Shaping the Future of Supply Chain: An Interview with Oliver Sloane

SCM World is a Gartner Community, dedicated to elevating the strategic impact of the supply chain profession. Back in 2009 it was just an idea. Now Gartner’s GVP Supply Chain, Oliver Sloane co-founded SCM World and led the team that built it into a unique business; one that fosters a sense of ownership, self-determination and purpose among its members.

Surrounded this week by close to 2,000 supply chain practitioners at Gartner’s Supply Chain Executive Conference in Phoenix, I interviewed Olly (as he likes to be called) to get his take on what makes supply chain special.

Q) What drew you to supply chain?

A) Having studied history at university it might seem odd that I’d develop an appreciation of supply chain. As I got to know the profession, however, I saw the massive impact it has on not only business but the world as a whole.

Plus, the puzzle of balancing risk and reward, short and long-term – and supply and demand, of course – is in many ways a “right brain” problem, well suited to an historian’s mind. In fact, harnessing the collective power of a diverse group of practitioners not only drives supply chain forward, it also helps me to connect intellectually with the topic.

Q) How has the profession changed since you started SCM World?

A) Supply chain has been on a journey from humble beginnings to where it is now with rapidly growing influence. A key to launching SCM World was seeing that practitioners had lessons to share with their peers. Initially, most of the learning was around doing things better. As we grew, however, it was more about doing better things.

Our scope now includes three big global challenges: health, hunger and environmental sustainability. I know we can’t tackle these issues alone, but I also know that they cannot be addressed without supply chain leadership. That’s a big change in outlook and one we’re building on within the much deeper Gartner community.

Q) What have you learned about the personality of supply chain people?

A) There’s something unique in the willingness of supply chain professionals to share and learn. Perhaps more than other functions, supply chain people are eager to benchmark what they’re doing and are amazingly comfortable opening up to each other. There’s also a sense of being underappreciated by other parts of business like sales, R&D and finance that fosters professional cohesion.

Then again, supply chain has been reluctant to take credit even when deserved. Both Gartner and SCM World have worked to help the profession learn how to market itself. This includes positioning supply chain as an exciting career choice for university students, as well as articulating how the function works for CEOs. Ecolab’s CEO Doug Baker, for instance, keynoted one of our events and told the group that great supply chains play offense, not just defense, in enabling growth.

Q) What excites you about the future of supply chain?

A) Knowledge breeds confidence and now within Gartner there is so much more knowledge to draw on. Digital is the most important megatrend affecting the supply chain profession and Gartner’s depth on the topic is unparalleled. We continue to see pure supply chain professionals ascending to general management leadership – people like Jeff Wilke at Amazon Consumer, Bali Padda at Lego, Annette Clayton at Schneider Electric North America, Beth Ford at Land O’Lakes, Gerry Smith at Office Depot and many more. All are exploiting digital and all are using supply chain knowledge to create business value.

Ultimately though, for me it’s all about our EAB (Executive Advisory Board). This group of executives is incredibly generous with their knowledge, experience, time and personal brands. Their guidance and support has allowed us to navigate the journey from rapid-growth start-up to the position we have now as part of Gartner’s exciting supply chain business. We very much appreciate their continued counsel and commitment to keep us on track going forward.

Q) Any tips for explaining supply chain to the uninitiated?

A) Make it personal. My four-year-old twins Sebastian and Leo know John Church (EVP Supply Chain for General Mills) as “Mr. Cheerios”, and Mike Corbo (CSCO for Colgate Palmolive) as “Mr. Toothpaste”. Supply chain is about understanding where everything comes from and that makes it very special indeed.