SupplyChainTalk: Becoming a transformative supply chain leader

On 19 July 2023, Supply Chain Talk host Alastair Charatan was joined by Derek Westfall, Supply Chain Professor, Portland State University; Francesco Lucchetta, Director, Procurement & Supply, Pentair; Sanja Cancar-Todorovic, Head of Enterprise Procurement, Outsourcing & Third-Party Risk Management, Home Capital Group; and Maytham Al-Khairulla, VP of Procurement and Business Support, OSN.

 

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According to the ASCM’s 2023 Supply Chain Salary and Career Report, individuals who hold supply chain-related associate’s, bachelor’s or master’s degrees earn an average of $30,000 more than the national average salary. To keep their expertise up-to-date, executive education can help all professionals fill in learning gaps, keep pace with new trends and learn about new tools, applications and technologies. 

 

Leveraging digital technology to improve supply chain visibility. 

As a transformative leader, you have to think big and envision how the SCh should look in a couple of years’ time and provide staff with the tools that enables the company get there.

 

Qualities that make a transformative SCh leader include the ability to persuade and influence people, as well as negotiation and relationship management skills. Sometimes financial experts or salespeople become excellent procurement experts without deep expertise by virtue of their leadership skills. 

 

One of the new skills that a supply chain expert today must have is familiarity with information security. The common features of great leaders are innovative thinking and the relentless focus on customer satisfaction. As for how AI can support leaders, Chat GPT can be given instructions to build a strategy and, unlike a human, it will be able to accomplish the task in the matter of hours rather than days. 

 

The panel’s advice

Diversity of thought breeds innovation. 
Diversity makes business sense as well. 
The supply chain is naturally more risk averse than other functions.