Women in supply chain: role models for our daughters

Rooted as it is in factories and trucks, supply chain has a reputation for being somewhat inhospitable to women. And yet, as we saw this past February at our SCM World Live event in Miami, there are a growing number of women in high-impact leadership roles who are not only driving their companies forward, but also setting an example for young female engineers and business students hoping to join the exciting world of supply chain.

Our Executive Advisory Board includes Beth Ford, EVP and CSCO of Land O’ Lakes, as well as Maria Lindenberg, Chief Procurement Officer of Chevron. In recent months, we’ve also featured lessons learned from the likes of Barbara Kux, Head of SCM at Siemens and ranked by Fortune magazine as the fourth most powerful businesswoman outside the US, and Christina De Luca, a Vice President of Procurement & Supply Chain at BP. Next week we’ll hear from Linda Hudson, President and CEO of BAE Systems Inc., as part of our Leaders Forum event held at Gleneagles in Scotland.

Too few role models

Unfortunately, this litany of leadership is a bit misleading. Truth be told, despite our efforts to spotlight the appeal of careers in supply chain, fewer than 5% of all presentations, webinars and case studies in SCM World’s archive have been delivered by women. And yet over 50% of all college graduates in the US, for example, are women. Where are they going?

The answer, based on what I’ve seen over the years at the University of Wisconsin (where I sit on the advisory board of its business school’s Grainger Center for Supply Chain Management) is into the front end of the pipeline, but not all the way through to the C-suite. Why is this?

The answer may lie in Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s lightning rod message that women must “lean in” to their careers, rather than defer to others willing to shout louder or claim more. This advice rings true for many who prefer to win as a team or who believe two heads are better than one – the collaborative personalities among us. Too often, it seems, women take the role of facilitating collective victory even if it comes at their own expense in terms of recognition and advancement.

Collaboration, not domination

Ironically, this kind of behaviour is exactly what pundits (me included) call for when we promote supply chain collaboration, whether internally among marketing, engineering and supply chain or externally between trading partners. We even went so far as to prove that truly collaborative relationships result in 50% steeper learning curves. Maybe women have it right after all.

Supply chain leaders, regardless of gender, should get into the habit of rewarding people who not only lean in, but also see the bigger picture and can consistently find ways to win in the aggregate instead of just for themselves. The best-case scenario may be a combination of both leaning in and leaning back – knowing when to speak up, but also knowing when to listen. Supply chain is about balance, not dominance, and the best know how to find balance consistently.

Women in Supply Chain, New York City, November 2013

Which brings me back to the problem on our own doorstep: too few women appearing on our event agendas or in our content library. To begin to address this, we are planning an event in New York this November specifically dedicated to featuring women who have risen to the top and what they’re doing in supply chain.

The event will not be about the special challenges that women face (although we know there may be some), nor what men should do differently (although there are a few things I can think of here, too). Rather, it will simply celebrate those stars within our community who have done great things in supply chain while also happening to be female.

I have two daughters who hear a lot more talk about supply chain than any normal person should be subjected to. Wouldn’t it be great if they dreamed of a career in supply chain?

Vote in our online poll

To ignite some debate, we’ve created a quick four-question online poll (for both men and women). Please take part and tell us what you think.

Kevin O’Marah
Chief Content Officer
SCM World

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