LEADERSHIP
Litigation Lesson “Jury selection for large trials is very psychologically driven,” notes Meghann Butcher of RepSpark Systems, who worked as a litigation consultant early in her career. “I learned to understand where someone was coming from whether they were applauding or booing an idea. Learning early in my career about different viewpoints and how people could look at a trial so differently has helped in leading a company.”
IL: As RepSpark has grown, what tactics have you used to maintain clear, effective communication? We run on an operating framework, the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), and have a leadership meeting every week, at the same day and time, and with the same agenda. The subjects we discuss cascade down to each department, which has a similar weekly meeting. The issues discussed in these meetings, such as deadlines, cascade up and down to all departments. Every other week we also do an all-hands-on-deck meeting. At one meeting, we’ll report on what we did the previous month, along with department and industry updates. The next meeting is looking forward at what we’ll be doing the next month. In addition, we have two ‘product office hours’ each month. These help everybody understand not just what we’re rolling out, but why, and the impact the product is having on our customers’ operations. Annually, we hold a two-day planning session, as well as quarterly planning sessions. These help ensure we understand the one-year goal and how we’re tracking against it. IL: How would you describe your leadership style? It’s definitely not micromanaging. We’re open to trying things, failing fast, and taking responsibility. One quote says, ‘It’s better to have 80% of something done today, rather than ruminate on it for a month, start, and only get to 80%.” While some issues need to be pushed to long-term decisions, we tend to iterate pretty quickly. IL: How do you know when you have enough information to make a decision? It’s more of an art than a science. Part of it is knowing what data I need, whether it’s financial or market research or the return on investment of new software. Then it’s combining the numbers and my experience and judgment on the value an investment will bring. You have to trust your gut on some things, and say, ‘This feels right,” or ‘Something’s off.’ You also have to look at how many people in the organization a decision will touch. If it will affect the entire organization, usually I’ll take a little more time to make sure it’s the right move, because change management is often the hardest part of implementing a new idea.
IL: What supply chain initiatives are at the top of your agenda?
We are focused on providing real-time inventory visibility where our solution touches our customers’ supply chains, so that as their supply chains change, they can communicate that to their end buyers. For example, we added a line item in our software so retailers can see the impact of tariffs on prices. We also want to make sure that as information such as the country of origin changes, our brands can give retailers the visibility they need. Moving forward, we’re looking at how we can help our brands be even more transparent with their buyers. One example is helping them alert their customers if an order is delayed. Also, we’re finishing several AI projects. These will use information on market, ordering and other trends, based on data already in RepSpark, to help our brands better understand, for instance, the profit margins on different sales and to better handle demand planning. IL: What challenges keep you up at night? There are so many initiatives I would love to kick off, which I’m sure is a cliché for every CEO entrepreneur. But how do I pick which ones are the most important and the most impactful? When the tariffs were newly implemented, they were really a distraction to our customers, who were figuring out sourcing diversification and how it was going to affect their profit margins. Projects were paused. Trying to figure out if the tariff situation was long or short term, and how to handle it, kept me up at night. IL: What attributes do you see as key for effective leadership? Along with communication, one is what I call being ‘humbly confident.’ That is, knowing that you can make a decision, and if it’s right, it’s going to be great, and if it’s wrong, you can move on from it. It’s also having the grit to keep persevering and pushing forward when something goes wrong. If you don’t have grit, I don’t think you can lead a company.
February 2026 • Inbound Logistics 11
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