READERPROFILE
My career has been non-linear. I started as an academic scientist, and then moved to medical products, consulting, and consumer goods. The academic world was great. I was studying movement and neuromuscular systems. It was really interesting and great scienti c work, but it didn’t have that practical, pragmatic element to it. In my rst supply chain role, the challenge for me was pushing out of my comfort zone, trying new things, and guring out how to get my arms around the system. That’s where my engineering degree helps. Everything to me is a big, complex system, whether it’s running a supply chain or running a company. What I love about supply chain is how it combines several cool things. It’s a large and complex system. It’s a big mathematical problem–‘I have to move these things from point A to point B and these are the variables I have to deal with’—so it has intellectual excitement to it. I also love that it’s practical. And, nally, we serve customers. I love when someone receives our furniture and it feels good in their home. n
Ramesh Murthy Answers the Big Questions 1 What activities help you in your role?
strategy. That was a big change for me. I had always felt you lay out the strategy and then hand it to people to go do it. It’s much better the other way around. 3 If you could time travel, what period would most interest you? As an engineer and a bit of a nerd, I always wanted to be in the Renaissance period; to spend time with Da Vinci and watch how he invented. Today we’re in a period of technological creativity. It’s dierent from the pure physical creativity of that time.
I am into music and enjoy figuring out how all the components and systems go together so I can get the outcome I want. If you mix and match dierent equipment, you get very dierent sounds. It’s Zen and also analytical. 2 What’s the best leadership or supply chain advice you received? Early in my career I learned success is about having the best people you can get, as opposed to necessarily having the best plan or
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