Supply chain management (SCM): current education provision and practitioner future needs

Citation

van Hoek, R. and Wagner, B. (2013), "Supply chain management (SCM): current education provision and practitioner future needs", Supply Chain Management, Vol. 18 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/scm.2013.17718daa.001

Supply chain management (SCM): current education provision and practitioner future needs

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Volume 18, Issue 4

Unique talent challenges and characteristics in supply chain

Talent is key to real and sustainable success in the business of supply chains in real life. Indeed the supply chain faces several specific and unique talent related challenges that include:

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  a (r-)evolution of scope and role arising from critical capabilities;

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  a broad range of stakeholders to align and collaborate with;

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  a broad range of responsibilities and scarce talents;

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  the need to improve the perception of, for example finance and marketing, by both students and professionals, so as to become the “function of choice”, high on people’s want list;

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  globally dispersed supply chains across geographical boundaries and cultures as a basic standard.

Research and academe have a role to play here, not only in addressing these challenges by studying possible solutions, but also as a key influence of, and stakeholder in, the supply chain talent market. As a research community, typically we address supply chain challenges broadly avoiding research into talent in the supply chain, including how to teach and develop leaders to tackle the challenges and adopt critical research findings. As a profession, we are still fairly technocratic in teaching and in the research field.

We would suggest that the curriculum needs to advance and expand. While many top schools have strong and long standing dedicated supply chain programs, there is much more to do. This should include executive education in basic (MBA) programs and curricula. Even if the students in these fields may never become supply chain managers, they constitute an important audience that will increase appreciation of stakeholders that supply chain managers need to work with. Beyond that, they are a target audience to potentially spark interest in the supply chain profession. If the supply chain market is where talent needs to be attracted, should not this also be part of the core curricula? Supply chain touches so many areas of business that it should not be contained in a separate control but aspire to be integrated with as many other disciplines as possible. In addition to supply chain instruction, what we teach also needs to be subject to periodic review.

It is this consideration of “what” the supply chain requires that needs to be added to the “how”. This is not to turn academic research into vocational research, but to make supply chain study more meaningful and informative to management and aspiring management talent. Indeed the need to be collaborative, cross functional and international poses serious challenges. Thus change management competencies and interpersonal skills are essential to get the best from modern supply chains, not just knowing how to optimize a warehouse operation or develop a transportation network, that meet customer requirements.

Example of approaches to tackle supply chain challenges

In addition to academe, obviously leaders in industry also have a role to play. As part of the introduction to this special issue we would like to offer a few short case studies as to how companies taking on challenges and manage talent in supply chains. We do this to show how new leadership is emerging that complements thinking triggered by circumstances described in this themed issue.

To address a shortage of management talent, pharmaceutical corporation Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) constructed a program aimed at bringing new talent into the company by offering a focused and accelerated development program. Two special things about this approach were:

1. 1.

   the location was in Asia where managerial talent was historically scarce; and

2. 2.

   the company focused the program on young professionals.

Attracting and motivating these young professionals, so-called YP’s, proved a big hit. When considering this pool of young talent, it turned out that there was a lot that that supply chain management had to offer to attract and motivate. The insight by GSK was that it realized that by playing straight it could take advantage of this opportunity and grow a talent pool in the supply chain, moving from an unknown and uninteresting function to create a function of desire and choice.

Clearly YP’s were attracted by opportunities to learn, to take advantage of the opportunity to stand out in projects and learn about corporate social responsibility in an international setting. The program involved GSK executives going to universities as guest lecturers to teach (very much in line with Van Hoek et al. (2011)) and raise interest in a field not normally part of the curriculum and not on the students’ radar screen. Again, by this apparent simple yet crucial step; students were taught about the supply chain and how are they should consider it as a profession.

As a next step in the program, GSK hired a select number of graduates each year to perform a stretched role that gave them not only coaching on the job but introduced a buddy system. New hires were also given a chance to participate in international projects. In the second year, GSK received as many applications for the supply chain roles as it did for Finance and Marketing combined, although both are favoured areas of interest by graduates.

An added benefit of targeting such talent for entry into the profession is that YP talent is very connected and prominent in the social media of communities. As a result GSK had the added benefit of real collaboration by cohorts and positive word further raising interest in the supply chain. Additional peripheral benefits were the positive impact on existing talent from this influx of YP’s and the supply chain being seen more broadly in the company as a function where interesting things were happening.

The GSK team running the program realized that not all newly recruited talent was going to stay in the supply chain role for ever but it was not as concerned as clearly such a talent pool could turn into a network of ambassadors.

Sony Mobile is addressing the challenge of globally dispersed supply chain operations by forming virtual teams in its procurement organization. While buyers are located in different operations and geographies they collaborate on strategies for buying commodities. These purchase strategies are global in reach and scope, beyond day-to-day location of individual team members. At Sony, these virtual teams are talked about as “new normal”. While virtual and dispersed project teams have been common for some time, they are now standard features in the of Sony organization. Operation as part of these teams means that members have to span cultures and time zones with markets and operations on a daily basis.

Development of this capability is done at Sony Mobile through a variety of mechanisms, including annual team meetings to stay connected. In the process, the company leads globally dispersed organizations as one. Accordingly this is very much the object of Sony supply chain management.

With the need to align multiple stakeholder audiences and cope with the transitions in scope and role of supply chain management, comes the need to further develop non-technical behavioural skills of staff. In this regard one manufacturer has developed a set of what it calls “behavioural attributes” to describe the “new DNA” required to align with collaborative partners, such as business suppliers and peers. Amongst these attributes are:

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  Advocacy for relationships (in contrast to adversarial behaviour).

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  Ability and willingness to listen and learn.

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  Openness to different points of view and opinions.

These attributes are used to help focus talent development efforts, as well as to improve the ability to evaluate staff in terms of critical criteria. It is noteworthy that these attributes are applicable much more generally across industries and that they represent a train of thought beyond the technical domain. When considering this aspect, it also clear that attributes such as aforementioned are not unique to supply chain management. It is no wonder that supply chain has a role to play in the broader talent market and has to expand its appeal in order to attract, recruit and develop future leaders.

This special issue

In this special issue, out of 50 articles submitted, the following nine have been reviewed and accepted for publication. We hope that these can help advance the thinking, the research and the teaching agenda in academia, as well as adding support and leadership to progress in modern supply chains.

SCM-03-2012-0111.R3. “Priorities and determinants for supply chain management skills development in manufacturing firms”, by Lorentz, Harri; Töyli, Juuso; Solakivi, Tomi; Ojala, Lauri. This article explores skill requirements in Finnish manufacturing firms. Survey data was gathered in 154 manufacturing firms across Finland that highlighted inter-organisational skills. The latter are given greater priority as compared with intra-organisational skills within these companies. This research explored how structural properties in the supply chain influence the types of skills and capabilities required. These properties include geographical dispersion, position in the tier and manufacturing strategy of the focal firm that translate into three clusters of skills relating to:

1. 1.

   N: demand forecasting and planning;

2. 2.

   customer and distribution channel management; and

3. 3.

   R&D and new product launch.

The implications for management’s development of curriculum design suggests that students need to acquire skills that provide a holistic view of the company with the inclusion of marketing, financial and operations management principles. Softer, relationship management skills also are essential to the profession.

SCM-04-2012-0145.R4. “Global logistics management curriculum: perspective from practitioners in Taiwan” by Wu, Yen-Chun Jim; Huang, Shihping; Goh, Mark; Hsieh, Ying-Jiun. Employing mixed methods of research design, this article highlights a gap between industry and academic perceptions. The authors rank the skills required for global logistics practitioners as:

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  communication;

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  financial analysis;

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  customer relationship management;

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  people skills;

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  good health;

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  laws and regulations; and

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  cross functional marketing skills.

This is in contrast to traditional logistics education that focuses on skills such as demand forecasting, sourcing, planning and systems integration. The authors suggest that to reduce the miss-match between current logistics curricula in academe and practical requirements requires educationalist to work more closely with practitioners to include different pedagogical strategies and techniques that adapt to the global environment. This research suggests that there is still too much focus on traditional logistics professional training. Management skills in organisation leadership, personal relationships, networks, understanding cross-cultural differences, problem solving, honesty and integrity are essential.

SCM-05-2012-0179.R4. “Integrating student projects with real-world problems: the case of managing commodity price risk”, Zsidisin, George A.; Hartley, Janet L.; Collins, Wesley A. This article is concerned with integrating student projects with real-world problems. The article describes a problem based learning experience with client involvement and illustrates how a university can interact with business. The findings highlight the benefits for students, the university and the companies involved. For students the benefits include applied learning, networking, opportunities to hone professional skills and potential employment opportunities. Companies benefit from the provision of varied insights, while faculty gain from closer relationships that may result in research and other collaborations.

SCM-06-2012-0209.R2. “An analysis of supply chain related graduate programmes in Europe”, Cevik Onar, Sezi; Aktas, Emel; Topcu, Y. Ilker; Doran, Des. The aim of this article is to explore current trends in supply chain education and propose a framework for designing supply chain graduate programmes in Europe. The data relates to supply chain graduate programmes published by the European Logistics Association in 2004 and 2011 and identifies changing trends that reveal similarities and differences in these two discrete periods. The authors identify two main clusters in focused and diffused programmes. They suggest that programmes have changed based upon industry needs and that there has been a tendency to increase the proportion of SCM knowledge skills in 2011 compared with 2004. However, the article points out that graduate programmes are usually based upon research interest not on industry requirements and this is one reason why academe lags behind industry. The findings of this article may help academics in the design and review of supply chain management programmes, help managers in the recruitment process and enable students to make informed decisions when planning their graduate studies.

SCM-06-2012-0222.R2. “Teaching reputational risk management in the supply chain”, Lemke, Fred; Petersen, Henry L. This authors point out that although supply chain professionals appreciate risks due to disruption in supplies as a result of disasters, they suggest that one sort of risk has been overlooked in supply chain management; that is reputation risk. Reputational risk is not related to disruption of resources but to corporate reputation and corporate social responsibility. The authors suggest that businesses have a responsibility to all stakeholders to meet and exceed ethical expectations, protect the environment and assist society in alleviating problems and this should be incorporated into supply chain education programmes. Defining the scope of businesses responsibilities can identify how risk mitigation may occur in the supply chain. To be successful, requires programme coordinators to access businesses and nurture close working relationships. The authors provide detailed instructions to be included in B2B and supply chain modules.

SCM-07-2012-0228.R3. “Developing competencies of supply chain professionals in Australia: collaboration between businesses, universities and industry associations”, Sohal, Amrik S. This article describes collaborations between businesses, universities and industry associations in Australia. The research suggests that although supply chain professionals in Australia are highly educated, they lack training in supply chain management. Accordingly, they identify a set of competencies deemed important by supply chain professionals and also highlight the value of collaborations between business, universities and industry associations in the development of future supply chain professionals. The competencies relate to communication and teamwork, technology, enterprise, compliance and legal skills.

SCM-07-2012-0262.R2, “The evolution of customised executive education in supply chain management, Bernon, Mike; Mena, Carlos. This article aims to evaluate customised executive education over the past ten years and present a conceptual framework for curriculum development. The authors suggest that adult education should not only be concerned with educators transmitting knowledge but should also be viewed as a process of acquiring skills through self- directed learning. Based upon the analysis of supply chain executive education programmes and interviews with academics, the authors identified five main trends in supply chain management education: maturity, globalization, competition, technology and change management. These changes have affected the content and design of programmes which have been classified as knowledge gap/ sheep dip programmes, specialist technical programmes and strategic support programmes. While the first two types of programmes are well established, there is little literature that explores strategic support programmes. The implications for programme design and educational approach are significant for strategic support programmes as they rely on problem and project based approaches focusing on real situations and particular company contexts. This requires greater understanding and better engagement with industry.

SCM-08-2012-0269.R3. “Logistics education: a look at the current state of the art and science”, Lutz, Heather; Birou, Laura. This paper reports on the results of a large survey of undergraduate and graduate logistics courses. The research aims to identify a gap between current logistics course content and industry requirements. Based upon a survey of 118 logistics classes, authors suggest that most of the classes, under or postgraduate use a traditional research-based approach to education and have not reached an integrative skills development approach. Such an approach would be relevant to the market and more beneficial to both student and employer as it requires the inclusion of current topics and closer partnerships between industry and education. Future research should determine the degree to which programmes are meeting industry needs.

SCM-11-2012-0357.R3. “Connecting industry and supply chain management education: exploring challenges faced in a SCM consultancy module”. Bak, Ozlem; Boulocher-Passet, Véronique. In the article the authors use case study methodology to explore the challenges faced by clients, lecturers and students participating in supply chain management consultancy modules and highlights difficulties in building business-university relationships. The challenges impact on lectures, students and clients and these are explained in detail through the paper. Consultancy modules that provide students with hands-on experience are emphasised, although such modules are resource intensive. However, despite the challenges, the interaction between industry and supply chain education is rewarding for both students and academics. The conceptual model, derived from research, in the article it highlights the differences and similarities of running consultancy modules from three different perspectives; students, lecturers and clients. The research provides detailed guidance in establishing consultancy modules.

Remko van Hoek, Beverly WagnerGuest Editors