Daily Archives: July 27, 2011

Is Your Supply Management Organization Ready for Gen-Y?

Hopefully, now that you understand that Supply Management is the solution to the woes of the company as well as the country, your organization is ramping up, hiring, and looking for new talent. At approximately 70 Million strong, Gen-Y, also known as the Millennials, will soon become the largest generation in the workforce. As a result, they will soon represent the largest talent pool available to your organization. But is your organization ready?

The Millennials are not like the Baby Boomers, who looked for long term job stability and growth. Whereas your average baby boomer might take a job with the intention of staying with the same company for her entire career, a recent survey conducted by the Australian Experimental Learning Centre found that 64% of Gen-Y employees intend to stay less than two years with their employer. Current estimates are that most members of Gen-Y will have 20 to 25 jobs in their lifetime.

This poses three major challenges for your organization:

  • Recruitment
    Gen-Ys are always looking for the next great opportunity. Why is your opportunity the next great opportunity?
  • Training
    Given the average lifespan of a Millennial in your organization, you will need to get Millennials up to speed quickly and efficiently in order to maximize the value you get from them before they move on.
  • Knowledge Capture
    You will need a great Knowledge Management Program that captures, indexes, and makes available all the knowledge they bring to, and create for, the organization. Otherwise, each new Millennial will have to start the cycle anew.

Is your organization ready?

Is Supply Management the Economic Cure Everyone is Looking For?

In a recent article over on the ISM site that asks [if] your supply chain [is] ready for stagflation, the authors state that the current economic outlook for the long-term is stagflation, which they also state is practically unavoidable because the drivers are difficult to reverse. However, they also state that it may be shortened if the right actions are taken.

What are the right actions? According to the authors, the period of stagflation may be shortened if investments are geared toward revamping and improving supply chains, a task which falls under the purview of Supply Management. Why will this help?

Consider the situation, as summarized by the authors:

  • we’re in a recession that is the deepest since WWII,
  • the NIA thinks we are headed toward hyperinflation, but the US Federal Reserve believes otherwise; regardless
  • a long recession builds pent-up demand for consumer goods, at a time when
  • interest rates are at a historical low,
  • unemployment is still high, and
  • the Federal Reserve Bank has pumped significant capital into the economy.
  • Historically, increased consumer spending pulls the economy out of recession, but
  • consumer confidence, and spending, usually improves with expectations of (near) future improvements in the economy. When this occurs
  • if companies cannot meet demand, we’ll see “demand-pull” inflation and
  • if inflation occurs, the Federal Reserve will likely increase interest rates.
  • Right now, inventories are too low and
  • manufacturing is experiencing significant cost pressures. Thus,
  • the outlook is low profitability for manufacturers and
  • low profitability and inflation will result in slow, or no, economic growth — stagflation!

Now consider what will happen if Supply Management is allowed to invest considerable dollars in revamping supply chains.

  • Increased efficiency and optimally balanced inventories will prevent the “demand-pull” inflation that is predicted to occur and
  • as a result, interest rates will likely stay reasonable.
  • Cost pressures will decrease as a result of re-balancing of production to minimize logistics costs, increase efficiency, and use more affordable materials which will result in
  • profitability for manufacturers increasing.
  • A resurgence of corporate faith in the economy will lead to more hiring,
  • which will renew consumer confidence, and since they will have more dollars to spend as a result of decreased unemployment levels,
  • spending will increase, releasing the pent-up demand for consumer goods, and then the
  • economy will rebound.

No stagflation. I think the authors of the piece over on the ISM site that asks [if] your supply chain [is] ready for stagflation are brilliant. Because, with a careful analysis, it really does look like better Supply Management, with investments in supply chain improvements across the board (which result in more job creation immediately), can pull the economy out of the funk it is in.