Season three opens with a twist: Tom Redding takes the interviewer’s chair to explore Fred Kranz’s 60-year journey across healthcare logistics and supply chain. What follows is a fast-paced, deeply human conversation about resilience, mentorship, and the kind of innovation that doesn’t always look like a shiny device. From typing memos and walking hospital campuses to orchestrating complex, data-driven IDNs, Fred shows how the fundamentals—relationships, clarity, and integrity—scale with technology rather than get replaced by it.
Fred’s story reframes what “innovation” really means. As a Navy corpsman in Vietnam, he watched helicopters—not instruments—save lives by shrinking the time from injury to care. That lesson became his operating system: build networks that move fast, standardize handoffs, and feed decisions with accurate data. We dig into value analysis, the rise of data quality as a competitive edge, and the cultural shifts required to align clinicians, purchasing, and vendors. Along the way, Fred shares a defining moment when he challenged leadership and a favored GPO to protect truth and his team—proof that integrity isn’t just moral, it’s operational.
Mentors loom large in Fred’s narrative, from a WWII survivor who taught him to stop “winning” at others’ expense, to supply chain icons who built today’s leadership bench. He’s proudest of the 30-plus people he’s helped elevate to director roles and beyond. For early-career pros, his advice is blunt and generous: learn the clinical world you serve, pair analytics with empathy, and seek out elders who will challenge and champion you. He also looks ahead 20 years—fewer but stronger systems, better-educated supply chain leaders with real-world clinical context, and technology that turns clean data into faster, smarter decisions. Stay to the end for why he won’t retire at 80: purpose, community, and the joy of staying relevant.
If you enjoyed this conversation, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a review to help others find it. Got a topic or want to join us on the mic? Reach out and let’s keep the conversation going.
