#SmealWeeklyRecap Featuring Jordan Haller ('11 Supply Chain & Information Systems)
Thank you to my network for keeping me updated on the business world, sharing career insights, and their successes. Below are some of the articles collected from alumni and other business resources. All articles can be viewed at this link. The topics for this week were supply chain, IPOs, retail and entrepreneurship. As you know, our interns play a key role in organizing the information and researching companies.
Featured Alumnus: Jordan Haller ('11 Supply Chain & Information Systems) Director of Procurement at Louisiana-Pacific Corporation
Jordan spent the first 6 years of his career at ExxonMobil in Houston, where he held multiple roles in their Procurement organization. His early-career work was primarily focused on supporting complex purchases within capital projects for ExxonMobil’s gulf coast refineries. In his last role at Exxon, Jordan managed a team responsible for leading the buying and contracting activities of 2 major US refineries and their North American network of pipelines. During his time at ExxonMobil, Jordan was recognized for his achievements by two national entities. In 2015, he was named to the National Safety Council’s list of 40 safety leaders under the age of 40 for leading a near loss campaign. Then in 2017, he was recognized in the Institute for Supply Management’s annual list of Rising Supply Chain Stars, the top ’30 under 30’ for supply chain related achievement. In September of 2018, Haller took on a new challenge by accepting the role of Director of Procurement for Louisiana-Pacific. In this position, he leads LP’s various procurement groups to reduce cost and enhance their potential for efficient growth. He and his fiancé, Kalynd, are embracing the move to Nashville and the added complexity that comes with taking a new job in a new city. He stays connected to Penn State as a mentor via Lion Link, and traveling back to campus to recruit at the Supply Chain career fair. Jordan’s greatest piece of advice is to be prepared! Doing well in any meeting, role, or interview is all about how well you prepare for the challenge ahead. Earning respect and trust early in a career is difficult to do without years of experience to lean on. You can build credibility with those above you by going beyond what most will do to learn about your industry or your business. Years of experience are less important when you can consistently prove to people that they can trust your instinct and preparation.
#Topics of the Week
Supply Chain: Along with being ranked as #1 in supply chain education, Smeal also has a Center for Supply Chain Research which has been in existence for over 25 years. Because of our dedicated professors and hardworking students, we have successful alumni like Jordan Haller being recognized by national organizations. In the news, Raconteur shared an article about why you need a cognitive supply chain, and Supply Chain Digest reported on the looming deadline for clean ocean fuel set by the International Maritime Organization to be effective by January 1, 2020. In the U.S., Amazon is testing more a aggressive shipment service in New York, Chicago and LA. Retail is making their stores part of their supply chain by using them as warehouses. EY reported on the challenges of life sciences organizations with their end-to-end (E2E) supply chain transformation which must now be undertaken to enable them to deliver on new business models. EY points out that this is not an easy or fast journey.
IPOs: As predicted, there has definitely been an IPO wave! There was a lot of excitement about Lyft which went public on March 29th and as of today was selling at $61/share. Reuters said Lyft's stock slide could cast a shadow on Uber's IPO. The company is believed to be overvalued and is already running into trouble and accused Morgan Stanley of supporting short-selling among investors ahead of the IPO. Uber filed its IPO today and revealed a 1.8 billion dollar loss. Lot's of people are following Pinterest which is different than the ride-hailing companies in that their losses are not as bad and the company's founder is not as "showy." It is also said, company growth would run Pinterest into competitors like Amazon and Google which causes some concern for investors. Slack has chosen NYSE for direct listing following Spotify's example.
Retail: For the first time ever, CNBC reported, in February, online shopping overtook a major part of retail. The article said that days of internet and online shopping just being a fad have come a long way from 5 percent in the late 1990's to 12 percent in 2019. Of course, brick-and-mortar sales are higher when including other categories such as auto and restaurant sales. Online sales are now the fourth largest sector overall, bringing in about $59.8 billion in adjusted sales for February. If you tuned into our webinar on Wednesday, you learned a little bit about Way Day thanks to Smeal alumnus Doug Parulis. Check out the post for more details! On the physical side of retail, at the end of February, in a single day, Business Insider reported the closing of more than 300 store closures as the retail apocalypse ripped through JCPenny, Gap, and Victoria's Secret. At Shop Talk 2019, a key point, however, was that physical retail was not dead. Also up for discussion was that experience per square foot is today's KPI, D2C brands aren’t the only ones thinking D2C, #FriendGoals is today’s approach to growth, internal accelerator programs are retail’s new R&D, and cultural innovation will be the strategy that drives results. Interestingly, developers are trying to woo retailers by racing to build larger and more sophisticated warehouses.
Entrepreneurship: There is so much going on in the world of entrepreneurs, but I wanted to take the time to share news about how Penn State and Smeal support entrepreneurship! Last week all of Penn State along with Smeal celebrated @PSUstartupweek! The event brings some of the leading minds in entrepreneurship and innovation to Penn State campuses across the Commonwealth. It is sponsored by companies like Leidos, IBM, EY, M&T Bank Technology, Corning, Lockheed Martin, and Ford. Even if you can't make it to University Park, you can watch many of this year's sessions via livestream at this link! Congratulations to the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship for their 20th Anniversary! Thank you to Smeal alumnus, Michael J. Farrell, for his visionary gift which created the center. Also supported by the university is Invent Penn State! Wherever you are on the entrepreneurial path, the program provides resources you can use. Their signature programs and tools can help you start up and grow a business, find licensable technologies and investment opportunities, and get to know the innovation community. They help sponsor Startup Week as well!
Remember to sign up for news about our free Smeal Lifelong Learning Webinars! Everyone is welcome, so share the registration links with your online network, company and co-workers! The webinars are on Wednesday at Noon EDT. Below is our 2019 line up to date.
A Retrospective Review of A Global Transformation - Presented by Rebecca (Becky) Savikas (’99 Marketing) Global HR Director of Automotive OEM Coatings at PPG Industries - April 24
#StartWithThem: The Power of the Twitter Audience for Marketers - Presented by Caitlin Rush (’12 Marketing, ’12 Public Relations) Client Partner at Twitter - May 8
Product Innovation, Development, and Introduction: Best Practices for Success - Presented by David Horn (’79 BSME, ’83 MBA) Founder and President of Fast Forward Consulting, LLC and Vice President of Business Development at Appex - May 22