8 Habits of a Highly Effective Supply Chain Manager

A good well-rounded Supply Chain Manager is always in high demand, but they are in scarce supply in my opinion! You just need to look around how many jobs are available with title of “Supply Chain Manager”.

I have worked as a Supply Chain Manager for 5 years in two entirely different businesses and in the process I have seen and worked with lot of Supply Chain Managers either as colleagues or Suppliers or sometime as Customers. There are several habits that many successful Supply Chain Managers have in common. Sometimes these habits form naturally, but they are more often than not the result of conscious effort. Here I discuss what effective Supply Chain Managers do to make themselves engaging, successful, and credible.

1.     Effective Supply Chain Manager Deliver Results.

Let’s get the most important point straight, Supply Chain is all about results (of course when achieved ethically!) and when I say results, I mean numbers. All effective Supply Chain Managers must be able to deliver cost, quality, delivery and lead time goals. And this should come with day-to-day focus on metrics and KPI to work for them, rather than they work to make KPI look good!

Drive for results is about their personally drive for results to meet and exceed expectations, but also to have a passion for achievement as a team. While understanding that “How” accomplishments are achieved is as important as “What” is actually achieved.

 2.     They are Technically Competent

All Supply Chain Managers should strive to be technically competent. What I mean by this is they should have some degree of command in the 8 dimensions of Supply Chain Competencies.  In most cases a typical Supply Chain Manager had started in one of the junior position and over the years while climbing the career ladder he or she has built those competencies.  But it is not a surprise to me anymore that in some cases that is not a case. I have to work for a Non-Supply Chain leader (not mentioning function to keep it anonymous) who ended up being an operations head probably due to his/her leadership skills. But due to his/her lack of technical competency, it was very difficult to get convince or properly understood. Don’t be that person!

3.     They Built Credibility

Effective Supply Chain Managers work towards building credibility over time. And they do it by being Consistent, showing Competence, Commitment and Concern of people as depicted in the picture below.

4. They Understand and Execute Strategy

Like all good managers, Supply Chain Managers should have strategic agility and business acumen to see the big picture to ensure alignment of their own team’s work with the business goals.  They also need to ensure the team knows the right things to be working on (or not working on). They also recognize patterns within the current and possible future trends and internal /external customer requirements to create a compelling vision, establish strategies, communicate them effectively, and measure critical outcomes. Most importantly they make good decisions based upon analysis, experience, global and cultural factors, and judgment.

An effective Supply Chain Manager can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately. And have the ability to create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans. Lastly, they understand the 4 Key Pillars of Supply Chain Strategy which keep them focused towards the execution.

Click here to read the remaining 4 effective habits in full blog...