Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Is Supply Chain Losing the Talent Race?

PWC recently released a report on Winning the Talent Race which was Volume 5 of its study on talent management. Although it contained some not altogether unexpected results (given the talent shortage predictions back in 2007 and the lack of focus on talent management in Supply Chain), the numbers are still quite shocking in magnitude. Not only are 400,000 more truck drivers needed in the US trucking industry alone (up from about 100,000 five years ago), but current estimates by the CSCMP (Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals) are that the US trucking industry will need to hire 1 Million new drives in the next 15 years just to deal with replacing retirees (as 35% of professionals in the transportation and logistics industry are over 50) and projected freight level increases!

But the real problem is that, first of all, this problem is global. Across North America and the EU we have the situation where 35%, or more, of our professionals are nearing retirement age and the number of potential recruits (eligible to hold a commercial driving license) is not keeping pace in an industry where the number of professionals needed to keep pace with global trade. Global trade is expected to at least triple in the next 20 years, due largely in part to emerging markets around the globe, and as a result, the number of professionals needed to staff the industry is going to triple in the next 10 to 15 years (as they need to be hired in time to get the requisite training and experience to take over before we lose all of our greybeards).

And, second of all, rising stars do not want to work in the industry. The researchers found that the new generation of recruits typically view jobs in the T&L sector as “dead-ends” because of factors including low wages, unfavourable working environments, and a lack of career advancement opportunities and that 27% of current T&L workers compromised in accepting a job they felt had less career potential / opportunities for advancement than they had hoped and over 50% of logistics and supply chain professionals are actively looking for another job with better offers. This is terrible and shocking. Supply chains fuel the business world and half of the people we have want out?

But we shouldn’t be surprised. When was the last time your organization actually did something to address the talent management issue that has been on your top three list for the last five years. If you’re honest, chances are your answer is a number that is further than five years in the past or never. Every year for the past four years, like The Mpower Group who has also been trying to address this issue for a couple of years, I heard lots of chatter about how this was going to be the year the organization was going to take the talent bull by the horns and get it in line and every year nothing got done as the training budget was the first to go in the lingering downturn and focus was shifted back to cost savings at all cost. You can’t ignore a talent management issue year over year and expect that it will just fix itself from an organizational viewpoint. The only thing that will happen is that whatever talent you have will leave and take your talent reputation with you. (And good luck attracting new talent then.) If you think your problems are bad enough now, imagine how bad they’ll be when you have no points of talent attraction in a world where talent is attracted to, and finds, talent.

Remember, we are entering the age of connectedness where, thanks to global mega-platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, everyone is connected to everyone else within 5 degrees of separation (actually, 4.6 and falling), and everybody knows that the dice are loaded, rolling with their fingers crossed. And everybody knows that when your top talent leaves that the plague is coming and moving fast (and, thanks to Facebook, they know before you do). That’s why one of the major recruitment weak points that the survey pointed out is social media. Unfortunately, Transportation, Logistics and Supply Chain is way behind on this front and losing ground fast.

Of course, recruitment isn’t the only issue. As the survey discovered, it’s also compensation, career path, and corporate brand. Rising stars want to feel that they are getting the best offer out there, that they can progress up a career path, and that they are working for a great company. A quick look at the top employer lists doesn’t include many (if any) T&L companies and only a few are known for their world class supply chains. Companies like Apple, where the CSCO (Chief Supply Chain Officer) can become next-in-line for CEO, need to be the norm, not the exception (and a career path from logistics manager to CSCO has to exist for the right hard-working, ambitious, and ready to learn superstar). In addition, as the report points out, the lack of diversity and understanding of demographic shifts isn’t helping.

In short, if your organization doesn’t kick its Supply Management Talent Management program into high gear this year, it may not be around in five years to figure out how it’s going to replace 35% of its staff.

Invoking Innovation In Your Organization Internally

Supply Management magazine recently ran a great piece on innovation from the head of SRM at Best Buy Europe (where they might have it together better than Best Buy USA where you are not likely to get a Best Buy Experience) on “Creative Industry” where he described the difficulty of jump-starting an innovation initiative in an organization which has not been innovative in a (very) long time.

In the article, he detailed and exemplified an eight step process which is a good starting point for anyone trying to get in an innovative mindset.

  1. Lose the Fear
    Of being judged. Of disappointing others with your idea. Of just plain doing something different. Jamie says to be childlike in your approach and embrace the initiative with excitement. And if that don’t work, and it’s not against your religion, start with martini hour. Inhibitions are bad for innovation.
  2. No Idea is a Bad Idea
    It might not be the right idea for the organization, but it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad. In different circumstances, it could be a great idea. All ideas should be captured, and explored, at the right time, in a search for a better idea.
  3. Understand the problem.
    What is the issue? What is the objective? It’s the measurement stick for any idea you come up with.
  4. Diversity is King
    Have both experts and novices in the room. Make sure the novices are not afraid to ask “why can’t we do this”. Sometimes opposition is just knee-jerk. When there is no rebuttal to the question, you’re on the right track.
  5. Get Visual
    Draw. Illustrate. Sculpt clay if you have to. Make a prototype out of cardboard and play-doh. Whatever gets people thinking differently enough to actually innovate.
  6. Safe Environment
    Everyone is equal. No idea is bad. Freedom to speak up and speak out during the brainstorming process. Keep it out of management offices where positions of authority are implicitly conveyed.
  7. Subdue the subconscious
    It has default knee-jerk reactions to everything and default knee-jerk visualizations for every concept and pre-assigned meanings to every word. This gets us through the day, but is not always good where innovation is concerned. (Of course, if you start with martini hour, this may not be much of a problem. 😉 )
  8. Be Committed.
    Almost to the point where a conservative middle manager (who doesn’t understand the importance of relentless innovation) wants to have you committed. It takes a lot of effort to get an innovation project rolling, and even more to keep it rolling until the first positive, revenue-producing, output is produced.

This is a really great starter list and Jamie’s article on “Creative Industry” is really good. Take 5 minutes and read it end-to-end. It’s worth your time.

Can You Detect Greenwashing?

Can you detect when a supplier is Greenwashing their product or service? Are you sure? Did you take part in Earth Hour? You did? Guess what! You probably can’t detect greenwashing!

Earth Hour, another stupid marketing gimmick supposedly designed to get the message out about responsible energy usage, actually encourages the exact opposite by telling everyone to stop using power — at the same time — for one hour. Then, at the end of the hour, everyone — at the same time — turns their lights, tvs, and washing machines back on. This is the kind of action that can bring down a power grid, and, guess what, cost more energy then is saved in some cases. (Very little energy is actually saved, by the way. Less than an hour’s worth of lights or TV. You know why? When the hour is over, people are still going to do their laundry. They are still going to cook in their ovens. And they are still going to use whatever power hungry toys they have in their house.)

If you were a power engineer, you’d know that grids are designed to work where energy requirements are at rather constant levels. Basically, in laymen’s terms, whatever is put on to the grid has to be taken off, or the grid will blow. Similarly, if too much energy is taken off too fast, the grid can blow too. If power usage all of a sudden drops 50%, sometimes entire plants have to be rapidly taken off-line. (Which can be a problem if you have a nuclear plant in the mix. You just can’t shut one of those down on a whim!) This wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that it takes a lot of time and energy to start up certain types of power plants. Water may turn turbines on its own when they are placed in a waterfall thanks to gravity, but sometimes a kick is needed to start a wind turbine. And coal burning plants don’t start up at the flick of a switch. It takes thousands of households turning off tvs and lights to equal the power required to start a small power plant. Imagine the power wasted shutting down and starting up a large power plant in one hour.

But I digress. As per the Sins of Greenwashing, maintained by TerraChoice, only 4.5% of products in 2010 were sin-free. Only 4.5%! The average claim is stretched so far from the truth that it’s only basis in reality is that the words used to describe it are part of the English language (most of the time). This is important to keep in mind with Earth Day coming up in two weeks and marketing folks getting ever more keen to tap into all the hoop-la that it entails. (Not that Earth Day is bad — just the marketers who try to sell non-green products and services as green.)

So how do you detect greenwashing? Familiarize yourself with the “10 Signs of Greenwash” developed by Futera and documented in this guide on Understanding and Preventing Greenwash co-developed with BSR. In brief, they are:

  1. Fluffy Language
  2. “Dirty Company”
  3. Suggestive Pictures
  4. Irrelevant Claims
  5. Best in Class
  6. Just Not Credible
  7. Jargon
  8. “Imaginary Friends”
  9. No Proof
  10. Out-Right Lying