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Most businesses have an inventory problem. The question is how big. In this episode, we're joined by Ben Hussey, Co-CEO of Katana Cloud Inventory, to talk about why so many growing businesses struggle with inventory visibility — and what they can do about it.

Ben shares how Katana was founded after its creator realised he had no real-time view of demand and supply across his own manufacturing business, and why the rise of multi-channel e-commerce has made the problem exponentially harder. When orders are flowing in from Shopify, Amazon, and distribution channels simultaneously, Excel and traditional ERP systems simply can't keep up.

We dig into the practical side: how to assess whether you have an inventory problem (start with a single SKU and audit it end-to-end), who needs to be involved in that conversation, and how to quantify the cost of doing nothing. Ben shares a story of a customer who discovered $120,000 worth of inventory they didn't know they had — simply by gaining a single view of their stock.

The conversation moves into change management — arguably the biggest barrier to success. Ben explains Katana's "strangulation technique" for phased adoption and why the most common trigger for falling back to old ways isn't resistance to new tools, but staff turnover when new hires aren't trained on the systems already in place.

We also cover how macroeconomic forces — tariffs, the Middle East conflict, supply chain disruption — are reshaping how businesses approach planning, costing methods (moving average vs FIFO vs LIFO), and supplier diversification. Textile and apparel companies increased inventory purchases by 50% overnight following recent geopolitical events. The question is whether the rest of the market has caught up.

Finally, we get into AI. Ben talks about where it's already useful (data analysis, workflow mapping), where it's arriving whether you like it or not (agentic commerce on Shopify, launching end of month), and why your product data accuracy is about to matter a lot more than your website copy.

**Guest:** Ben Hussey, Co-CEO of Katana Cloud Inventory — katanamrp.com

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