How Supply Chain Management Helps me Succeed in My Job…as a Marketer

I arrived for my admissions interview at Rutgers Business School in the summer of 2010. I brought with me, in addition to the scars from a recent “Great Recession” layoff, about eight years of experience in teaching and educational/public health research. When my interviewer mentioned to me Rutgers’ topnotch rating in the field of Supply Chain Management and explained to me a bit about the program, I knew, instinctively, that the field would provide me with the skills and perspectives I needed in order to fulfill my dream of jumping into the world of big business.

At the time, I couldn’t tell Operations Research from Business Intelligence from Inventory Management, but my courses and connections at Rutgers, as well as the lessons I learned from hearing SCM experts speak at student events, changed that quickly. When an interviewer from a Fortune 40 technology company came to school to look for marketing interns, I took my chances, given my excitement about the technology field. I felt unsure that I could explain why the SCM field held so much attraction for me, and why I found it relevant to the position.

I found, instead, that my passion for understanding the “guts” of how a company operated impressed my recruiter immensely. I explained that I did not see marketing as the means of convincing people to buy one’s product, but as the means of determining the maximum value that a company could offer, in light of its capabilities. SCM provides me a critical key for surveying and indexing an organization’s capabilities.

Recently, I spoke to a group of young professionals at the CSCMP’s Global Conference in Atlanta. I shared with them bits of the above story, as well as my conviction that my SCM knowledge and connections continue to enhance my career in the marketing/business intelligence sphere today. Today, as Dell undergoes a transformation from a hardware-provider to an end-to-end solutions provider, marketers who understand the company’s DNA of supply chain leadership can work more effectively and efficiently. These marketers understand that corporate transformation takes place through a process in which a company’s internal strengths are redirected towards new offerings.

So, supply chain management supports my career in both concrete and conceptual ways. Concretely, my learning in the field helps me to network with experts in a key functional area in my company. Conceptually, SCM teaches me to always ask, “Why do I think that our company can provide such-and-such an offering in a sustainable, competitive way?”  The field of SCM provides me with some ballast against the excitement of market trends.

I do not know whether my career will lead me back into fuller contact with the SCM field. I do know, however, that SCM, perhaps surprisingly, accounts for a good portion of the forward progress of my career in recent years.

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