseller that, that your friends, you know, your kids, friends on the soccer field are going to say, Oh, golly, you’re, you, that’s a great read. But who cares, right. Like the success is not based on number of units sold. No, you don’t know what your marketplace is. And I would argue that if the right 20, 50, maybe a hundred people got that book. in their hands and then it led to an outcome. That’s transformational for you and your business, correct?

Karim Kfuri It absolutely is. But it’s not even just about those business leaders. What it’s also about is it’s about the whole new generation of students and consumers that want to know more about supply chain. I mean, supply chain is in the news every single day and is being talked about in so many different facets from tariffs that are coming down. I mean it’s completely where we live in a global economy and the world has never been smaller due to technology. So, I mean is it very consistent? topic. That’s why the book, 147 page, real concise, it goes from A to Z and is holistic in nature and is a relatable read, not something that is just overly covered in jargon and difficult to absorb. I mean, that’s not my intention. My intention is to basically be a relatable voice in this complicat-

Peter Winick So on the educational side, I would imagine, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, that A, you’re kind of setting a standard of what the right way is for that, the folks that you might hire in the next five, 10, 15 years, and today, has it given you a competitive advantage from a talent standpoint?

Karim Kfuri Yes, absolutely. Because all you have to do is essentially, as you said, state that we wrote the book on. And now you’re already dealing with certain people that are going to respect that, understand that, and are going either really relate to it or they’re going to really appreciate it. So absolutely, by having a compelling book and having a compelling methodology around how we’re tackling this industry, it brings a higher caliber of caliber.

Peter Winick So if somebody is listening to this now, not in supply chain, but another industry, whatever, whatever that industry might be, and is sort of on the cusp of making those investments and diving into thought leadership to elevate the brand and the business, and they’re not waiting for a pandemic to say, do that. Thank you, Matt. Yes, yes. What do you place would you, would you give

Karim Kfuri I would say that you really can never lose when you bet on yourself. I think that that’s a very, very important idea here. You know, we have so many opportunities to invest in things that relate to either our business or our lives. But when you take the approach of the thought leadership direction, you’re essentially saying, I’m investing in me, and I’m invested in the idea that what I have has value and interest. My hope is that the market will appreciate it as well and then it will have the reverberating effects that we’ve talked about here today, which is bringing more business or bringing more focus or attention or donations or whatever it is that you’re trying selling more.

Peter Winick that a little bit, but that investment in me, that me might mean my team or my organization or my business as well.

Karim Kfuri Yeah, sure, of course, it could be, but I think I was just kind of talking to the fact that just when someone decides to say they want to get into thought leadership, why would it be a good idea?

Peter Winick Well, but I’m talking about somebody that needs to make the case at their company saying, Hey, it’s budget season. Hey boss, I want to invest in thought leadership for this company. And I need dollars and time and energy and resources to do it. The advice there, right? So one of the things I would be thinking about is make sure that you are managing the expectation with the powers that be that this is not a get rich, quick business that don’t think of this as a call. Absolutely.

Karim Kfuri Yeah, it’s definitely a marathon. It’s not a sprint. It’s a thing that takes time. You’re building up a followings of people who are going to then, you know, tune in or actively then promote to their networks, what they’ve heard or learned from you, from your channels or from your ways that you’re presenting the thought leadership, it takes time, but what is interesting about it is, is there’s definitely sort of an intersection point where the efforts start to kind of bear fruit. where you have people who people or companies or organizations start to engage more and you want and they want to comment on the things that you’re discussing they then start asking for advice maybe that’s when they then want to hire you or talk to references and it starts to become a bit of a circular economy where what you put out then ends up coming back to you as well so it’s Definitely. It’s definitely an ongoing process. It’s not a, we put in these dollars and tomorrow we see X dollars.

Peter Winick No, so sort of the last thought I have or last question I have is what are the right metrics? And what I mean by that is, listen, if you can attribute, Hey, and we landed a zillion dollar client because they read the article and reached out to us. And then the salespeople did that. Hey, of course you’re going to do that. But I think that oftentimes people get lazy and use vanity metrics. Yeah. No, um, where would you guide folks to say. Well, yeah, metrics are important, and what are the metrics that you should be considering to gage your progress along the way?

Karim Kfuri Well, it starts with the intention, and then from that you can then build your metrics. So in other words, if your goal is to generate sales, let’s say, and you are taking a very specific approach towards that, then that is going to be one of a few different metrics. If your goal, is to basically have engagement, meaning for people to just be communicating back and forth with you so that It can then be able to generate, let’s say, awareness for a cause or an organization, whatever it may be. And that could be a different kind of a metric. I tend to see it in terms of, you know, the things that most people would look at. And that’s going to be how much traffic you’re driving to a particular place. If you’re trying to position it for either sales or for information or whatever it may be, what kind of engagement you were actually having with people that are talking to you or going back and forth with you, how you are essentially being able to really move the needle and what that needle is. But again, in thought leadership, which is a bit broad, right, you know, it could be for business, it could be four personal, it can be for whatever may be, you have to know what your end goal is to basically then be able to determine what the metrics are, you’re gonna have to look around for that end goal.

Peter Winick Exactly. Well, this has been fantastic. I appreciate your time and all that you’ve shared with us today. This is great stuff and I wish you the best of luck. Thanks so much for sharing your journey with us.

Karim Kfuri Oh, thank you. I really appreciate it, Peter. Always good to be with you.

Peter Winick To learn more about Thought Leadership Leverage, please visit our website at ThoughtLeadershipLeverage.com. To reach me directly, feel free to email me at peter at Thought Leadership leverage.com and please subscribe to Leveraging Thought Leadership on iTunes or your favorite podcast app to get your weekly episode automatically.