by Fronetics | Apr 18, 2016 | Blog, Leadership, Marketing, Supply Chain
Hailey McKeefry began her career in the supply chain industry in 1990 as an intern at EBN. After quickly rising to the position of assistant editor, McKeefry left EBN and the industry to cover enterprise computing. In 2012, she returned to the supply chain and to EBN as managing editor, and in 2014, she was promoted to her current role, editor in chief.
McKeefry’s decision to return to the supply chain industry was driven by the changing perception of the industry and an interest to get involved.
“I saw that the supply chain as a topic was taking center stage in the business world. Companies like Apple, Cisco and others live and die by their supply chain decisions. Clearly, procurement and supply chain now have a seat at the strategic table and are making real bottom-line contributions that are being recognized and valued.”
Four years later, McKeefry remains enthusiastic about the industry and about her role:
“I love the work because it provides an opportunity to talk about people, processes and technology, and to tackle a variety of topics from sustainability and human rights to technology and good business practices. I enjoy the opportunity to create room for important conversations around leveraging new technology, managing risk, and implementing good business practices.”
Women in the supply chain industry
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.
McKeefry is not alone. At industry events McKeefry sees more female faces than she used to, and she has started to see women in high-powered positions. She points to: Dawn Tiura, CEO of the Sourcing Interest Group (SIG), Deborah Wilson of Gartner, Christina Ruggiero, CPO of Coca-Cola Refreshment, and Jennifer Moceri, senior vice president/chief procurement officer at Tate & Lyle.
In March McKeefry interviewed Fluke Electronics’ Amy Georgi, the first woman to be named the Megawatt winner in the 30 Under 30 Rising Supply Chain Stars recognition program, a jointly sponsored initiative of ThomasNet and Institute for Supply Management (ISM).
McKeefry believes that the changes within the supply chain industry are largely being driven by a “high-level awareness of the importance of closing the gender gap and, more importantly, efforts by many organizations to create opportunities to attract and retain female talent.” Another driving force McKeefry points to is research which shows that organizations with female leadership, or at least a board that has a good gender balance, do better financially.
“Forward-thinking organizations,” points out McKeefry, “are creating opportunities for women by providing mentors and role models, opportunities for advancement, and a chance to think creatively about how jobs are structured.”
“What’s important to note,” McKeefry continues, “is that all of this is also on the wishlist for millennial workers, as well, making it a solid business strategy.”
Despite these positive changes, McKeefry shares that young women still have a hard time finding a female role model and mentor in the supply chain industry. She notes that “it becomes a chicken-and-egg situation of women needing role models before they can become role models themselves.”
What advice does McKeefry have for women considering entering the industry?
“Don’t be afraid to pursue leadership positions and to embrace your own gifts, strengths, and experience to the industry. Make sure that the organization knows (in bottom-line dollars and cents) how supply chain professionals are contributing in strategic ways to the bottom line of the organization, and about how your leadership is part of that. It’s been well documented that quietly contributing doesn’t move a supply chain career forward.”
As a broad generalization, women contribute in unique ways to building the critical relationships within the organization, and that can’t be underestimated. In short, I don’t think women in the supply chain industry should emulate men, but instead should leverage the unique qualities that they bring to the good of the organization.
Relevant articles by McKeefry:
by Fronetics | Apr 7, 2016 | Blog, Leadership, Logistics, Strategy, Supply Chain
As part of our series on trailblazing women in the supply chain industry, I interviewed Barbara Jorgensen, co-founder and managing editor, Electronics Purchasing Strategies (EPS). 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.
As a freelance writer, Barb wrote and managed an award-winning custom publication for Sager Electronics; was a leading contributor to Avnet Global Perspectives magazine; was a regular columnist for the National Electronics Distributors Association monthly newsletter; and wrote for industry associations such as IPC. Barb was also a featured blogger on the B2B Website Allbusiness.com and helped launch Electronics Sourcing North America, a start-up magazine serving purchasing professionals in the Americas.
Prior to her freelance career, Jorgensen was a senior editor at Electronic Business, the pre-eminent management magazine for the electronics industry, featuring world-class manufacturing companies such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco and Flextronics International. Before joining EB for the second time, Barb spent six years with Electronic Buyers’ News as managing editor, distribution, winning several awards for coverage of the distribution beat. A graduate of the University of Binghamton, Barb began her journalism career with the Gannett newspaper chain. She has worked for a number of local newspapers in the Greater Boston area and trade journal publishers Reed Business Information and UBM.
How long have you worked in the supply chain industry?
I’d measure my specific supply chain experience with the publication of my first feature on electronics distribution in 1989. After copy editing for a leading electronics industry magazine for a couple of years the editors suggested I use my journalism experience to do some writing. I profiled Marshall Industries, a top-tier distributor at that time, and its founder, Gordon Marshall, who passed away last year.
How did you choose (or end up) working within the industry?
In high school and college, I specialized in journalism and had been writing features and covering town government for a Boston-area daily newspaper. The schedule was grueling, so I applied for work at a trade magazine publisher. This eventually led to being assigned the electronics distribution beat. I made it my goal to understand the business inside and out, and that expertise helped establish my credentials in the industry.
Two of the leading distributors now generate revenue in excess of $20 billion per year; I was calling on them before they reached their first $1 billion.
Although I never expected to become an expert in the electronics supply chain, the growth of the industry and my expertise has enabled a solid career path.
Let’s talk about EPS. How did EPS come about?
Electronics Purchasing Strategies – soon to be called EPSNews – was driven by several external events taking place in trade publishing. A few years prior to EPS, which started publishing online in 2013, the last purchasing publication in the industry closed its doors. Trade publishers were also laying off editors as they moved more content online. My two colleagues and I – Gina Roos and Bolaji Ojo – found ourselves unemployed all at the same time.
Given the under-representation of purchasing in the trade media, we decided to come together and start an online publication. Our reputation in the electronics industry helped us secure our first advertisers. We have been fortunate enough to support the publication primarily through advertising and newsletters since.
Where is EPS today?
While we were assessing our business model after three years we discovered we weren’t keeping pace with some of the dynamics of online publishing. Although our content has always been well received we weren’t getting as much ‘bang for the buck’ as we should have vis-a-vis SEO because of the way we developed our site. Although our content won’t change—we are focused on deep analysis of the entire supply chain from design through recycling – emphasizing the news aspect of our coverage will attract a wider audience and result in better organic growth.
Revenue-wise we have grown every year since our inception; 2015 was our best year so far, growing in the mid-double-digits.
What goals do you have for the company?
We’d like to expand. Our audience has largely been based in the U.S. because that is the market we know best, but clearly electronics procurement in the Far East continues to expand. The electronics markets in Europe remains steady and, let’s face it, the supply chain is global. So EPSNews would like to devote resources toward building an audience in the EU, the Far East, and relevant geographies in between.
Have you seen a change in the number of women entering the industry and/or contributing to the industry?
Absolutely. When I began my writing career in the tech industry there were fewer women in trade publishing – most of the women I networked with then were in marketing and PR. But that changed pretty rapidly at least on the media side during the 1990s. I’d say by then there was a 50-50 split between women and men in key editorial positions. In the electronics industry, however, there were few women executives. The first woman CEO of a major distribution company was Harriet Green, named CEO of Premier Farnell in 2006. Prior to that there were a handful of women in C-level positions – I know if I mention names I will forget someone – which was extremely encouraging. These days I see more women at industry forums such as EDS and at the ECIA conference than ever before, and they are in management positions.
Have you seen a change in the positions women hold within the supply chain industry?
Again, absolutely. Women are holding higher positions in management within my ‘world’—electronics distribution – but even more so within the online/social media companies such as Yahoo that have become so important to all of us. I also recently attended a presentation by a woman who headed the high-tech entrepreneurial business within Foxconn – a Chinese EMS company – who has since moved to Flex.
Any advice for women considering entering the industry?
My advice would be the same for anyone—learn as much as you can upfront. In business journalism, I had to interview CEOs and MBAs and at the beginning that was intimidating. I finally overcame that fear by reading everything I could about the company, the industry and the executive in advance, and I also asked ‘dumb’ questions of people I trusted. I also found that admitting what I didn’t know never hurt me: even the highest executives in the industry were willing to take the time to explain many of the things that make this industry unique. I think in general people are always willing to give someone a ‘hand up.’ I also found that companies like to work with writers that took the time to learn about their business. Knowledge and professionalism are guidelines I’d recommend for anyone.
On a broader level, what trends do you see within the industry?
I think right now there is a lot of turmoil regarding the supply chain as we know it and the implications of conducting business digitally. This applies to how companies work internally and how they are going to market. The supply chain has done a pretty good job at adopting technology to improve internal operations – we haven’t had an inventory glut since 2001. Externally it’s another matter. E-commerce unintentionally set off huge problems in counterfeiting. We are still trying to figure out where social media fits: it looks like ‘free’ advertising – you can generate a lot of attention with a tweet – but you don’t always control your message. Look at the mistakes people make that go viral.
Then there is managing the supply chain online. Business practices within the electronics supply chain haven’t kept up with technology. For example, supplier franchises are still granted on a regional basis – less so than before – but online business doesn’t have any boundaries. I think we are going to see common supply chain practices change as technology accelerates. Geographic boundaries are already crumbling, and there are practices such as ship-from-stock-and-debit; inconsistent global pricing; and demand-creation compensation that are simply inefficient. There’s little room for inefficiency in the digital supply chain.
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by Fronetics | Mar 21, 2016 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy, Supply Chain
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.
Durr-Smith’s department is unique. “The majority of functional departments at Arrow are regional- or site-specific,” she says; “however, because trade compliance is global by nature, our department is global in scope.” This means that Durr-Smith’s team is diverse, and “not just in terms of gender, but also in terms of background and culture. Learning about these differences and learning how we can best work together has, at times, proven challenging, but is critical to success,” she explains.
Success is something Durr-Smith has achieved. Arrow has made significant changes in the last few years in an effort to better support the needs of customers and suppliers. Durr-Smith and her team have assumed new responsibilities with respect to trade management and compliance in order for these new efforts to be ushered in.
To support these corporate changes and her department’s new responsibilities, Durr-Smith’s department has changed. Three of the most recent hires are women. What is exciting to Durr-Smith is how these women got to where they are today.
“Two of the three women we recently hired are self-educated,” she says. “They were interested in trade compliance, and they educated themselves on the field and took steps to make a career change. This is exciting — exciting that they actively wanted to be involved in this field, and exciting that they were proactive in getting to where they are today.”
Durr-Smith’s enthusiasm for these women’s accomplishments is genuine and speaks to her general ethos. When asked what leadership advice she could provide to others, she offered the following:
“Take on new or different responsibilities whenever possible. Place individuals in different functional areas, and focus on the benefits afforded to both the company and the individuals. Also, focus on helping people grow, and focus on supporting others.”
Thinking about pursuing a career in trade management and compliance? Durr-Smith offers this advice:
“Be flexible. Be patient. Have a good sense of humor. In the field of trade management and compliance, these characteristics are essential.”
by Jennifer Hart Yim | Mar 17, 2016 | Blog, Leadership, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
Source: Library of Congress
This is a guest post written by Tania Seary, founder of Procurious. Procurious, the world’s first online social network for supply chain and procurement professionals, has acquired more than 12,000 members in less than two years.
I’m trying to use a baseball analogy here, but appreciate that my headline does have other connotations!
Another analogy might be to say that we’re “getting the flywheel spinning” here at Procurious – the world’s first online network for supply chain and procurement professionals.
Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the flywheel analogy, it is a metaphor created by author Jim Collins in his famous business manifesto, “From Good to Great,” to explain one of the key drivers for creating long-term success in business.
A flywheel is a heavy disk on an axle used to smooth a machine’s operation to generate momentum and maintain a constant rotational speed.
It takes much effort and persistence to get the metaphorical flywheel to move, but consistent energy in one direction over time helps build momentum and ultimately leads to a breakthrough. In the case of Procurious, as with Collins’ companies, there has been no specific event, decision, action, or lucky moment that single-handedly helped us to successfully break through the “beta” stage, to where we are today.
Over the last two years, we have remained committed to building something truly special for the procurement profession. Step by step we have stayed focused on our goal of building a very credible and content-rich community for our members.
Now with more than 12,000 members in 135 countries, Procurious has cemented its position as the secret weapon for professionals wanting to be part of the movement toward creating the new face of procurement.
Getting back to our headline analogy with baseball, I wanted to share some of the key decisions we have made along our journey to date to build Procurious.
Agreeing on the MVP
Just to confirm, we are talking about Minimum Viable Product here, not the Most Valuable Player. In the early days of designing this business, everything was up for grabs. Among a long list, we considered building a procurement news aggregator, a pure-play training repository called Procurious TV, and a procurement lifestyle magazine.
What we ended up with was a community platform that included a community feed, member profiles, discussions, eLearning, a worldwide calendar of procurement events, twice-daily blog, and private groups.
The end result was a powerful combination of career advancement, skill development, and professional networking opportunities to help propel today’s procurement professionals forward.
To have open or closed membership?
Once we had agreed on the core features and functionality of Procurious, we had a lot of heated debates over whether we should have an open or closed network. That is, should it be closed exclusively to highly pre-qualified procurement professionals, or open for the whole world to join?
Luckily my team convinced me to keep our network open… and it’s been an important part of our success story to date.
Of course, the major advantage to our members is that on Procurious, they gain access to a wide range of thought leaders and industry experts which then exposes them to diverse opinions on the hot topics in procurement.
Finding our fans
Every club, or community, needs a strong support base. We have been very fortunate to have a number of “early adopters” from around the globe support the building of the Procurious community. And, of course, we now have our “poster child” — Siddarth Sharma — who was surprised to learn he was our 10,000th member. Siddarth is representative of so many of the exciting procurement professionals around the globe — an MBA working for KPMG managing a small team of indirects buyers in India.
Securing our sponsors
Like a baseball club, we needed some big-brand sponsors to keep our operations humming. We have been fortunate to create partnerships with the profession’s leading institutes, associations, analysts, and technology companies. The Hackett Group has supported Procurious from the start, and The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) has joined the team this year. These relationships enrich Procurious in many ways and, most importantly, provide our members with access to world-leading research and resources.
Fielding a winning team
Lisa Malone, Euan Granger, and Jack Slade have been a powerhouse behind building this community, covering all the bases, and getting runs on the board.
Handling the curveballs
The biggest threat to our success is the introduction of a fierce competitor. But we are fortunate that we now have a loyal community that has been built on a substantial foundation of trust and commitment. This will be difficult to shake.
Our next biggest hurdle to success is to overcome the procurement profession’s hesitancy to create social media networks.
Despite the well-publicized benefits, we still meet procurement professionals that tell us “they don’t believe in networking” and don’t accept LinkedIn invitations from people they don’t know. We need to convince the profession of the multiple benefits of using social media, and then provide them with the skills to leverage the opportunity.
One base at a time
Our plan is to continue building Procurious based on our members’ needs, one base at a time.
We will be hosting our Big Ideas conference in London on Thursday, 21 April, for which you can register as a digital delegate on www.bigideassummit.com.
We are also currently beta-testing our new app, which can be downloaded from the Apple App store.
We are asking as many procurement professionals as possible to sign up to the network at www.procurious.com to join this new era and — as we like to say — get involved and get ahead!
Tania is the Founding Chairman of three companies specializing in the development of the procurement profession – The Faculty, The Source and Procurious.
The Faculty is recognized as one of Australia’s leading advisors on procurement development. Established twelve years ago, The Faculty works with leading organizations to transform and elevate the role of procurement, build high performance procurement teams and create professional knowledge networks.
Under Tania’s leadership, The Faculty has instigated a number of “firsts” for the procurement profession in Australia, including the development of a Procurement Executive Program through Melbourne Business School, the establishment of a Procurement Roundtable which includes many of Australia’s leading organizations, creation of an annual Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) Forum and attracting leading global procurement thought leaders to teach in Australia. She also initiated the Corporate Board for Social Procurement, which has created a foundation for leading corporations to dedicate appropriate areas of spend toward social enterprises.
Four years ago, Tania founded The Source, a specialist recruitment firm for the procurement profession. In 2013 she moved to London and founded Procurious, the world’s first online community for procurement professionals to connect, share and learn.
Tania’s fascination and commitment to procurement development started around fifteen years ago in the United States. After finishing her MBA at Pennsylvania State University, Tania became one of Alcoa’s first global commodity managers.
Prior to moving to the USA, Tania’s career was focused on marketing roles within Alcoa and Rowland in Australia, and the Walt Disney Company in the UK. Tania has an MBA and a Bachelor of Business.
by Fronetics | Mar 16, 2016 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy, Supply Chain
Men hold 85% of all executive officer positions within Fortune 500 companies, despite research that consistently shows when women are in positions of leadership, companies perform better. In the supply chain industry, 20% to 30% of positions are held by women, but the dearth of women in the C-suite is astounding; just 5% of top-level supply chain positions within Fortune 500 companies are held by women.
As I have written about previously, the lack of gender diversity 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.”
Last year I was fortunate enough to interview Cathy Morris, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Arrow Electronics, and Mickey North Rizza, vice president of strategic services at BravoSolution, about women in the supply chain. 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 took to get to where they are today. They also shared their desire to increase diversity in the supply chain.
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. Additionally, it is just as important to highlight the incredible women who already are working within the industry.
This year I’m turning my focus to showcase the work that these trailblazing women are doing. I spoke with 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. These interviews and stories will be shared over the next couple weeks.
As I share the work of even more women in the future, I look forward to continuing a dialogue that will hopefully facilitate welcoming more women to the industry.
