SCD’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective Supply Chains

A recent article over on Supply Chain Digest touted The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Supply Chains 2012 in honour of Stephen Covey, who noted that too many people focus on “urgent” and not what is “important” and that changes are required to reduce the need for “urgent” activities so that more time can be spent on the “important” ones. According to SCD, these are the seven habits of highly effective supply chains.

  1. A written strategy that is regularly updated
  2. Alignment with the business is a constant priority
  3. Focus on Talent Management
  4. Fact-based Cultures
  5. Savvy Users of Technology
  6. Smart about Collaboration
  7. Organized for Innovation

While it’s hard to whittle down supply chain best practices to seven, these are a great start. In fact, if you asked the doctor what the top seven priorities were for your supply chain, you’d get:

  1. Talent Management
  2. Innovation in Process and Product/Service Offerings
  3. End-to-End Technology Platforms
  4. Mid-Term and Long-Term Strategy
  5. Organizational Alignment
  6. Data-Driven Fact-Based Decision Making
  7. Cultural & Emotional Intelligence

The only real difference, besides the order of priority, is that the doctor thinks cultural & emotional intelligence (given the global nature of supply chains) takes priority over collaboration, because CQ and EQ will enable the necessary collaboration.

The SCD article, penned by Dan Gilmore, is a good one. Check it out.