Survey madness: the price (and value) of community learning

We are about to close our annual Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO) field study, having collected just north of 650 completed survey responses. It was too long last year, and looks like it could do with a bit more pruning next year. The good news is that the SCM World community has demonstrated an unbelievable willingness to contribute to collective learning in the profession. The bad news is that filling out these surveys can be exhausting.

You get out what you put in

From a pure research standpoint, the CSCO survey has tremendous value. Since it covers a wide range of industries, geographies, functional roles and levels of seniority and since we run it annually, our ability to track trends as they arise is better than anything I’ve ever seen. For example, the subtle logic in Dr. Hau Lee’s Strategy Alignment and Value Creation section says more about exactly which operational levers affect business value and how these depend on specific competencies than any slick PowerPoint. The graphic is an eye chart, yes, but the ability to say whether agility matters more than reliability, for instance, should not devolve to semantics.

We also need to be extremely careful about setting expectations. One early data point from this year’s survey shows a small but meaningful drop in the percentage of people who say that “supply chain is understood as an equally important part of business success as sales & marketing or R&D/product development”. Is this pull back from the CEO’s table of influence reflective of overconfidence last year or an actual demotion this year? I suspect it’s the former. Some of us may have rushed a bit too quickly into commitments that were misunderstood by all parties concerned.

The hard fact is that supply chain excellence can easily implode in a macabre game of buzzword bingo unless we are very clear about prioritising our initiatives and what the business can expect from us. Lawyers, marketers, engineers and scientists are all very specific about the language they use in their work. It may be a hassle, but we should do the same or risk being ignored.

You are the expert

SCM World is designed around the idea that practitioners collectively know more about supply chain than any academic, analyst or consultant. No one ever disagrees with this notion but, then again, who has time to collect, collate and connect all this knowledge? No one does. Those of you who complete these surveys and contribute to the dialogue are defining the path forward for supply chain. It is an experiment in communal learning, and so far it’s working brilliantly.

In the past year alone we have had well over 5000 surveys completed across this community. In addition, hundreds of individual case studies and stories have been gathered and organised in learning modules to help you do a better job and get ahead professionally. It’s still not clear what the supply chain discipline will look like in a generation, but it is evolving quickly and it’s very obvious that people are hungry for the challenge.

If you’ve got this far, you’re probably one of the passionate ones. Take a few extra minutes and complete the survey – it may well come back to you as a raise and promotion one day.

The survey closes at midnight tonight (US Pacific time). If you’ve not already done so, please take the survey here.

Kevin O’Marah

Chief Content Officer

SCM World

Please contact me directly with any comments, questions or suggestions. I welcome your feedback.