by Fronetics | Dec 21, 2016 | Blog, Diversity, Leadership, Logistics, Manufacturing & Distribution, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
Women hold just 15% of all executive officer positions within Fortune 500 companies, yet research consistently shows that when women are in positions of leadership, companies perform better. In the supply chain industry, just 5% of top-level supply chain positions within Fortune 500 companies are held by women.
As a woman working within the supply chain industry, I believe that it is important to discuss the lack of gender diversity and point to research highlighting why the industry needs to increase the number of women in all positions, including the C-suite. It is just as important to highlight the incredible women who already are working within the industry.
In 2015 I interviewed Cathy Morris, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Arrow Electronics, and Mickey North Rizza, vice president of strategic services at BravoSolution. Morris was twice named one of the “Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology,” and North Rizza was named a “Top Female Supply Chain Executive.” Both Morris and North Rizza shared how they got started in the industry, and the steps they have taken to get to where they are today.
In 2016 I interviewed Kendrea Durr-Smith, director of global trade compliance at Arrow Electronics, Kelli Saunders, President of Morai Logistics, Hailey McKeefry, editor and chief at EBN, and Barbara Jorgensen, co-founder and managing editor, EPS News. I also invited Tania Seary, founder of Procurious, to share what is happening at her company, and Jennifer Cortez, director of marketing and communications at Transplace, to discuss the role of quality content within the industry.
Here are the most-read women in the supply chain posts of 2016.
It was a “fluke” that Kelli Saunders found the supply chain industry. More than 30 years later, Saunders is president of Morai Logistics Inc., an Authorized Agent of Mode Transportation. Read more.
When Arrow Electronics came across Kendrea Durr-Smith, senior leader of export control audits, training, and communications at Honeywell Aerospace, on LinkedIn, the company was impressed with what she had accomplished in her nine years there. Now Arrow’s Director of Global Trade Compliance for the last four years, Durr-Smith has led a group that is both unique and diverse, and has helped to shepherd in significant changes. Read more.
Data shows that gender equality has improved in recent decades, such as the 15% increase of women working full time in the workforce since 1979. But there is still much progress to be made. As a recent UN Working Group mission to the US to explore discrimination against women found: “In the US, women fall behind international standards as regards [to] their public and political representation, their economic and social rights, and their health and safety protections.” Read more.
Women within the supply chain industry are doing incredible things. Here are some of their stories. Read more.
While there remains a gender gap in the supply chain industry, progress has been made. McKeefry is a clear example of progress. Her internship at EBN in 1990 was a “minority internship,” and today, 26 years later, she holds a leadership position within the company. Read more.
Barbara Jorgensen has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist, working for leading electronics industry publications such as Electronic Business, Electronic Buyers’ News, and EDN. She is the co-founder and managing editor of EPS News. Read more.
This is a guest post written by Tania Seary, founder of Procurious, the world’s first online social network for supply chain and procurement professionals. Seary shares how she has built Procurious. Read more.
This is a guest post by Jennifer Cortez, Director, Marketing Communications, Transplace. Cortez discusses how Transplace, a North American non-asset-based provider offering manufacturers, retailers, chemical and consumer packaged goods companies the optimal blend of logistics technology and transportation management services, has used content marketing and she offers up 3 tips for creating valuable and compelling content. Read more.
by Fronetics | Dec 20, 2016 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
The 10 most popular talent posts of 2016.
The start of a new year generally brings with it a host of resolutions. For individuals finding and landing a new job, or advancing in their current job are common resolutions. For companies, identifying talent, hiring, and retaining great talent are typical goals for the new year.
We’ve assembled our top 10 talent posts of 2016. We hope these posts help you and/or your company overcome challenges, and your achieve goals.
A veteran recruiter explains where the supply chain talent shortage is headed and how companies can overcome the challenges. Read more.
This guest post by Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement, asks the question: If there is a Supply Chain talent deficit, why are so many people in the field having trouble finding work? Read more.
The global supply chain is continuously evolving, offering new opportunities as demands shift and new technologies are born. But how do you evolve with it? We offer 5 things you can do to advance your logistics or supply chain career. Read more.
LinkedIn offers immeasurable opportunity for recruiting premium talent. But how do you begin weeding through the network’s more-than-433-million candidates? Here are some techniques — both free and fee-based — on using LinkedIn to find professionals who match your company’s open positions. Read more.
Networking can do more than help you find your next job opportunity; it can make you smarter, happier, and more financially stable. Read more.
Building a stronger relationship between academia and the supply chain industry is one way to solve the growing talent gap. If your company is looking to hire, consider strengthening your rapport with schools that offer supply chain programs or specialties. Read more.
If your job has left you to feeling stuck in a rut, try these steps to improve your professional life. Read more.
Your business is growing, and it is time to hire. That means facing the challenge and overcoming the fact that there is a dearth of supply chain talent. Growth is very common right now, as job titles evolve and shift due to the rapid changes in supply chain management and new technological requirements. So more talent is in demand as many businesses try to remain competitive. Seek out candidates with these skills and experiences when hiring new supply chain talent. Read more.
This guest post by SCM Talent Group, a national supply chain recruiting and executive search firm, discusses a new webinar series centered around the talent aspects of the supply chain discipline. The purpose of this series is to provide low-cost, high-impact solutions and advice that employers, hiring managers, and HR partners can implement in efforts to improve their abilities in attracting, hiring, and retaining top supply chain talent. Read more.
Family businesses can be a source of pride and fulfillment. But, often, they are rife with unprecedented turmoil. Working for a family business presents unique challenges that require special tactics to keep things professional (and to keep the peace). Read more.
by Jennifer Hart Yim | Dec 6, 2016 | Big Data, Blog, Data/Analytics, Leadership, Logistics, Strategy, Supply Chain, Transportation & Trucking, Warehousing & Materials Handling
Supply chain leaders must be ready to implement big data in order to continuously improve.
This guest post comes to us from Adam Robinson, director of marketing for Cerasis, a top freight logistics company and truckload freight broker.
Supply chain leaders are enthralled with the idea of using big data, but they tend to fail to understand how to disseminate big data in their organization properly. True, they may know how to roll out big data in a single warehouse, or they may have heard their competitors used branded systems for implementing this new technology. However, the fundamental problem remains.
Supply chain leaders must be ready to implement big data and leverage it to improve their companies without any delay or inhibition. This may sound impossible and frightening, but they must only understand how big data always goes back to these two, simple principles of measurement: review and action.
Ask traditional questions, and let big data provide answers.
The most common complaint of newer companies using big data analytics capabilities tends to revolve around traditional questions of business strategy. Consider the following elements explains John Richardson of Inbound Logistics, that impact business strategy.
- Increasing order efficiency.
- Demand forecasts.
- The quantity of each product.
- Inventory location and management.
- Raw material suppliers and logistics.
- Transportation modes used in procurement and shipping.
- Distribution of goods prior to purchase.
- Demand fluctuations.
Each of these elements more traditionally handles by outsourcing analysis of processes to supply chain consultant. This is actually where the concept of third-party logistics providers involved. However, rapid growth and diversification of products are making shippers, manufacturers, and suppliers rethink their business strategy. In other words, consumers can get practically anything they want at a moment’s notice, and more consumers are expressing a willingness to wait for a product a few days if free shipping is a possibility. So, this need to adapt operations reflects the common concerns of traditional customers and supply chain entities. However, there is a distinction.
Previously, these entities only needed to focus on their local demographic for ensuring continued stability. But the rise of the internet has given consumers and everyone else the ability to access any product from any seller and any place on the globe. This is a traditional business strategy, and it is essential that the modern supply chain is willing to use big data all operations to create a more positive result than consumers, stakeholders or government organization ever needed before.
Performance measurement and management.
As explained in a previous blog post, continuous improvement in an organization can be achieved through the use of performance measurement tools via big data. Mostly, this reflects the skills and actual working capacity of employees. Since employees represent one of the largest expenses an organization may face.
Having the best staff members available can mean the difference between success or failure in a company. Furthermore, big data can help employees understand what they do and do not need to do in order to improve their performance scores. This will also help to prevent oversight from managers and keep all employees on track to complete their responsibilities as assigned.
Performance measurement does not have to be limited to the performance of employees either. It can be expanded to identify poorly performing machines, or it can be used to isolate inefficiencies in collaboration with suppliers or vendors. Ultimately, performance measurement is a metaphor for tracking any metric in the course of the supply chain, but it’s key to being effective is found in transferring the insights gleaned from big data into actionable results.
For example the operational efficiency of a given loading is directly related to how quickly pickers are able to fulfill orders and move them onto the dock. Obviously trucks can only be loaded so fast; what is the number of pickers appropriate for the current workload, or which route through the factory is adding an extra 20 minutes to each worker’s duties?
These questions illustrate that the most insignificant details can be driving forces of inefficiency in the supply chain. But they represent opportunities for continuous improvement. Changes in the design or layout of the warehouse or alterations to the truck schedule may require changing the duties of a certain worker at a moment’s notice. Essentially, the worker must be able to access continuous data measurements on all factors affecting his or her responsibilities.
Supply chain leaders need to focus on continuous improvement.
Continuous improvement is a complex notion. It is based on hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands, of individual metrics from various collection points and analyzed in real time. All of this reflects a very large volume of data. It can be digested and broken down into usable bits, much like the biological processes of the stomach making it essential to surviving the coming season.
This comparison is much more than a metaphor; it is the real issue being faced by supply chain entities and their leaders. Supply chain leaders must use big data to gather insight and create quantifiable measures of performance and functionality across their enterprises on a recurring, frequent and immediate basis.
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by Fronetics | Nov 17, 2016 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy
A look at the world’s top business leaders show they possess both financial savvy and personal acumen.
We measure today’s top business leaders on a variety of scales, including personal acumen and their company’s financial performance. Regardless of how a leader is gauged, one thing is clear: 21st century leaders must have strong engagement and stellar interpersonal skills on multiple fronts — from the numbers to corporate responsibility to how to best motivate employees.
The Harvard Business Review suggests the world’s best-performing CEOs share three crucial traits: long-term thinking, short-term savvy, and a relentless focus on employees. HBR’s annual data-driven annual survey of top CEOS in the world weighs companies with an 80/20 formula — 80% based on financial performance, and 20% based on ESG (environment, social, and corporate governance performance).
The top leaders, by the numbers
The tension between short- and long-term decision-making affects top leaders’ financial performance, since overall strength is not based on a single positive financial quarter, HBR reports, but rather the cumulative effect of consecutive strong quarters.
“They really are running today’s business while trying to create tomorrow’s business,” Dan McGinn, senior editor at Harvard Business Review, said in a recent podcast about how CEOs manage the challenges of focusing on long- and short-term growth of business. “They’re dealing with a very fast-changing global landscape.”
The top three business leaders in HBR’s survey — Lars Rebien Sorenson of Novo Nordisk, Martin Sorrell of WPP, and Pablo Isla of Inditex — all had different paths to the top, although 84% of CEOs are promoted from within. Only 24% of HBR’s top leaders have an MBA, signaling that the coveted business degree is not integral to becoming a top leader. Of note is that only one of the top 10 HBR leaders is from the United States — Jen-Hsun Huang of Nvidia — because of the generally lower ESG numbers for U.S.-based companies, McGinn said in the podcast. None of the top 10 are women.
The metric commonly referred to as “Corporate Responsibility,” ESG importance is rising in the United States, but is still outpaced by European companies. This is only the second year that the HBR survey included ESG, which resulted in Amazon CEP Jeff Bezos dropping from the top 10 to number 76 on HBR’s list.
According to a recent study by Callan Associates Inc., 29% of U.S.-based asset owners incorporate ESG risk factors into their investment decisions, up from 22% in 2013. This demonstrates the small but growing role of ESG.
Focus on millennials
In addition to being on top of the ever-changing socio-political world, top business leaders may have to consider a shift in their corporate culture because of the rising number of millennials in the workforce.
Forbes estimates that by 2020, millennials will comprise nearly 50% of the workforce. Successful business leaders need to know how to best motivate and manage this workforce segment who, according to HBR’s McGinn, have different sets of values and different ways of thinking about their careers. Companies today have to adapt their culture to this growing part of the workforce, he says.
Leadership traits that stand the test of time
Industrialist Andrew Carnegie, often credited with being one of the world’s most successful business leaders, met with journalist Napoleon Hill early in the 20th century to relay what would become his “31 Traits That All Business Leaders Have,” a guidepost for those looking to follow in Carnegie’s footsteps.
The personality traits, although more than 100 years old, are still relevant in today’s business world.
Hill published two books that included Carnegie’s traits: Think and Grow Rich (1937), and Think Your Way to Wealth from 1948. He posited that top traits of great leaders include:
- Having a company purpose and a plan for attaining it
- Being motivated
- Coordinating efforts with talented workers
- Being disciplined, persistent, creative and decisive
- Being diplomatic and tactful, enthusiastic and likable
- And treating others with respect
The top traits have stood the test of time and, mixed with the significance of today’s financial and corporate responsibility, create the ideal 21st century business leader.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Sep 8, 2016 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy
Stop wasting your team’s time by implementing these tips for running more effective meetings.
Let’s face it: Meetings can suck. A poorly planned and executed meeting is a waste of time and money, and it can be demoralizing. Meetings shouldn’t be like this. Here are nine tips on how to plan and how to run an effective meeting.
1. Define purpose
Every meeting should have a purpose. Meetings are often set up to happen on a recurring basis. The reality is that many times these meetings take place solely because they are in our calendars. If there is no reason to hold the weekly meeting this Wednesday, cancel it.
2. Focus
Have a clearly defined, singular focus. This keeps the meeting on track. If a meeting has more than one focus, it is likely that one issue will be covered in far greater detail than the other, that the meeting will get off track, and/or none of the issues will be adequately addressed.
3. Prepare
Do your homework. Prior to every meeting, make sure you have read anything you should have read, and that you have completed any tasks that you should have completed. Additionally, know the lay of the land. For example, if the meeting is about the company budget and your employees are anxious over budget cuts, be prepared to address your employees’ anxieties.
4. Invite
It sounds simple but bears repeating: Invite those who should attend, and do not invite people who should not be there. For example, if the focus of the meeting is sales, make sure you invite the sales team. Or, if the focus of the meeting is the performance of your HR team, don’t invite your research and development team.
5. Leverage technology
Technology abounds, and you should utilize it. Getting everyone in the same room is no longer necessary. Take advantage of technology such as Speek, Skype, and GoToMeeting.
6. Communicate
An effective meeting is not a place for you to download or transfer information. If you present information in a manner that speaks to attendees, you will motivate your employees and create buy-in. (The Heart of Change, by Jon Kotter and Dan Cohen, is a great resource on effective communication.)
7. Time management
Create an agenda and stick to it. Start the meeting on time, and end the meeting on time. A meeting that is scheduled for 10:00-11:00 should not run from 10:15 to 11:15. Furthermore, if a meeting is scheduled for 1 hour, the meeting should last one hour or less. There is no need to try and fill the last 15 minutes if the agenda has been covered.
8. Facilitate
A meeting needs a leader. If it is your meeting, lead it. Leading does not mean speaking at people for an hour; instead it means facilitating the agenda. If an important but off-topic issue is raised during the meeting, don’t allow the meeting to go off on a tangent. Instead, acknowledge the importance of the issue and establish a time to address the particular issue. Handled correctly, your employees will not view this as blowing off their input, but rather they will value the fact that you will allot the necessary time to the issue.
Facilitating the meeting also means not allowing one person to monopolize the meeting. Give everyone the opportunity to provide input, and speak up if the agenda is being hijacked.
9. Action
At the end of the meeting review the action items. Make sure the right people are in charge of each item, that they know what they need to do, and that they know when the task needs to be completed.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Sep 5, 2016 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy, Talent
Some companies include failure as a performance metric, but establishing a culture of innovation is a better inflection point for success.
Media executive Jason Seiken is known for taking the Washington Post online and for turning PBS into a digital media powerhouse. Several years ago, he wrote an article, How I Got My Team To Fail More, which described his efforts at PBS to create an entrepreneurial culture by requiring members of the digital team to fail. Seiken wrote:
“Soon after arriving at PBS, I called the digital team into a conference room and announced we were ripping up everyone’s annual performance goals and adding a new metric. Failure. With a twist: ‘If you don’t fail enough times during the coming year,’ I told every staffer, ‘you’ll be downgraded.’ Because if you’re not failing enough, you’re playing it safe. The idea was to deliver a clear message: Move fast. Iterate fast. Be entrepreneurial. Don’t be afraid that if you stretch and sprint you might break things. Executive leadership has your back.”
Five years after introducing the failure metric to PBS, unique visitors to PBS.org doubled, and in each of the first seven months of 2013, PBS.org was the most-visited network TV site (beating out ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox). Additionally, video views on PBS.org and PBS.org’s mobile platforms rose 11,200%.
Was requiring failure the key to success? Not all those who read the post believed so. Rather, many readers suggested that the creation of a culture of innovation, one supported by executive leadership, was the inflection point for success.
The idea that innovation in business or an entrepreneurial culture is brought about by leadership is one put forth by many, including Robert J. Herbold. In his book What’s Holding You Back: 10 Bold Steps that Define Gutsy Leaders, Herbold submits that it is the responsibility of a leader to establish a culture of innovation. That is, a leader must communicate a goal of innovation to his/her employees; encourage employees to aspire to innovation; reward innovation; and instill a sense of urgency.
I see innovation and entrepreneurism as the goal and not failure. For this reason I believe the focus should not be on failure, but instead should be establishing a culture which supports innovation. Yes risk-taking and failure are likely components of innovation, but they are just that — components. “Requiring failure” may be sexy, but I believe supporting innovation is more likely to be the game changer.
What do you think? Is failure a requirement for success? Should leadership focus on encouraging failure?
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