ISM 2018: Out with the old, in with the new

On Tuesday afternoon, ISM had back-to-back round tables for the media in attendance at ISM 2018. The first round table was with four experienced CPOs from Archer Daniels Midland, Dow DuPont Sourcing & Logistics, MGM Resorts and LG Electronics. The second gave us the chance to talk to five of this year's 30 Under 30 Supply Chain Stars, sponsored by ISM and Thomas.

Now, I'm sure the CPOs will object to being referred to as old – they were a surprisingly young group given their stature in the industry and certainly were not on their way out. But the chance to talk to an established group of leaders followed by the next generation of leaders was an interesting juxtaposition. So what did we learn?

The CPOs find themselves at an interesting crossroads in business, and I don't mean interesting in the Chinese curse way. As Stacey Taylor, the CPO for MGM Resorts put it: “We were all born as fire fighters and there are so many things coming out way.”

For starts, there is so much talk of technology in the supply chain in general and procurement in specific. At the same time, “many companies have a culture and rhythm that doesn't move at the speed of technology,” said Craig Reed, the global sourcing director of raw materials, energy & packaging at DuPont Sourcing & Logistics. The other challenge: Since most organizations are driven by sales and not sourcing, “it's hard to get support for the things we need.”

To that end, Camille Batiste, ADM's vice president of global sourcing argued that supply management needs to market itself. “Procurement is humble by nature, but we need to share our successes,” she said. “The CEO needs to understand and talk about what procurement is doing.”

Procurement is also becoming less tactical and more strategic, less focused on pure cost reduction, and more focused on customer alignment. As Chae Ung Um, the corporate senior vice president of VC advanced procurement at LG Electronics, put it, his role has evolved from engineering to cost to engineering to price, meaning collaborating with his customers to develop products that can be sold at a specific price. All four see a future where the routine tasks of procurement will be automated, procurement organizations will be smaller and the folks working in them will be focused on analysis, strategy and enabling the business. Heck, the position may not even be called chief procurement officer in the future.

What about the 30 Under 30 winners, who represent the talent pipeline? You know going in that they're a select group, otherwise they wouldn't have been chosen to represent companies like J&J, Northrup Grumman, Hershey, Flex and Pacific, Gas and Electric – the utility and not the rock band. That said, they were a poised, congenial and impressive group – to a person, they've done stuff. Several already had a global perspective: Elizabeth Richter, who described herself as a farm girl who at one point wasn't sure she would go to college and is now chief of staff at Flex, spent six months in Hong Kong where she was charged with researching the impact of China's Belt and Road Initiative on her company. Charlotte de Brabandt, this year's megawatt star and a category associate at Johnson &Johnson in Germany and once spent two years in China for Volkswagen.

They were also to a person an ambitious lot, looking to take on challenges – a word used repeatedly – to advance their career. For instance, Hershey's Keith Unton aims to be a CPO of supply chain for a region at a Fortune 500 company. Asked about the socially responsible side of the industry, both Leah Williams from Northrup Grumman and PG&E's Trenton Lara referenced their work on supplier diversity initiatives. Perhaps most important, none saw supply chain as a stepping stone to a career in another field. Rather, for now, they're all looking for a future within the profession. As Richter put it, “I want to stay in procurement and I want to stay with my current company. Flex is a supply chain playground.”

You have the sense that the current crop of leaders is aiming to take supply management to the next, strategic level. You also have the sense that the next crop of leaders is preparing to pick up that mantle.

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