Talent and Innovation. What?

by Danny Busija on 2012-02-17

Every week I speak to business leaders in the broader Supply Chain profession. 

The number one topic of discussion?  Talent.  Or more precisely, the lack of it.  I find myself in a fortunate position where I am a co-owner of Selection Partners, a Recruitment and Coaching firm and on the Board of the Supply Chain and Logistics Association of Australia, arguably one of the countries premier industry associations.  So I feel I am in a unique position to comment.

These conversations usually take a similar path each time and we wind up at the same stereotype, “the industry is not sexy” or “they think we all wear blue singlets and have tats”.   While I generally don’t disagree with this myth, I always ask, “What are you doing about it?”  The conversation now takes another turn and we talk about the future leaders coming out of Uni, gender equality, up skilling the work force etc…  All great initiatives with merit , and again agree that our broader industry is engaging with the next generation; but, in this ever changing world where the supply chain is truly global, where do we find professionals and leaders for the industry to grow, now?

As an industry we talk about innovation, but all we do is recycle the same old processes, practices and people.  This got me thinking, with the amount of upcoming and proposed job losses from various sectors such as finance, manufacturing and aviation, surely a number of these professionals can transition into a supply chain function.  But they’re not from the industry I hear you say.  So what!  Is an Analyst not an Analyst?  Is an Operations Manager not an Operations Manager?  What about a Manufacturing Manager, can’t we redeploy this professional as a Warehouse Manager or a Dispatch Manager?

Food for thought?  What do you think?

Danny Busija