Best of SCM World: Supply Chain Lessons for the Ages

Over five years writing this weekly column, none has captured the essence of what made SCM World great better than one published in July 2016 describing what we call the learning engine. The idea is that within the supply chain community everyone can both learn and teach and that the process can be self-renewing.

Here are five of the all-time best examples of this learning engine in action and the important lessons from each.

Best Transformation Story: Frank Jones, Intel – This is a golden oldie, but still my top go-to for a successful large scale supply chain overhaul. The story is special because Intel was able to do it without first facing a near-death experience. Instead, visionary CEO leadership combined with a compelling rallying cry (“just say yes”) kept everyone on track through a multi-year change initiative. Intel made excellent use of hard metrics, steady vision and a sweeping cultural change to dramatically improve the company’s speed, agility and cost competitiveness.

Takeaway: Transformation is a multi-front battle that can be won, even without a crisis.

Best Inspirational Speech: Paul Polman, Unilever – June 16, 2014 saw a return to my favorite Leaders Forum venue of all time – Gleneagles in Scotland. It was also the site of what may have been the most impactful and rousing speech ever given at a supply chain conference. Unilever CEO Paul Polman delivered (without slides or notes!) a 90-minute, fact-laden, emotionally charged sermon which ended with perhaps the only genuinely spontaneous standing ovation that I have ever seen. His talk was certainly a call to action on sustainability in supply chain, but it was also so deeply credible that I believe dozens of people found new faith in their immediate, personal ability to change the world.

Takeaway: Audacity means more when grounded in reality.

Best View of the Future: Jeff Wilke, Amazon – In May of last year, Amazon hosted a Leaders in Action event in Seattle. The closing session was a “fireside chat” which I was privileged to hold with Amazon Worldwide Consumer CEO, Jeff Wilke. Typically such affairs are off-the-cuff with an emphasis on projecting style rather than communicating big ideas. Not this one. Mr. Wilke’s thoughts ranged from his Pittsburgh roots and an infatuation with manufacturing through the revolution sparked by bringing operations thinking to the pure merchant culture of retail. Better still, Wilke looked ahead at where all this is going. His outlook was incredibly bold, but utterly believable.

Takeaway: Supply chain is radically reshaping our economy and society.

Best Collaborator: John Church, General Mills – The Amazon event I refer to above was one of a series that SCM World arranged at community member locations. The first ever was called “Collaborate to Win” and was held in Minneapolis at General Mills’ global headquarters. The idea was experimental and relied heavily on an open-minded group of C-level leaders willing to share truth with not only peers but also rivals. It worked in large part because of the example set by John Church, General Mills’ EVP of Supply Chain and our host. His content contribution was the story of a successful collaboration initiative with key retailers that I still cite regularly. John has also served on SCM World’s Executive Advisory Board from the beginning, and was one of only two external speakers on the stage at Amazon.

Takeaway: Cooperation beats competition in learning.

Best Talent Innovation: Brian Tobey, Microsoft – Supply chain talent has been an SCM World staple from the beginning. Too little, however, has generally been done to engage the young. Brian Tobey, then Corporate Vice President for Microsoft, had an idea to fix this. The solution was something he called “Grad Week” which looked a lot like the typical global leaders’ meetings usually held for VPs. This session was instead built for people with less than four years’ tenure. It ran for three days, cost virtually nothing in budgetary terms and yet imparted a full-spectrum look at Microsoft’s supply chain strategy to people with many years of contribution still ahead.

Takeaway: Supply chain talent development is a lifetime commitment.

These five are master teachers from whom we can all learn.