About the Authors

Richard Markoff has an extensive supply chain career, including 22 years with L’Oréal in Canada, the United States and France. His final role was as the company’s first global supply chain standards director, defining best practices in customer collaboration, distribution, demand planning and production planning. Richard has been a constant agent of change and innovation, and a pioneer of supply chain digitalization, for which he was cited in the Wall Street Journal, among other publications. He continues this spirit of innovation today as a supply chain strategy advisor, professor, author and board member based in Geneva, Switzerland and as a co-founder and partner of the venture capital firm Innovobot, where he advises startups on their road to success. Richard holds a PhD in supply chain management from ESCP-La Sorbonne (France) an MBA specialized in supply chain from Northeastern University (US); and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from McGill University (Canada). 

Florian Magnani is an associate professor at iaelyon School of Management (France) since September 2024, specializing in operations management and supply chain management. He taught at various schools, including Centrale Méditerranée, Arts et Métiers and Aix-Marseille Université, and also worked as an engineer in companies such as Stellantis and STMicroelectronics. Holder of a PhD in Management Sciences obtained in 2018 in co-direction between ESCP Europe and Arts et Métiers, he also co-founded DynEO in 2013, a training center equipped with an experimental platform, in which he is a trainer. His current research focuses on organizational innovation and sustainable performance, with a strong emphasis on the impact of new technologies on decision-making processes and the human factor. Author of numerous academic and professional publications, he also collaborates with several international institutions.