Christian Harper

I have spent the last ten years of my working life interviewing supply chain professionals for positions in disciplines such as production, engineering, purchasing, procurement, planning & forecasting, distribution & logistics. This equates to a little over 4,500 hours talking to people working in supply chain-related disciplines, all of which were in contemplation about changing their jobs or actively pursuing a new position.

I thought I would share with you anecdotal evidence of what I believe is common to all successful supply chain people and why so many people find managing their careers in this field an ongoing challenge.

What’s in a title?
By the time an individual labels themselves a ‘supply chain person’ they have probably had a taste of what it is like to experience a series of operational changes, mostly focused on ERP implementations, updates or developments, reductions in inventory levels, supplier reviews, continuous improvement initiatives, numerous sales and operations planning meetings, and endless hours reviewing and interrogating data integrity to ensure that inventory accuracy remains high. They will have had the experience of working in environments where everything is measured against key performance indicators and the transparency this creates within a business.

Most will evolve into some area of specialisation, gaining more experience in purchasing or inventory management or demand planning or warehousing and distribution or manufacturing. They will pursue careers of specialisation, reducing the breadth of their experience and gradually increasing its depth. The size and scope of a business will have an impact on this experience, since larger businesses will have larger operational divisions, each with a series of specialist areas. This can create opportunities for lateral moves across disciplines, thereby broadening the overall experience of the individual. It can also result in a greater level of specialisation, as frequently larger businesses will recruit people who already have the specialised skills. Smaller businesses tend to offer greater breadth of experience, because they do not have the luxury specialist divisions and by contrast need less detailed analysis and depth.

For some, the thought of being the best demand planning person or the best purchasing person, or the best inventory control person is the key motivator. For others, they will have their sights set on being the best supply chain person, managing broader aspects of supply chain management as well as teams of people and the associated responsibility.

Yet others discover that what they would really like to do is move into general management and thereby manage all aspects of business. And of course there are those who will just stumble through life and their careers, letting fate or destiny dictate terms.

Stretch yourself
Most successful supply chain people seem to have a passion for change and continuous improvement. Their focus is the pursuit of operational efficiency and effectiveness, ensuring that company goals are being achieved. They are purveyors of integration within a business, uniting the activities of sales, marketing and finance. They are planners, strategists and organisers. Their whole existence seems to be constantly managing factors outside of their control by focus ing on what is within their control, in order to make the unpredictable predictable.

As your career develops, your success will depend less on your technical skills and more on the competencies associated with managing people, driving change, and influencing others to unite their support in the implementation of strategy and the changes needed to achieve corporate initiatives.

Highly successful supply chain people embrace gaps in their skills and competencies and seek out positions that will create a level of personal stretch to assist in their growth.

Many develop a project mentality that drives them to pursue businesses that are in financial difficulty and have major supply chain problems. It is significantly easier to drive change in a business that recognises they have a need and are compelled to change for reasons of survival. It is easier from a perspective that management is engaged with the need to innovate and change. The project of streamlining a supply chain and making it more efficient is still a challenge.

Others will seek to develop their influencing skills by seeking out businesses where the impetus to improve operational efficiency is less critical or obvious, however, through the power of leverage could deliver significant financial gain.

Understanding the culture of the business is also significant, and this is where the level of commitment to supply chain strategy really sits. Many businesses will say “supply chain - it is important”, but when the time comes to invest time and money and political support, they go weak at the knees.

At various stages in your career it is likely you will reach points where you believe it is essential to leave your current employer in order to move to the next level. Sometimes this assessment is correct and sometimes it is greatly flawed, fuelled by desire to ‘get away’ from all that ails you in your current position, as opposed to moving toward those experiences that present the next important step.

So what can you do?
Most people have made a really bad career move at some point. Some do it with great routine and predictability, whilst others have an occasional hiccup. Every time you leave one business for another without a clear understanding of what you are about to sign up for, you are taking a huge risk that at best could cost you twelve to eighteen months of your time, and at worst could undermine your confidence to adjust to different environments or exhaust you and push you towards burnout.

I personally believe there are no ‘bad experiences’ since there is something to be learnt from everything we do. Having said that, I do have a preference for minimising the number of ‘bad’ calls or ‘character-building events’ I have.

With this in mind, how do you manage a decision to leave your current job, navigate the process of applying for new jobs and going for interviews, competing for the jobs you want, assessing whether the job you want is really going to deliver what it is promising, and still be fully productive in your current position? There is a lot to get a handle on, and yet most people seem to just do this without any great preparation or planning.

I started CareerBuilders with my business partner Greg Dixon in 2004 for the precise reason of helping people build their careers in a way that minimises the risks associated with choice and enabled them to enjoy what they do. We recognised that there are defining moments in one’s career, some of which are private or contained within the business an individual works, and some of which an individual may entrust to an external service provider.

We have helped many people navigate this minefield by facilitating clarity and considering a variety of options not just the choice to stay or go. Few people have a level of clarity and personal honesty with themselves around their skills, their learning path and the gap that may exist between reality and self-perception. We connect with people via coaching services, soft skills develop ment programmes and best-practice recruitment methodologies and services. This is by design simply because we know these are the contact points or ‘moments of truth’ in which an external service provider may add value.

We know that in the area of recruitment many people are not happy with the way in which they being serviced. Some of this is based on a lack of understanding around what recruitment consultants do, and is also partially fuelled by poor recruitment practices. Poor recruitment practices are not solely the domain of recruitment consultants; this also carries forward to the businesses that engage them.

Focus on yourself
The key to effectively managing your career is to stay focused and in touch with factors that remain within your control. Recruitment consultants are not being paid to manage your career; that is your responsibility. They are not paid to find you a job. The best way to consider what you represent to many recruitment consultants is inventory, be it fast moving or slow moving. So if they think you can satisfy the needs of their client then this will become their first priority. Whether this is a strategic fit for your career development can come into their thinking, but it is not their responsibility to manage this decision, it is yours. This means that if you enter the job market without investing time and effort into planning your career, no one else will take responsibility for that. It is not possible to talk through your innermost concerns about your job, and what your strengths are, and where you need development, in the process of a job interview.

It is a common occurrence for people to decide to stay with their current employer in order to maximise their current state after they have invested time in career coaching with CareerBuilders. They decide not to move prematurely and as a result often make better choices, saving themselves years in lost earnings potential.

Factors within your control include your capacity to stay focused on your career development plan and experiences you need to acquire in order to advance your career. To keep an eye on sustainability by ensuring that the work you do is enjoyable and personally satisfying. To identify and acknowledge that sometimes you have to do the hard yards in order to get the more rewarding opportunities, and to plan and manage this development schedule as you would manage any other supply chain project. Invest time in talking to other leaders in supply chain and gain an understanding of how they achieved what they have achieved. Invest time talking to your boss, to mentors and to other people whom you respect.

As for senior executives, we have noticed that many people in this group need to re-connect with their learning and development path. They are frequently investing a lot of time helping everyone else grow and develop, and yet they are often delaying any additional investment on themselves. Many very experienced supply professionals find their careers being capped at a certain level. This is usually because they have become too specialised and lack experience in other areas to make lateral moves. The competition for senior supply chain roles is quite significant and the opportunities that become available are often limited. Careful planning and personal career strategies become critical in order to navigate options available.

Everyone needs a coach
These are key reasons why we see that having an experienced career coach or executive coach is a major benefit to supply chain people as they progress through their careers, and we know that regardless of how junior or senior you are, there are great benefits to be gained from having a coach to help you observe and review your progress in a more objective way.

Today we hear a great deal about skills shortages. Businesses are becoming more open to developing their people in order to improve employee engagement and retention. The opportunities for growth are there, they have always been there, and it just requires some personal dedication to yourself, by working on yourself in order to grow your value as an employee and to gain more joy from what you do.

If you are going to work eight hours a day, five days a week, would it be better to spend that time doing a job or growing a career?

Christian Harper is the founder and principal of CareerBuilders, a specialist career coaching consultancy. Contact Christian on (02) 8908 9000, email Christian@careerbuilders.com.au or visit www.careerbuilders.com.au.

*Excerpt from MHD Supply Chain Solutions (pp.58-62)

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