Improvise, adapt, overcome. That’s logistics.

My firm does a lot of work with the Federal Government.  One 30-something federal employee, Jae (not her real name), has been in many of our supply chain classes.  She faithfully gets on an airplane a couple of times a year to further her professional knowledge with structured education to make her agency better.  Jae has been doing that for the past couple of years. 

She primarily takes courses in the summer months for a compelling reason:  Jae is a single Mom.  Managing her kid’s school, related activities, working full time, and building a career is challenging during the school year.  In the summer Jae has more flexibility, and she takes advantage of it. 

Jae reaches into her own pocket to buy companion plane tickets for her kid – on a civil servant’s salary – and they fly to the schoolhouse so Jae can take classes.  Jae leaves the schoolhouse at noon every day to have lunch with her child, and then returns for the afternoon. 

Jae has all the right instincts.  In logistics, we improvise, adapt, and overcome.  Some folks, like Jae, have those instincts hardwired. It’s how she excels and succeeds at what she does:  supply chain and logistics.

As a bonus at the end of the week, they took in some of the metro DC and Northern Virginia sites before heading to the airport. 

Everybody wins - the Federal Government, the taxpayer, Jae, and her kid.  That’s improvise, adapt, and overcome. 

That’s logistics.