Beyond the ERP Tradeoff: Building AI-ready Operations

Enterprise technology has long promised to unlock operational potential, but the trade-offs between monolithic ERP systems and fragmented best-of-breed stacks continue to slow organizations down in ways most leaders don't fully account for.

In this episode of Enterprise Unleashed on Supply Chain Now, Scott W. Luton and Wiley Jones (Co-founder at DOSS) are joined by Jindra Zitek (Partner and Head of Scale at Stripes), a former McKinsey consultant and C-level operator whose career spans Chobani, HelloFresh, and a range of board and advisory roles across industry. Together, they unpack what it actually takes to build operations that are truly AI-ready, and why the answer starts with people long before it reaches technology.

Jindra draws on firsthand experience leading through hypergrowth and crisis to make the case that both ERP consolidation and best-of-breed ecosystems carry a hidden coordination tax, one that only gets more expensive the longer organizations avoid naming it. He challenges leaders to stop framing AI as a job automation tool and start treating it as a lever for dignity and purpose, giving people the ability to focus on the work that actually requires human judgment.

The conversation lands on what separates organizations that experiment successfully from those stuck in pilot purgatory: shared business objectives, cross-functional coalitions, and guardrails that free people to move fast without losing control. Wiley grounds the discussion in what Doss is seeing in practice, where the complexity of edge cases is finally collapsing, and where the real work of comprehension still cannot be skipped.

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Intro

(02:29) Jindra Zitek’s background across McKinsey, Chobani, and HelloFresh

(04:16) Lessons from family, farming, and leadership

(06:09) Why people should come before systems

(10:28) The trade-off between ERP and best-of-breed tools

(15:24) The hidden cost of technology choices

(17:09) How company DNA shapes technology strategy

(20:57) Eliminating the human tax of broken systems

(21:49) Automation should enable people, not replace them

(25:57) The rise of agentic operations

(28:57) Building trust and control with AI systems

(31:34) Measuring real ROI from AI investments

(35:17) Building cross-functional teams for AI success

(37:30) Creating guardrails for enterprise AI adoption

(40:40) The first workflow to transform with AI

(42:10) Finding business problems AI can solve

(47:56) How AI changes workflow design and implementation

Additional Links & Resources:

• Connect with Jindra Zitek: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jindrazitek/
• Connect with Wiley Jones: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wileycwjones/
• Learn more about DOSS: https://www.doss.com/
• Learn more about Stripes: https://www.stripes.co/
• Learn more about Supply Chain Insights: http://www.supplychaininsights.com
• Learn more about our hosts: https://supplychainnow.com/about
• Learn more about Supply Chain Now: https://supplychainnow.com
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This episode was hosted by Scott Luton and Wiley Jones, and produced by Trisha Cordes, Joshua Miranda, and Amanda Luton. For additional information, please visit our dedicated show page at: https://supplychainnow.com/beyond-erp-tradeoff-building-ai-ready-operations-1614

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