Supply Chain Matters Dispatch Two- CSCMP Annual Global Conference 2011

This posting is our second day commentary regarding the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) 2011 Annual Conference being held this week in Philadelphia. Readers can view our day one highlights commentary.

Today was jam packed with sessions, many of the most interesting occurring at similar times.  We found ourselves jumping from one presentation to another to get a sense of content and takeaways.  We did attend a couple of sessions related to leadership skills for supply chain management professionals.  One session candidly turned out to be a session reflecting on too many regulatory issues impacting the trucking industry.  While the speaker framed this in the context of leadership skills required for those responsible for transportation management, it seemed to be more about rallying support for less regulation from government.

Another session was much more impactful, featuring a panel of three senior supply chain executives who were queried by an experienced management coach.  The panel consisted of:

Charles Armstrong, Vice President, Supply Chain/Distribution, The Home Depot

Robert Collins, Vice President, Global Strategic Sourcing, R.R. Donnelley

Rebecca Lyons, Vice President , Strategy and Supply Chain Services, Johnson and Johnson.

The panel facilitator, Timothy Stratman, President of Stratman Partners Executive Partners did a superb job of facilitating panel discussion of the key team leadership and management skills required in today’s dynamic environment of global supply chain management. One of the most insightful discussions, in our view, involved a discussion and exchange on what executive presence equates to in today’s networked organization. It comes down to being a good communicator and follow-through on the message.  A gem of a takeaway came from a discussion on making timely decisions. Charles Armstrong shared with the audience the following: “Show me a person who makes consistently good decisions and that person is probably someone who has never implemented anything.” The takeaway was that decisions have to be made and the key is always having a dynamic back-up plan in the cases where the decision did not result in an expected outcome.

We also attended two sessions providing insights on global and regional supply chains, including a presentation on global supply chain network design delivered by Jun Villoria, Vice President of Supply Chain Solutions for Li And Fung Logistics, and a session on China and Vietnam challenges delivered by Joseph Hsu, Chairmen, China Outsource World.  Each was very informative and we were somewhat surprised at the sparse attendance given all of the supply chain activity occurring across Asia.

Tomorrow, the conference concludes with a keynote and some morning educational sessions.  In our final commentary, Supply Chain Matters will provide our summarized observations and insights we discovered from this year’s conference, so stay tuned.

Bob Ferrari

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