Scale the Supply Chain Leadership Ranks - SCM Talent Group€¦ · Rodney Apple . President &...

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Scale the Supply Chain Leadership Ranks

Competencies to Master to Advance to Supply Chain Executive

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About the Author

Rodney Apple President & Founder | SCM Talent Group

• Completely specialized in end-to-end supply chain recruitment since 2001

• Built the very first supply chain department for The Home Depot (Fortune 13 at time)

• Spanning 10+ years, led supply chain recruitment for 4 corporations that made the Gartner Top 25 SupplyChain list:

The Home Depot Kimberly-Clark Cummins The Coca-Cola Company

• Personally filled more than 1,000 professional to executive supply chain positions

• ASCM (formerly APICS) Career Coach since 2014

• ASCM Magazine Author for “Professional Development”

• Presenter at CSCMP and APICS global conferences on supply chain talent topics




Contents

4 Introduction

5 Ways to Set Yourself Up for Success

7 Key Skills to Develop Early in Career

12 How to Obtain Your First Leadership Role

13 The Importance of Networking

14 10 Skills to Reach Executive Level

18 Conclusion




Introduction Having recruited exclusively within the supply chain sector for about 2 decades, which includes many

years of experience recruiting on the inside of several large multinational corporations in addition to

running my own executive search firm, I have gained a lot of insights into the world of supply chain

hiring and career advancement.

Over the course of my career I have closely followed the careers of thousands of supply chain

professionals that I have recruited. One group that I have paid close attention to are top supply chain

leaders. These are professionals that have managed to accelerate their career development within

supply chain, often times reaching their top career goals long before their peers with the same tenue.

In this guide, I will share with you what these top leaders have in common and techniques they utilize

to achieve rapid success in their careers. Whether you’re an experienced supply chain professional or

a college student, I’m hoping that you’ll discover some new techniques and advice that can help you

with accelerating your leadership career in supply chain.



Section One

Ways to Set Yourself Up for Success

5

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Set Career Goals That Motivate You

Staying motivated is the key to achieving career goals. When

you set career goals for yourself, they must be deemed as

“important” and there must be “value” associated with

achieving them. Focus on establishing goals that match the

highest priorities within your career first – goals that you

know will create a strong sense of urgency to fulfill and will

add value once achieved.

Be sure to write down each goal along with why it’s

important to you and the value you expect to receive from

achieving the goal. If you have established a professional

mentor it would be a wise idea to share your career goals

with this person as this can be a great way to generate

inspiration when needed.

Set SMART Career Goals

In order for a career goal to be deemed qualified it needs to

be a SMART goal. SMART stands for:

Specific – the career goal must be well defined and describe

in precise detail what it is you want to achieve.

Measurable – if your goals don’t include numbers,

dates, amounts or percentages you won’t be able to track

and measure your progress.

Achievable – avoid setting goals that are near impossible to

achieve or you’ll be setting yourself up for disappointment

and frustration. You should avoid setting goals that are too

easy to achieve as well. The best approach is to set stretch

goals – something that’s realistic and challenging.

Relevant – closely align your goals with the direction you

want your career to go in as this will help maintain the

proper focus you’ll need to stay ahead.

Timely – all career goals should have a deadline. Deadlines

help to create and maintain a sense of urgency.



Section One


6


Develop Career Action Steps

Career goals are focused on achieving a desired outcome

by an established deadline. Action steps are prioritized

work tasks and milestones that you need to achieve in

order to obtain your goal by the established deadline.

Write down these action steps and better yet, embed

them into your favorite task management system such as

Outlook for example.

Review And Track Your Progress

Write Down Your Career Goals

If you fail to write down your career goals you simply won’t

succeed (unless you get lucky). It is imperative that you not

only write down your career goals but that you keep them in

a highly visible place such as your desk, mirror and/or glued

to your laptop. Be sure to frame the goal positively e.g. “I will

complete my APICS CSCP in 12 months versus “I will try to

complete my APICS CPIM in the next 1-2 years”. Lastly, I’m

sure you keep a To Do List so be sure to keep your goals

written at the top of the list as a constant reminder.

Working towards achieving your career goals is a steady,

ongoing process that requires a lot focus and commitment.

I encourage you to set up recurring appointments/

reminders on your calendar each week to track progress

made towards achieving your goals. Sometimes you’ll

need to make adjustments to your goals when unexpected

events pop up in your life or career so know that this okay

and perfectly normal.

With that being said, always strive to keep your goal

deadlines in place as pushing them back can lead to bad

habits such as procrastination. If you do miss a deadline

then set aside some time to reevaluate what when wrong

and put a corrective action plan in place.



Section Two

Key Skills to Develop Early in Career


Communication

For many supply chain leadership roles, strong

communication skills can be equally as important as having

deep expertise in a particular field. Here are few skills to

develop or sharpen as it relates to becoming an effective

communicator:

Active Listening – listen with the intent to understand, as opposed to reply

Empathy – putting yourself into others shoes to understand and act genuinely

Adaptability – tailor your communication style to align with the audience or situation

Clarity – succinct, to-the-point communication style, avoiding rambling and tangents

Confidence – firmly believing in yourself and exuding confidence

Constructive Feedback – being able to both give and receive helpful feedback

Emotional Intelligence – identifying and managing others emotions and your own

Interpersonal Skills – building rapport and developing relationships with others

Non-Verbal Communication – understanding and responding to non-verbal cues

Open-Mindedness – understanding differing perspectives and the ability to change your mind

Simplifying – converting technical or complex topics into layman’s terms

Storytelling – engaging and captivating your audience through telling genuine stories



Section Two



Project Management Chops

Supply chain professionals must be highly organized as

it relates to managing their time effectively and making

the right level of progress towards assigned goals and

objectives.

A great way to strengthen your people leadership abilities

is to improve your project management skills, especially as

it relates to motivating and leading cross-functional teams,

assigning and prioritizing work tasks, and achieving key

milestones and budget targets.

If you lack project management experience, then you need

to position yourself to gain this. A great place to start is

to inform your superiors that you would like to support

future projects for your department or the overall supply

chain organization. In addition, you should check out the

training and certification programs offered by the Project

Management Institute (PMI) such as the PMP (Project

Management Professional) certification.



Section Two


9


Understanding And Adapting To Supply Chain And Industry Trends

If there’s anything that’s constant within the field of supply

chain, it’s rapid change. Many supply chain professionals

make the mistake of focusing too much time on their day-

to-day jobs, and not enough time reading up on supply

chain trends or researching what leading companies in their

industry are doing from a supply chain perspective.

Your ability to both spot and adapt to trends can be a

powerful tactic for accelerating your leadership skills and

gaining attention from leaders within your supply chain

organization, which in turn can help propel your career.

Here a few ways to keep a strong pulse on trends occurring

within supply chain and your industry:

Networking – join supply chain associations and industry-

related associations such as ASCM where you can digest

their content and engage in networking activities.

Supply Chain Blogs and Trade Journals – subscribe to the

top supply chain blogs, newsletters and trade journals as

well as blogs that are related to your industry. I’ve been

using a free tool called Feedly.com to keep track of the

main supply chain blogs, news and trends in one central

place that syncs across all of my devices.

Conduct Market Research – Go straight to the source for

information, including contacting your customers, suppliers

and service providers to ask questions as well as sending out

surveys and polls through social media, email, etc.

Follow Supply Chain Influencers and Topics –

LinkedIn makes it very simple to follow key influencers

and topics within your industry and the supply chain

field. You can also follow #hashtags on LinkedIn by

simply typing in a hashtag in the main search bar e.g.

#supplychain.

As you discover new trends and ideas, determine which

ones are applicable to your company, and socialize them

with your manager and other supply chain leaders. If they

have an interest in implementing the ideas you’ve brought to

the table, you’ll likely receive an opportunity to help bring

them to fruition.



Section Two


10 [email protected] | 877-236-0420

Go Above And Beyond

Overachievers are the ones that move up the career

ladder the quickest. In addition to fulfilling the basic

responsibilities you were hired to do, always strive to go

above and beyond. When your boss asks the team for a

volunteer to work on a project or to knock out a difficult

task, raise your hand and volunteer. This will earn some

respect points with your manager, so that when an

opportunity comes up for a promotion you just might get

the nod ahead of your peers.

One of the most important things you’ll need to do is to

gain a detailed understanding of the key deliverables that

are expected of you in your job as well as any metrics and

KPIs that you are expected to track and improve.

Ask your manager what you need to do to get to the next

level and strive to exceed expectations. If possible, aim to

schedule a few update meetings throughout the year to

go over how you’re tracking against your key deliverables,

discuss any opportunities, gaps or problems, etc.

When it comes time to sit down with your manager to con-

duct an annual review, you’ll want to come fully prepared

with a list of accomplishments documenting the value you

delivered to the organization. Be sure that you quantify the

results for each major accomplishment e.g. cost reduction

savings, percentage points you improved against KPIs, etc.

Also, keep any emails you receive from customers, clients,

executives, etc. so you can show off what others have said

about your work.


Section Two



Invest In Your Future

Another great way to accelerate the movement from

individual contributor to supply chain leader is to invest in

your future. If your employer offers courses take advantage

of them. If not, there are other ways to learn such as

taking online courses, attending courses at your

community college, reading books and blogs, etc.

At some point in your career you may decide that you

would like to go back to college to obtain an advanced

degree such as MS, MBA or even a PhD degree. Be sure

to check with your employer to see if they offer tuition

reimbursement as this could be an excellent way to obtain

an additional degree at a deep discount. Last but not

least, obtaining professional supply chain certifications

e.g. APICS CSCP can absolutely help with making your

more promotable within and outside of your current

employer.

Seek Out Mentorships

A strong mentor can help advance your career in many

ways especially as it relates to improving your leadership

acumen. Here are some of the top benefits that can be

gained from mentorships:

• Access to untapped networks by facilitating introductions

• Help with identifying skills gaps and advice

for how to best close them

• Increased visibility within your company

• Better understanding of how to navigate company politics

• Exposure to new ideas and ways of thinking

To get started, you’ll want to establish your goals and

objectives with a mentorship. From here, you’ll want to

conduct research to identify the right mentor that can help

achieve your goals. If your organization offers a formal

mentorship program, sign up and strive to identify a mentor

that’s well known for being a strong leader. If not, engage

your HR partner and/or boss in efforts to help identify the

right mentor for you to engage with.



Section Three

How to Obtain Your First Leadership Role

12


Establish Strong Relations With Your Boss

First and foremost, you’ll want to establish a strong

relationship with your direct supervisor as this person

typically holds the keys to your promotion. Even if

your direct supervisor isn’t the final decision maker on

promotions, he or she will certainly have influence on these

types of decisions.

One of the most important things you’ll need to do is to

gain a detailed understanding of the key deliverables that

are expected of you in your job as well as any metrics and

KPIs that you are expected to track and improve. Ask your

manager what you need to do to get to the next level and

strive to be an over-achiever. If possible, aim to schedule a

few update meetings throughout the year to go over how

you’re tracking against your key deliverables, discuss any

opportunities or problems, etc.

Always strive to maintain a positive attitude and never

complain as this will do you no good. Be proactive

versus reactive when it comes to communicating routine

updates as you don’t want your boss having to ask you for

something that’s frequently expected of you. If you do get

overwhelmed with work or a fire pops up that you can’t

extinguish, be sure to alert your manager as it’s better to get

help than to let something blow up which can make you

look bad as well as your manager. Last but not least, make it

your mission to make your boss look good and shine. When

you contribute towards the success of your manager this will

get noticed and can lead to faster promotions.


When it comes time to sit down with your manager

to conduct an annual review you’ll want to come fully

prepared with a list of accomplishments documenting the

value you delivered to the organization. Be sure that you

quantify the results for each major accomplishment e.g. cost

reduction savings, percentage points you improved against

KPIs, etc. Also keep any emails you receive from customers,

clients, executives, etc. so you can show off what others have

said about your work.

Other important reasons for maintaining a list of

accomplishments are to have good content for keeping your

supply chain resume updated and to have plenty of good

information to share for when you go on your next job

interview, whether it be for an internal position or with

another company.



Section Four

The Importance of Networking


While developing a strong network of supply chain

professionals throughout your career is important, building

meaningful relationships with supply chain professionals

and others that you work with is even more important. I like

to think of business relationships as the “glue” that holds

companies together because people are the most important

asset of any company and without them, companies cannot

survive.

Your goal should be to develop mutually beneficial

relationships (as in provide value and help when needed)

to one another. Relationships that you’ll want to focus

on building throughout your career should include your

immediate peers and coworkers, employees, customers,

suppliers, vendors, your manager(s), senior leadership within

supply chain, your HR partner and anyone else that you feel

would benefit from knowing you and vice versa.

Successful supply chain practitioners focus on building and

developing relationships with a broad group of professionals

and they rely on these individuals for advice, insights, support,

feedback, career guidance, etc. throughout the course of

their careers. When you focus on growing your supply chain

network and building meaningful business relationships, you

will put yourself in a position to accelerate your career while

helping others do the same.



Section Five

10 Skills to Reach Executive Level

14


marketing to I.T. to sales, and beyond. This will improve your

ability to serve as a trusted, impactful business partner across

the enterprise. Engaging mentors from other departments

while building relationships across the enterprise can help

achieve a comprehensive understanding of your business.

The role of Executive Leader continues to grow in popularity

as more companies recognize that supply chain management

is central to success and a key differentiator for adding value

and driving revenue growth. Executive leaders of today aren’t

just focused on coordinating the company’s end-to-end supply

chain and cutting costs. They are also involved with developing

and supporting core business strategies, product and service

innovations, customer retention programs, leading due

diligence and integrations for mergers & acquisitions, margin

enhancement initiatives, and more.

There is no magic formula to reach this position, as every

company’s supply chain is unique, requiring varying degrees of

experience, qualifications and skills. However, there are several

core competencies to develop in efforts to increase their

chances of obtaining this coveted position:

Deep and Broad Understanding of the Business

Supply chain touches, influences, and impacts almost all

aspects of a business. It’s imperative to develop a solid

understanding of the overall business- from finance to

Impeccable Leadership and Talent Development

This one is a given, seeing that Executive leaders typically

oversee the largest teams within most companies, especially

companies that manufacture and distribute their own

products. Practice and embrace servant leadership with

all stakeholders within and outside of the enterprise while

focusing on building relationships, driving decisions to

consensus for the betterment of the company, and helping

others achieve success.

A relentless focus on hiring, developing and retaining the next

generation of leaders is essential for the long-term success

of companies, especially in light of talent gaps that exist in

many areas of the supply chain. Executive leaders and their

leadership teams are encouraged to constantly evaluate their

organization’s talent gaps and focus on closing gaps through

training, stretch assignments, cross-functional assignments,

certifications such as the APICS CSCP and CPIM, and other

continuous education programs.



Section Five



15

Cross-Functional Supply Chain Expertise

Executive leaders are expected to have solid knowledge and

experience across all functional areas of their company’s

supply chain, regardless of whether the company outsources

manufacturing or logistics to third parties or handles

everything in-house. The ability to connect all of the dots from

your suppliers’ suppliers to your customers’ customers and

integrate all departments and functions into one team with one

vision is critical for success.

To obtain broader, end-to-end supply chain experience,

you need to be a top performer and purposely seek out

opportunities that allow you to work across the supply chain,

from operations roles to corporate headquarters to customer-

facing positions. Gaining employment with a growing

company that has progressive talent development practices is

ideal to accelerate learning and development across the supply

chain.

Global Experience

Strategic Thinking

Lacking the ability to think strategically has been a common

impediment to the career growth of many supply chain

practitioners. The typical culprit involves allocating too much

time to keeping up with the day-to-day work tasks and failing

to think and act ahead. Supply chain leaders must develop this

critical skill set in efforts to shape their organizations to be able

to proactively tackle future business challenges while enabling

and sustaining growth. Engaging a mentor with solid strategic

planning and development chops is a great place to start.

Technology & Innovation

In today’s digital era, customers demand a high degree

of personalization and expect a rapid turnaround with

every order placed. Executive leaders need to have the

strategic ability and know-how to deploy digital, innovative

technologies that continuously improve and optimize their

supply chains, enabling and sustaining revenue growth.

Executive leaders that successfully integrate emerging

technologies such as blockchain, robotics, artificial

intelligence, advanced planning systems, the internet of things,

etc. will become more marketable than those that don’t. This

doesn’t mean that you need to become an I.T. expert, but

you must be able to partner closely with your company’s I.T.

department, internal stakeholders, external vendors, etc.

to successfully implement and optimize various tools and

technologies across your supply chain.

Gaining experience within multiple developed and developing

countries is important in order to understand how to adapt

to different cultures, languages, geopolitical challenges, and

supply chain risk scenarios. Seek out global opportunities early

on with your employer to include global sourcing roles, setting

up operations in foreign countries, expat assignments, and the

like.



Section Five



16

Strategic Relationship Building & Communication Skills

As advancements in technology brings more automation

and sophistication to the supply chain, executive leaders

must have excellent collaboration and relationship building

abilities in efforts to form strong alliances across global,

interconnected and interdependent networks. These networks

can consist of suppliers, internal stakeholders, service

providers, customers, colleagues and in some cases their

direct competitors (my firm recently recruited several supply

chain leaders for a new start-up client that was formed by two

direct competitors, both Fortune 500 companies). Executive

leaders must be able to leverage their collective relationships

to cut through bureaucracy, influence and motivate others,

and lead through constant change.

Strong communication skills are critical in efforts to gain trust

and respect across the company, from shop-floor associates

to the board of directors, as well as externally, from suppliers

to investors to foreign governments. Presentation skills, from

speaking at supply chain conferences to leading town halls to

articulating business strategy to the board, are very important

too.

Leveraging Data Analytics

Today companies have access to a treasure trove of data across

their enterprises and are leveraging this data in new ways to

gain market share, create new products and service offerings,

and radically improve service levels to their customers. As

more supply chains go digital, the ability to capture, interpret

and measure the right data becomes far more important

to the long-term success of their businesses. Therefore,

executive leaders must constantly evaluate trends occurring in

the marketplace as it relates to data analytics and adapt

accordingly. While executive leaders certainly aren’t expected

to become subject matter experts in data analytics, their ability

to hire the right analytical talent and deploy the right tools

and solutions are critical for creating a proactive, visible and

adaptable supply chain organization.



Section Five



17

A Relentless Focus on Continuous Improvement

Having recruited and built several continuous improvement

teams throughout my career, I have witnessed the enormous

value that a solid CI organization can deliver for their

companies, ranging from efficiency gains to cost savings to

reduced waste to empowering high performing work teams.

When I led supply chain recruitment for The Coca-Cola

Company, their CI programs were so successful within the

supply chain organization that they deployed CI resources

across all functions within the company, leading to even

greater achievements.

Executive leaders should always seek out ways to continuously

improve their supply chain organizations as maintaining

the status quo can become the death of any company,

especially in today’s rapidly evolving digital business climate.

Executive leaders must have the right CI leader (keyword:

leader) that can create and deploy the right CI resources,

tools and methodologies, with the ability to develop and

sustain a culture of continuous improvement throughout the

organization.

Supply Chain Sustainability

Gone are the days of making every business decision

based on what’s best for the company’s bottom line while

not considering the impacts to our social and natural

environments. This can be credited to increased transparency

within global supply chains along with stepped up pressure

from consumers and other advocates of creating a cleaner,

safer, healthier and more ethical planet.

With this in mind, executive leaders must focus on creating and

deploying sustainability programs and initiatives throughout all

aspects of their supply chain, both internally within their

operations and externally with their supplier base and end

customers. Not only is it the right thing to do, for the sake of

our environment and human welfare, but there’s a lot of value

that can be extracted through reducing wastes, lowering energy

consumption, reusing and recycling, and so forth.




In Conclusion

When it comes to your supply chain career, you and only you are in charge. Every major decision you make can have a

positive or negative impact and you will be making numerous career-related decisions beginning in college until you

retire. While this may sound a bit daunting, the good news is that you have an abundant amount of resources to tap into

to help with making wise career decisions.

From the time you launch your career until you retire, it is imperative that you take a proactive career management

approach. Think and act strategically about your career and get good at goal setting, organization and planning. Forming

good habits and routines early on will set you up for success.

Seek out as much career advice as you possibly can through the network that you build, the relationships that you

develop, and the mentors that you engage. Take intelligent risks and don’t be afraid of failing or making mistakes

especially early on. Every successful business person will tell you that they’ve failed and made plenty of mistakes

throughout their career and this is what made them stronger and more successful.

While it’s always important to achieve results and deliver value in each and every job you hold, it’s also important to have a

strong network of contacts and relationships. Your experience and background can only take you so far. It’s “who you

know” that can help lead you to your career destinations and open up doors of opportunity.

Last but not least, there’s a long line of supply chain professionals that aspire to reach the senior-most leadership level

within the field of supply chain such as Chief Supply Chain Officer, for example. The reality is that only a small

percentage make it to this level. If you want to reach this level, you must develop impeccable leadership skills that extend

beyond being a great leader of teams. You must be able to influence at all levels within an organization, lead through

constant change and turbulent times, and be able to field and build world-class supply chain organizations.

Questions? Contact Us:

[email protected] 877-236-0420





SCM Talent Group

When it comes to recruiting and placing top supply chain talent, SCM Talent Group has a long history of delivering

strong dating back to 2002 when our Founder, Rodney Apple, recruited and built the very first supply chain

department for The Home Depot – a Fortune 13 company at the time.

Since then, we have filled more than 1,000 professional to executive supply chain positions for numerous industries

and companies throughout the United States.

Why SCM Talent Group? • Deep functional knowledge and recruiting expertise of the end-to-end supply chain discipline

• A vast, ever expanding network of supply chain contacts and relationships across most major industries

• A robust recruiting process with a history of delivering candidates that match or exceed client expectations

• Broad portfolio of customizable recruiting services designed to meet the hiring needs of any organization

• Over 1,000 successful placements to date spanning all aspects of supply chain management

• Unparalleled expertise featured in various supply chain talent media journals & news outlets

Partial list of positions filled:

• Chief Supply Chain Officer • EVP of Global Supply Chain • VP of Supply Chain • Dir. of Supply Chain Management • VP of Logistics • VP of Distribution • VP of Transportation • Dir. of Global Warehousing • Dir. of Transportation • Dir. of Global QA

• VP of Procurement • Dir. of Global Procurement • Dir. of Supplier Development • VP of Supply Management • VP of Inventory Management • Dir. of Supply Management • Dir. of Replenishment • VP of Operations • Materials Manager • Dir. of Operational Excellence



Scale the Supply Chain Leadership Ranks - SCM Talent Group€¦ · Rodney Apple . President &...

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