by Fronetics | May 27, 2015 | Blog, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
Mickey North Rizza talks women in the supply chain
As part of our series on women in the supply chain, I spoke with Mickey North Rizza, VP, Strategic Services at BravoSolution. Mickey holds the distinction of Top Female Supply Chain Executive. She has 25 years of senior-level procurement, sourcing and supply management experience. Mickey has also been an award-winning Supply Chain analyst with Gartner and AMR Research.
How did you get your start in the supply chain industry? (Similarly, why did you choose the industry?)
This is a fun story for me. At Michigan State, I was a Delta Gamma helping out our Anchor Splash team. My mission was to find a television that a local company would donate to the winning Fraternity. And of course, it had to be the largest and best TV on the market for the day. So, I pulled out the yellow pages, started calling around and found a few companies that were willing to help but would not donate. I learned to negotiate pretty quickly. At that time my major was prelaw – and I was bored. I looked into Material’s Logistic Management – an older term for Supply Chain and chose this as my major with two concentrations – Purchasing and Operations. The rest is as they say, history. Thank goodness Purchasing has evolved, as negotiating is just a minute portion, but for this young adult it made all the difference.
How did you get to where you are today?
I put in long career hours, learning everything I could from so many. My thirst for knowledge is still vast and that keeps me going and enjoying what I do. I also had some great mentors and some not so good leaders and coworkers. All of these individuals have taught me lessons in the business world – good and bad. I firmly believe that everyone has something to teach us – we just need to listen, process and apply it. Sometimes we internalize the lessons we learn and others we let go – but all are learning experiences for ourselves. In the analyst world we called it triangulation – someone can always use the knowledge you have gained and they in turn can impart knowledge to you – though you must listen to learn.
My mentors were the CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, Division Presidents, CPOs, Supply Chain Leaders, Business Unit leads, General Managers, Editors, Analysts, Marketing and Sales professionals and, yes, even many of the suppliers and vendors I have worked closely with over the years. Each has given me a reason to pause and consider at a particular point in time and that has somehow enhanced my career.
Lastly, I have a strong, close immediate family. My grandparents and parents set a great work example early. My parents continue to be a source of inspiration for me. My sister is an amazing woman in Technology and Consulting and a constant source of ideas as I listen to her stories. My husband, while in a very different profession, is awesome – he listens, coaches and gives me strength to achieve even more than I did yesterday. And lastly, Delta Gamma has taught me to be the best I can be, all the time and in every way possible.
Who do you see as leaders (female) within the supply chain industry?
I have broken up the leaders in a few categories because I think it is helpful in terms of their leadership and current positions.
Marketing
- Andrea Brody, BravoSolution
- Christine Crandell, New Business Strategies
- Elaine Benfield, Ariba/SAP
- Allison Crawford, Supply Chain Insights
Analysts
- Lora Cecere, Supply Chain Insights
- Noha Tohamy, Gartner
- Dana Stiffler, Gartner
- Maggie Slowick, Procurement Leaders
Procurement
- Lisa Martin, Teva Pharmaceuticals
- Stephanie Sklar Financial Services
- Cynthia Dautrich, Kimberly Clark
- Cathy Herr, Eli Lilly
Risk
- Jessica Sanchez, CR Bard
- Rose Kelly-Falls, Rapid Ratings
- Edna Conway, Cisco Systems
Supply Chain
- Linda Santus Topping, Colgate
- Stacey Lallier, J&J
- Kate Vitasek, University of Tennessee
What opportunities do you see for women in the supply chain?
The opportunity is vast. As more and more companies outsource, the supply chains become more complex. The complexity means that great technology becomes even more critical to ensure proper visibility, actionable solutions and knowledge management. Rolling this all together requires the soft skills of managing relationships internally as well as externally with our partners, the industry and also to manage the messages to the market. While business has traditionally been a man’s world, more and more women are now in businesses. Most women by nature have been relationship builders. They encourage, collaborate and innovate with others for the best outcome. It is only natural that these tendencies gravitate to the business world and most importantly into Supply Chain.
Challenges?
The challenges for women remain the same – breaking into the man’s world. While many women have done it, to be really successful women need to utilize some of the components of Lean In! In addition, women must be comfortable staking a claim on their position, working from this position as a leader and a coworker so that the company can achieve it greatest results. In many cases I know I have worked just as hard if not more so than my male coworkers, but I have also come to appreciate the lessons these men have taught me – work smarter, not harder; give it your all and expect perfection; take risks – never be afraid to fail because it is in failure you learn your greatest lesson and can apply it in the future; and always believe in yourself.
A final thought here is that we all can’t be perfect, but we can expect the best, believe in the best, give our best and achieve excellence. But you have to DO IT!
Any advice for women considering the supply chain?
Yes, go for it! The Supply Chain world needs you! Look at University programs such as Michigan State, Penn State, Rutgers, University of Texas, Arizona State University are just a few of a huge laundry list that ISM has on their website. In addition, groups like CSCMP, Procurement Leaders, ISM, SIG and many others offer continuing education courses to enhance your knowledge of Supply Chain. And for those that like to read, there are many great books out there (I am happy to supply a few of my favorites).
Any advice for the industry itself?
Yes, embrace women in Supply Chain. Their abilities are superb and when you select the right one, she can bring your company greater value than ever imagined. But you must watch, listen, learn, coach and offer opportunities to excel. And lastly, be a mentor to those that have a spark, work hard and apply themselves to make a difference. Man or woman, the Supply Chain of the future depends upon the perfect mix of talent. And as we know, Supply Chain talent is experiencing a shortage.
Mickey North Rizza is VP, Strategic Services at BravoSolution, assisting clients to bring & deliver more impactful value in Procurement, Sourcing and Supplier Relationship Management. She developed the first Procurement alignment tool, called BravoAlign that has aided many clients on their supply management excellence journey.
Prior to joining BravoSolution, Mickey was a Research Director for the Procurement and Sourcing practice of the Supply Chain Team at Gartner and AMR Research. She was an award winning supply chain analyst during her 7 year tenure and is still a highly popular thought leader and speaker in Supply Management.
Prior to becoming an analyst Mickey was a practitioner for 22 years. Her practitioner career includes Moduslink Corporation, where she held the positions of Vice President of Global Supply Base Management and Director of Procurement and Sourcing. At Moduslink, she was responsible for implementing strategic sourcing programs, driving strategic positioning of procurement and materials in Europe and the Americas, and introducing new procurement technology.
Mickey also worked as a Materials Manager at M/A-Com, Inc. a division of Tyco International. While at M/A-Com, Mickey developed and implemented strategic procurement plans and integrated roadmaps to accompany a supply chain model. In addition, she introduced a pilot manufacturing resource management system.
During her career, Mickey also worked as a Purchasing Manager at Advanced Techcom, Inc., Innova Corporation and Motorola; and was also a buyer & sourcing agent at AM General, a division of LTV Missiles and Electronics and Grumman Olson.
Mickey is a member of the Institute for Supply ManagementTM. She is a founding member of the ISM Supply Chain Risk Management Group, which she chairs for 2015. She was voted Top Female Supply Chain Executive 2013. Mickey is an active nonprofit volunteer with her work at ISM, as a Delta Gamma Foundation Trustee and Secretary (2006-2009) and her past board work with Lowell’s Boat Shop in her home town of Amesbury, MA.
Mickey earned a B.A. in Materials Logistic Management from Michigan State University.
![The supply chain gender gap [Infographic]](https://fronetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/supply-chain-gender-gap.jpg)
by Fronetics | May 26, 2015 | Blog, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
The number of women who work full-time in the workforce is up 15% since 1979. In the manufacturing sector, the story is very different. The number of men working in the manufacturing sector has increased, while the number of women working in the sector has declined. The number of women in the sector now stands at the lowest it has been since 1971.
Looking more broadly at the supply chain industry, it is clear that there is a significant gender gap. Between 70% and 80% of positions within the supply chain industry are held by men and 95% of top level supply chain positions within Fortune 500 companies are held by men. By comparison, men hold 85% of all executive officer positions within Fortune 500 companies.
The dearth of women working, at all levels, in the supply chain is not because women do not have the skillset and ability to succeed within the industry. Women are as capable as men when it comes to working within the supply chain industry. Indeed, it has been put forth that women are better suited for roles in supply chain management than men. Research conducted by SCM World found that the majority of men (63%) and women (75%) believe that the natural skillsets of women differ from those of men and that these differences are advantageous for supply chain management. Similarly, new research by McKinsey & Company found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15%more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.
The talent gap; an opportunity
According to Supply Chain Insights 60% of companies within the supply chain industry have job openings and 51% of companies are seeing an increase in turnover of supply chain leaders. Looking ahead, there are an estimated 1.4 million new supply chain workers needed by 2018 and the Bureau of Labor and Statistics predicts that the number of logistics jobs is expected to grow by 22 percent by 2022 – nearly double the rate of other professions. The supply chain talent gap arguably presents an opportunity to increase the number of women in positions throughout the supply chain and close the gender gap. The big question is how.
Addressing the gender gap
Here are 4 ways the supply chain industry can address the gender gap:
1. Increase visibility and tackle the image problem
93% of most companies’ supply chain is invisible. This statistic could also be used to reflect the number of people who know what the supply chain industry is; few people outside of the industry know what the supply chain is and what career opportunities there are. This needs to change.
To attract new talent the industry needs to make people aware of the supply chain – what it is, the integral role it plays in business, and the various opportunities there are within the industry.
2. Rethink talent acquisition and promotion
Within the supply chain industry the typical path up the corporate ladder has started out on the shop floor. If the industry is going to attract women and new talent companies need to look not only beyond their four walls, but also outside of the industry itself. When it comes to talent acquisition smart companies focus on the qualities of the individual and what they can bring to the table.
3. Move from talk to action
Battalia Winston’s Susan Medina and Peter Gomez point out that: companies without a proactive diversity-building strategy will fall victim to common-pitfalls and will fall flat.
“It’s important to acknowledge that diversity building is a proven growth strategy, not a superficial endeavor. But paying lip service to diversity and inclusion without a proactive strategy will lead to failure. Organizations need to prioritize, collaborate, and think long term.”
4. Take control
Women tend only to apply for jobs that they feel they are a 100% match; men do so even when they meet no more than 60% of the requirements. Similarly, men tend to be promoted more often than women simply because they speak up and ask for a promotion.
Women need to take responsibility for themselves and for their own careers. Women need to apply for jobs with confidence, even when they don’t have 100% of the requirements. They also need to speak up and ask for a promotion.
Kevin O’Marah, Chief Content Officer at SCM World, sums up the issue of the supply chain gender gap nicely: “Women in supply chain are too few, and their path to the top is at least partially blocked. Yet we all seem to think they bring something to the party that will make it better. The time to break this problem down is now.”
by Fronetics | May 25, 2015 | Blog, Strategy
M&A can be a strategic move to increase visibility, efficiency, and profits, as well as a smart way to plug missing capabilities within a company, reach new markets, and expand geographically. M&A activity in the past few years has been bustling in all sectors, seeing a rise in both the number of deals and the valuation of them. Given our awareness that so many deals can fall through for various reasons ranging from objections from regulators and consumer advocates to an unraveling of confidence within the two companies, the amount of deals that have recently been attempted and successfully completed is impressive.
In A Comprehensive Guide to Mergers & Acquisitions: Managing the Critical Success Factors Across Every Stage of the M&A Process, that authors point out that: “many research studies conducted over the decades clearly show that the rate of failures is at least 50 percent. In surveys conducted in recent years, the percentage of companies that failed to achieve the goals of the merger reached 83 percent.” If the odds are so great, and the payoff may not be fully beneficial, why has M&A been booming? Will we see the bubble burst in the coming years?
The M&A Boom
According to the 2014 Deloitte M&A Trends Report, “activity had flagged in 2012 amid economic malaise in certain European markets and key emerging markets, as well as uncertainty about health care and other regulatory and legislative matters in the United States.” In 2013, with the economy slowly seeing signs of improvement, M&A activity also started to strengthen.
As stated by Big Four auditor PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2014 was a very strong year for M&A and 2015 is set to follow suit. Robert McCutcheon, PWC’s U.S. industrial products leader, claims, “CEOs are more optimistic about the state of the U.S. economy and growth prospects domestically. That CEO confidence coupled with historically low commodity prices, new advanced technologies and a skilled U.S. labor force will likely continue to give the U.S. industrial products sector competitive advantage in the marketplace. We believe that the U.S. manufacturing resurgence will also continue and M&A will be a big part of the industry’s growth prospect going forward.”
Thompson Reuters’ recent Mergers and Acquisitions Review indicated that worldwide M&A had increased by 47% from 2013 to 2014, and that North American M&A increased by 55% during this period. With many pointing to continued economic improvement for the rest of 2015 and into the coming years, and with 84% of corporate executives anticipating “a sustained, if not accelerated, pace of M&A activity in the next 24 months”, when might we see the mighty growth of M&A plateau or decline?
Recent Failures
One of the most current failures in manufacturing came when the Department of Justice found that combining business between American company, Applied Materials, and Japanese company, Tokyo Electron, would “restrict competition”. The $10 million deal fell through in late April. With so many requirements, restrictions, and reviews of high dollar deals, these disappointments are commonplace.
Despite megadeals – transactions worth more than a billion dollars—rising from 62 in 2013 to 95 in 2014, many larger companies attempt but can not successfully complete an M&A deal. Perhaps the year’s largest M&A collapse came when regulators and consumer advocates prevented a $4.5 billion deal between Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
Over the years there have been many unsuccessful M&A deals. New York Times article As Big Merger Deals Boom, So Do Big Failures, author William Alden points to some of the largest megadeals gone awry, with many of the most expensive deals collapsing in 2014. However, it makes sense proportionately that with more attempts each year will come more failures.
Predictions
Some people see the wave of optimistic financial news continuing into the next few years, while others worry about the coming year— an election year. In his Forbes article, author Michael Schwerdtfeger, writes, “one thing markets hate is uncertainty, and shifting expectations of the political future can impact uncertainty levels. Expect 2016 to be a much slower year for dealmaking than 2015 as buyers try to predict the election outcome.” As we enter the election campaign season, we’ll see if the political uncertainty, does, in fact, shift the impressive growth of M&A deals.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors provides M&A support to companies of all sizes. Our firm is able to execute from target identification through post-deal integration and value creation. At Fronetics Strategic Advisors we work with our clients to build and capture value.
by Fronetics | May 11, 2015 | Blog, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
Demand for supply chain professionals exceeds supply by a ratio of six to one. Looking forward, it appears that demand for supply chain professionals will only increase. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that demand for supply chain talent will increase by 26 percent between 2010 and 2020 – a growth rate that is twice as fast as 14 percent of all occupations.
In response to the demand for supply chain professionals, universities have introduced undergraduate majors, MBA concentrations and even entire degree programs dedicated to procurement, inventory management and global supply-chain strategy. The Wall Street Journal has gone so far as to declare supply chain management the “hot new MBA.”
The University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics is one university which offers MBA courses focused on supply chain management. Students in the school’s Supply Chain Management MBA course learn how to design, plan, and operate supply chains for competitive advantage; develop an understanding of how the key drivers of supply chain operations can be used to improve performance; and develop knowledge of logistics and supply chain methodologies and the managerial context in which they are used.
For the second year, Fronetics Strategic Advisors has had the opportunity to work with students in the school’s Supply Chain Management MBA course. Our work with the students focused on the the role and importance of content for companies within the supply chain industry.
This post begins a series which will include topical supply chain management articles written by MBA students. The students are inclusive of full-time graduate students and professionals who attend the MBA program part-time. The articles point to the diversity of this group of students as well as to the student’s breadth of knowledge on supply chain issues.
Thank you to the students and to Russell Miles, faculty lecturer in the Decision Sciences Department at the University of New Hampshire’s Paul College of Business and Economics. We enjoyed working with you and look forward to working together again next year.
