How will you be doing your job 10 years from now? How about five years...or even next year?

In a discipline as dynamic as supply chain management, it is difficult—if not next to impossible—to answer these kinds of questions with any degree of certainty. Think about the rapidity of the changes that have taken place in recent memory. The purchasing agent and the traffic manager, so much a part of the organizational framework a few short years ago, are now part of corporate antiquity. These managers were seldom forced to think out of their functional silos. Today, by contrast, their successors are challenged with forging relationships not only within the organization, but also with outside partners.

Several articles in this Spring 1998 issue speak to the challenge of anticipating and reacting to change. In "The Brave New World of Supply Chain Management," David Bovet and Yossi Sheffi assert that supply chain management's role in achieving business success will become more critical than ever in the coming millennium. But to play that lead role, companies need to overcome some significant internal and external hurdles.

That new future will almost certainly include a strong environmental component. As Ed Marien describes in his article on reverse logistics, industrialized countries around the world are imposing increasingly tighter controls on the reuse, recycling, and disposal of post-consumer waste. The smart companies recognize the abundant advantages of acting before the regulators step in. In addition to helping the environment, these leaders are achieving some compelling benefits—stronger customer loyalty and greater market share, to name just two.

Human management issues will remain paramount in tomorrow's supply chain, too. As Amy Zuckerman points out in her article, no matter how advanced technology becomes, it still takes a human to assimilate, interpret, and act on the information. How well individuals are prepared to perform these tasks will go a long way toward determining an organization's continued prosperity.

Collectively, the articles in this issue underscore an important point: Supply chain management is inherently attractive precisely because it is so dynamic. It has yet to accumulate the strictures and rules that so often inhibit creative thinking and assertive action. This puts the professionals working in this field in the enviable position of being able to shape their own future to a meaningful degree.

About the cover: Artist Wiktor Sadowski captures the global, fluid nature of supply chain management in his cover illustration.