It was 1997 when Hannah Kain pitched 23 banks with her business plan for a small business loan to start ALOM. It was the 23rd bank that approved the loan; a bank that remains ALOM's bank to this day.
It's this perseverance and resilience that to this day, dubs Kain as an engaged and inspiring business leader.
Fast forward to today, and ALOM operates out of 20 global locations, and can fulfill orders to 85% of U.S. zip codes in 48 hours or less by ground delivery. Kain's business management and supply chain career began in her childhood growing up in Denmark.
She took a more than casual interest in her father’s business, where he would explain processes and methods of business operation. After college, Kain held various management and executive positions in Europe, with a wide range of experience in the packaging industry dating back to 1990.
After emigrating to the United States, she became frustrated by the one-size-fits-all manufacturing mentality prevalent at that time. That's why she developed what is dubbed as the first B2B e-commerce order management portal.
Within 2 years of opening ALOM, Kain made her vision a reality: orders received by noon could ship out same day and be delivered to the end user within 48 hours.
Also under Kain's leadership, ALOM holds ISO 9001, ISO 13485, ISO 14001, SOC 2 Type 2, EcoVadis Silver, NABP certifications and all ALOM facilities are FDA registered.
In 2017, she implemented a supplier nearsourcing initiative to mitigate global trade uncertainty, lower carbon footprint, and ensure on-time, full order delivery of materials. And to this day, ALOM also maintains a 10-plus-year average diverse supplier spend of over 21%.
Kain was named the overall winner of the Trailblazer category for this year’s Women in Supply Chain Forum™ award, presented by Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
Marina Mayer, editor-in-chief of Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive and co-founder of the Women in Supply Chain Forum™, sat down with Kain to discuss why perseverance, determination, and doing the right thing are key ingredients to success.
Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive: It was 1997 when you pitched 23 banks with a business plan for a small business loan to start ALOM. Fast forward to today, and ALOM operates out of 20 global locations, and can fulfill orders to 85% of U.S. zip codes in 48 hours or less by ground delivery. If that's not representative of a Trailblazer, I don't know what is. What made you continue pitching banks even after being turned down over and over?
Hannah Kain: I was determined to succeed. I believe persistence is one of the most important success factors for entrepreneurs. When you run a company, you need that determination — that inner strength and belief — to keep going, even in the face of unavoidable adversity. That determination has served me and ALOM well over the years, and I consciously hire people who have it too. During Covid, when supply chains faced every kind of adversity, my team powered through and managed to procure, produce, and ship products that were often scarce or difficult to handle at the time. Failure was not an option.
The other aspect, and I want to make this clear: we may have pitched the same business concept many times, but the pitch changed along the way. We were not repeating a failing pitch. We were listening to feedback and adjusting, so the story became stronger and more compelling. Persistence does not mean repeating the same failure — it means innovating until you achieve the result. I am very pragmatic, and I love the creative process of finding new ways to succeed. It has helped me think about supply chains in new ways, and it is one of the areas where we add unique value for our customers. I focus on the outcome, even as I am conscious about the process of getting to the outcome. Women are generally more process conscious, and that serves us well — doing right by everyone in the supply chain. But important as the process is, in the end the outcome needs to be right.
Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive: Within 2 years of opening ALOM, you made your vision a reality: orders received by noon could ship out same day and be delivered to the end user within 48 hours. Also under your leadership, you implemented a supplier nearsourcing initiative to mitigate global trade uncertainty, lower carbon footprint, and a 10-plus-year average diverse supplier spend of over 21%. Why are all of these achievements important to the future of your company and any supply chain organization for that matter?
Kain: All of these areas matter to our customers, and therefore to ALOM and to me. My role is to understand what is important to customers now and what will be important to them in the future — even if they do not yet realize it themselves — and then design the company's delivery systems and strengths to make our customers successful in the market.
Speed to market remains critical. Because we had built a same-day shipping environment with advanced technology right after we started ALOM, we were ready when ecommerce hit. Fulfillment companies back then worked on a four-to-six-week shipping cycle. We were way ahead of the competition.
Nearsourcing is about reliability, but it is also about the environment. We constantly work to minimize our environmental footprint, optimize locations, and help our customers develop sustainable practices. And as trade uncertainties and cost fluctuations impact the cost of goods, our nearsourcing philosophy helps mitigate the negative impact of trade fluctuations. Each border crossing represents one more risk that we try to eliminate.
We also love paying our success forward by involving local, and often diverse, suppliers in our supply chain. It pays off — those suppliers often outperform others with their flexibility, dedication, and innovation. We work on being easy to do business with, both as a customer and as a supplier. Our goal is to be the preferred customer, the preferred supplier, and the preferred employer.
Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive: What inspired you to pursue a career in supply chain?
Kain: You will think I am crazy, but I am attracted to the complexity and the magnitude of the issues. I love physical products, including the manufacturing side. It is tangible and real to me. Physical products are fascinating and often life-changing. And I love the technology that makes supply chains work.
When I arrived in Silicon Valley in 1994, I truly started thinking about how technology solutions could change the physical world. Now marry all of that with the financial supply chain and the regulatory and compliance world, and you have complex problems that are truly worth solving. The bigger the problem you solve, the bigger the reward.
I also had the vision of putting the customer — meaning the end user, the consumer — first. I saw many companies forget the customer in the pursuit of internal goals. I am determined to have our company culture focused on creating customized solutions with built-in flexibility, so our customers gain an advantage in the marketplace. That is much more meaningful than slapping a label on a package.
Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive: What supply chain trend do you think will have the biggest impact over the next five years?
Kain: While I love complexity, the complexities that have evolved over the last five to ten years are beyond what humans can comfortably manage. It has truly worn down supply chain professionals, and I have sadly watched many great people leave the profession because they were worn out.
Right now, supply chain professionals are trying to use static systems to model an extremely dynamic world. It is frustrating. I believe AI will be crucial in managing supply chains. Humankind is still in the early, experimental stages of AI adoption — we are just scratching the outer edges of the surface — yet we have already seen vast improvements, with much, much more to come. Over the next year, I am excited about using AI for predictions, but also for optimizations, for instance in routing, and for quality and compliance management.
Eventually, robots are going to play a key role in supply chains, though costs and regulations may put wider adoption on a three-plus-year horizon, and maybe beyond five years. We are already seeing self-driving trucks and autonomous materials handling equipment gain some traction.
I also see constant change as a more or less permanent condition. That is why change management and change leadership may be among the most important skills for future leaders.
Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive: What's a skill you've intentionally developed that has made the biggest difference in your career?
Kain: Listening to my gut. Over my career, I have paid dearly for mistakes, and I have learned from both successes and failures. What I found is that I always regret it when I do not follow my gut. I decided at an early age that I wanted to live a life with no regrets — always doing my best, always setting high standards, always trying to make dreams come true. Once I realized that I felt regret when I doubted my gut, I decided to listen more to that inner voice. It is difficult, because I love hearing other points of view. But if my gut says something is wrong, I may be hard to sway.
Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive: If you could solve one supply chain challenge overnight, what would it be?
Kain: If I could get 500 power plants up and running by tomorrow morning to solve the coming power shortage, I would probably be Time's Person of the Year, among other things. Tongue in cheek aside, I am concerned about the power situation and how shortages due to increased demand from AI and EVs may impact supply chains. We are on collision course. Scarcity of power, water, resources, and minerals makes all of us in supply chain shudder, along with the often unpredictable risks of climate change. I would also be excited about predicting the future — getting forecasting right in the widest sense of the concept.
But if you give me a magic wand with only one wish, I wish for global collaboration. The world would be more prosperous if we could all collaborate. Over the last few years we have had wars in the old-fashioned sense, but also supply chain wars. Supply chain professionals are the foot soldiers in that war, and we are paying the price. Yet the "civilian population" — consumers and the general public — is always hardest hit. I am not seeing winners in this war. Supply chain is not a zero-sum game. I wish everyone would appreciate the abundance and our ability to spread prosperity. My dream is to lift everyone up, creating better products and delivery systems for everyone. How about we use supply chains to lift more people out of poverty and illness — and create a better world?
Kain will participate in a live, in-person roundtable discussion with other overall winners from the 2026 Women in Supply Chain Forum™ award at this year’s Women in Supply Chain Forum™. CLICK HERE to register to attend and learn more.
