Talent in emerging markets: SAPICS leads the way

I’ve been pitching Africa as a supply chain growth imperative for a while now. Our recent and bullish Africa report has had some pretty good reviews, making me confident that things are ready to happen. But one caveat keeps surfacing: the talent gap. What to do about finding, developing and managing people who are savvy about local conditions, but also sophisticated enough to navigate the waters at global headquarters?

The talent problem in emerging markets is certainly not unique to Africa. We have consumer goods companies probing this question as it relates to entering China, hi-tech companies facing the issue in Latin America, and industrials wrestling with it in India. So much opportunity, but so few qualified people, and unfortunately expats don’t solve the problem since their skills mix is wrong and most are short-timers anyway.

Here is one idea that may help – at least in Africa.

Institutionalised learning

This past week I spent two full days moderating a CEO roundtable with leaders from eight big South African companies. The event was noteworthy because it comprised top bosses spending 12 hours together drilling into how supply chain affects business value.

Had this meeting been assembled by the World Economic Forum and held at Davos, I’d have been impressed, but not surprised. Instead it was arranged by the South African chapter of APICS – a talent development organisation with headquarters in Chicago and a somewhat less-than-glamorous image.

SAPICS, as this group is known, hosts a conference every year in South Africa that draws hundreds of young, ambitious supply chain practitioners from all over the continent. I attended its 30th anniversary event a few years back and left with first-hand accounts of supply chains working in countries from Nigeria and Kenya to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe.

Unlike emerging markets events I’ve been part of in New York or London, however, the audience here was worried less about looking good and more about learning. Hundreds of working supply chain professionals soaked up the education, handed out business cards and tried to get an edge in their careers. The vibe was less like emerging markets and more like Silicon Valley.

Associations such as SAPICS and its kin in the US and Europe are all about institutionalising supply chain talent development for individuals, and, as our most recent CSCO survey data shows, are generally well known in industry.

The 2014 survey again shows APICS at the top of the list as a marker of supply chain talent, especially in light of its recent merger with the Supply Chain Council, whose certification programme ranked third.

The advantage of a clean slate

APICS’ dominance in this survey might be taken as proof that all is well in association land and that excellent talent development is just a matter of sponsoring staff for some training. Not so. In fact, the APICS-Supply Chain Council merger arises partly in response to persistent frustration with a lack of modernity and relevance in the content. Entrenched governance models inhibit these august organisations as they try to keep pace with change.

Contrast this to SAPICS, which by virtue of its relative isolation is empowered to experiment with new ways of bringing business and supply chain together. The CEO roundtable I participated in last week reached deeper into the business agenda of this group of leaders than anything I’ve seen in the US or Europe.

Perhaps more importantly, the influence of these general managers on the SAPICS’ content and engagement strategies is direct. The education agenda is set by business leaders more than by consultants.

The big takeaway is that talent in emerging markets – in this case, Africa – need not be something supply chain leaders have to face alone. SAPICS is a well-established association with events, members and affiliates all over the continent. It is young, but not green, and open to business input. It also has deep institutional support from APICS and the Supply Chain Council.

The emerging markets talent gap is not unbridgeable.