Building the Best Supply Chain Talent Development

Editor’s Note: This was written by Mike Burnette, Associate Director of The Global Supply Chain Institute University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Business Administration

If you search “people are our most important asset,” you will find that many companies include this phrase in their statement of purpose/values/principles. Companies make statements such as “if we lost everything in the corporation, the most difficult asset to replace would be our people.” The phase has become so cliché that cartoon strips have made fun of this for the last several decades.

The reality is that our people are one of our most important assets, and we have a difficult time figuring out how to strengthen and grow them.

Developing supply chain (SC) talent is no different. At the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Business Administration, we interface with hundreds of business and supply chain (SC) leaders each year. In our discussions, these leaders consistently highlight recruiting and developing the best supply chain managers as a major business need.

Identifed below are seven critical issues that will anchor your supply chain talent development systems. As a global supply chain executive, I have found these systems and cultural attributes to be critical throughout the world. I have included an additional eighth point on developing talent in parts of the world that have gross shortages of available SC leadership talent.

#1 Coaching – Supply chain professionals tell us that they make significant investments in talent supply (recruiting) and frequently lose the talent in the first three to five years, or they significantly under develop their potential. The most important factor in developing new supply chain leaders is to pair them with a great coach. The coach not only helps the new talent understand how to do their new job, but enrolls them in the supply chain values, principles, and goals. Lack of coaching or poor coaching is like “not watering a new plant.”

#2 “Within-the-Week” Feedback –Annual performance reviews are better than nothing, but they can’t be the only venue where feedback occurs. The productive part of annual reviews is that at least once per year the manager is forced to formally sit down with his/her people and discuss work plan, performance, and career plans (Ideally this could be done more often). The more productive tool is “within-the-week feedback”. People learn and grow from their successes and mistakes. Receiving feedback from a trusted coach in real time is the best “fuel’ for this growth. This is both a system (which needs training, tracking, and adjustment) and a cultural attribute. Leadership must train people to want and request feedback. The term “within the week” is helpful, as the feedback must be current to impact performance but must not come without some thoughtfulness on key messages and appropriate delivery/context.

#3 Role Modeling – All supply chain managers watch their department and top company SC leaders. SC leaders must visibly and proactively role model the leadership, skills, and values the supply chain requires. People map their career path to emulate these leaders (which is not necessarily a good idea since the path will change as the business changes). Therefore, SC executives who “accept” poor/weak leadership role models in important positions are creating the culture of those role models.

#4 Delegating – Many experienced SC leaders “scratch their head’ trying to figure out the new SC recruits - Generation Y (born 1977 to 1994), Eco-Boomers, Millenniums. They are a diverse, technology-wise, and sophisticated generation. To keep them engaged given their shorter attention spans, Generation Y must be challenged. Developing new supply chain leaders requires us to have much stronger delegation skills and use these skills to provide meaningful challenges for our people.

#5 360-degree Learning – In today’s age of information, you need to provide a diverse set of learning tools and a high expectation that everyone must continue to learn/grow. Role modeling and delegation are fundamental and need to be combined with classroom training, webtraining/educational sessions, supplier/plant/customer visits, and external networking/forums (such as UT’s Global Supply Chain Institute Forum). The need is to have multiple tools and not choose among the tools.

#6 Working Harder and Smarter – Historically in the USA, we have talked about the importance of working smarter (this had been our competitive advantage over third-world countries’ less skilled workforces). In a rapidly developing global world, the winners will be those that work harder and smarter. Talent development is all about setting personal and business-based goals that stretch and over-deliver against the goals.

#7 Developing Top Talent – Best-in-class (BIC) supply chain organizations have a separate, ongoing top-talent system. The intent of the system is to identify your current leadership talent (potential) and ensure that this top talent is prepared to become a great executive supply chain leader. It is not counter to wanting everyone to succeed. It recognizes that a path of average coaches, assignment timelines, projects, and experiences will not develop executive VP SC talent fast enough. Key components of a BIC system include:

a. A clear, diverse list of top talent (defined by level with clear, aligned attributes) defined based on demonstrated leadership behavior.
b. A system to manage assignment and career plans (these will be shorter assignments, high-exposure roles, tougher assignments, and include significant commercial interface)
c. An active sponsor/mentoring system to provide an second personal coach who is external to the organization
d. A formal leadership exposure system (with system owner) to plan interactions between the top talent and SC leadership (so that all SC leaders know the top talent well).

I have found these seven points to be consistent and critical across the globe. These points are consistent and necessary but insufficient in parts of the world with significant shortages of supply chain leadership talent (these areas include parts of South Africa, China, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East/Africa). In these areas, the three-year attrition rates can be 10x the USA, or more. Therefore, I have included two other points to consider:

A. Great Coaches for Everyone – You need to staff a critical mass of proven supply chain leaders at multiple levels to provide ongoing coaching and personal contact. You must realize that the recruiting battle does not stop when a college graduate accepts a job with your company. Your competition will keep that contact ongoing. One bad month for a manager can equal attrition. These coaches frequently are ex-patriot managers with a plan to develop the coaching talent locally.

B. Quarterly competitive salary assessment and pay curve changes – Due to less stable economies and the supply/demand of skilled labor, the pay for supply chain managers cannot be managed as they are in Western Europe or North America. You need more frequent competitive assessments/adjustments and budget plans based on variable salaries.

Supply chain people are some of our most important assets. Effectively developing your culture and utilizing these systems will start you on a path to developing the best SC leaders.

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