Is It Time To Bring Out The Wrecking Ball?
Just yesterday, a teacher lamented the difficulty of teaching high school students about supply chain management in a business course. The principal obstacle? The subject is just "not sexy". Hmmm.
I ventured the suggestion that perspectives might brighten up a bit if students were asked to draft plans for the logistics of transporting Miley Cyrus on a multi-city concert tour. Then if that weren't sufficient motivation, contemplate an image of Lady Gaga with a whip. Perhaps I had chosen the wrong venue in which to add a little creative juice to the learning process. The response was about what I would imagine would ensue if Louis C.K. were to do a stand-up routine in church.
Even if the message were one that the audience needed- perhaps wanted - to hear, amens would be in short supply, lest the reverend persons officiating would be roused from their slumber and be able to identify the sinners and backsliders who were open to, if not new, merely gently used thinking.
I'm still quivering - and not in a good way - at the thought of mentioning Miley Cyrus in two successsive blogs, but it was someone else who brought up the sexy quotient missing from supply chain management. Let me essay another stab at what constitutes sexiness in a post-secondary education environment.
How about a dose or two of reality? One is that supply chain management is not only about having to drive, load, or unload trucks, or wandering through dirty, cold, wet warehouses filling orders for everything from hazardous materials to underwear. The range of really interesting, challenging, and superbly-compensated jobs in the full range of supply chain activities is staggering. And, those who come out of post-secondary education with supply chain educations experience jaw-dropping employment rates.
How good is the money? There is apparently no ceiling, and, at worst, the most mundane positions pay some multiple of what a dedicated burger flipper can command in the marketplace. Not to mention, the supply chain professional seldom goes home reeking of fries and dead chicken.
Did I mention that there are career paths. and a multitude of progressions that can be pursued? Or, that, while nothing is totally recession-proof, supply chain jobs suffer less than in some other fields when the national economy goes South (and rebound quicker, by the way).
In the ultimate display of corporate sexiness, supply chain management, done right and done completely, has a greater effect on enterprise performance than any other organizational element. When the CEO is happy, everyone is happy (and the CEO usually knows who and what is making him or her look good). We sometimes forget that it is supply chain management that physically delivers on the promise of the brand.
That is not to say that we want our teachers to persuade Breaking Bad's Jesse Pinkman to get on the supply chain train. But, even in the realm of Crystal Blue Persuasion, the differentiator of pure and blue product would not have been fractionally as powerful, for good and for evil, as it became without a superlative supply chain behind it. Walter White may not receive any awards from CSCMP, but he was - even fictionally - a power in our universe.
Sexy enough for you, yet?