What’s the Single Most Important Skill for a Career in SCM? Analytical thinking and communication skills are crucial for a career in supply chain management. It’s a quantitative field that requires a high level of coordination among different parties. –Çerağ Pinçe Associate Professor Director, MS in Supply Chain Management Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago The ability to use soft skills to effect collaboration. Individuals first need to effectively communicate with people inside and outside their company, and to display a willingness to act as a team player. Second, they need to work on developing relationships within their company and across supply chain partners so that trust is built and communication can flow, to enable supply chains to function at their best. –John E. Mello, PhD Professor of Supply Chain Management Arkansas State University Analytics competency. Supply chains today are data rich and analysis poor. So much can be learned about supply chain performance and even customer behavior from the supply chain data that exists today. At the same time, advanced analytics and computing, such as machine learning, are now providing access to powerful, more intuitive tools that unlock the value in the data. – Chris Jones, EVP, Industry & Services, Descartes Being able to effectively and efficiently problem solve is essential. Young people must be able to apply critical thinking skills to analyze a problem and identify the true cause, so that they can swiftly implement a solution. –Jill M. Bernard Bracy, PhD Associate Teaching Professor, Supply Chain & Analytics Acting Director, Supply Chain Risk & Resilience Research Institute University of Missouri – St. Louis
“While covering important topics such as globalization, digital transformation, data analytics, sustainability, and risk management, many of these courses integrate platforms such as blockchain and the Internet of Things,” Pappu says. Managing risks has catapulted to the top of supply chain curriculum imperatives, as the pandemic underlined the need for supply chain resiliency. “The biggest change has been a far greater focus on the importance of dynamic risk management,” notes Ted Stank, professor of supply chain management and co-faculty director of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee.
PREPARING FOR GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN INSTABILITY
“The world has been increasingly less stable in the past few years with global alliances and geopolitics in the midst of the biggest shift we have seen since World War II,” Stank says. “That shift has impacted global supply chain networks, and we need to understand better how to brace our supply chains against the future shocks that are sure to come.” At Boston University’s Metropolitan College, for instance, the masters in supply chain management program now includes a concentration in risk management.
The pandemic changed a lot of what we discuss
and teach in our supply chain classes. We now teach more about agile and responsive supply chains, muti-sourcing in different regions of the world, and making sure organizations have the inventory they need to operate. –Patrick Penfield Professor of Supply Chain Practice Syracuse University
36 Inbound Logistics • February 2023
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