DC Velocity - July 2009

We continue to be a maritime nation. With the current dialogue in Washington around infrastructure Q investment, do you think our ports need to be a more prominent part of that discussion?

A The United States is and will always be a maritime nation. We are dependent on our sea lanes for transportation of commerce, and one of the U.S. Navy’s most

important roles is to ensure that those sea lanes remain open and free. The current piracy concerns in the Gulf of Aden show how rapidly nations will respond to keep the sea lanes open. Our commerce cannot be held hostage by a group of renegades. Equally important is the need to ensure that our ports are considered part of those very important sea lanes of commerce. It does little good to have ships moving commerce rapidly between ports if port congestion and labor slowdowns prevent the cargoes from efficiently reaching the consumer.

Ann Drake

SINCE 1994, ANN DRAKE HAS LED ONE of the more successful third-party logistics operations in the nation, DSC Logistics. But her influence extends far beyond the bounds of her company. She is vice chair of the Business Advisory Council for Northwestern University’s Transportation Center, serves on the board of governors for the Metropolitan Planning Council, and took part in the 2007 Brookings Institution’s panel, “The Summit for American Prosperity: Washington and Metropolitan Areas Working Together,” among other recent activities.

Drake organized a panel on “The Significance of Your Supply Chain” for the annual conference of the Committee of 200, an organization of women executives. She has participated for two years in the Women Business Leaders Summit, which facilitates links between business communities in the United States and the Middle East.

Her career in logistics began when she joined the board of what was then called Dry Storage Corporation, a family-run firm, after earning her M.B.A. at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

system and
growth is. That’s where the intellectual capi-
tal is. We’re rethinking infrastructure fund-
ing and planning, where state boundaries
don’t have much to do with anything.
Brookings has produced a great paper on
transportation policy. It’s a whole new view
of America and how we fit into the global
marketplace—how we will live, work, get
goods around, and make sure we’re green.
The list is pretty daunting. Those of us who
ship goods realize there has to be a flexible
we have to put a lot of money into it.

Why the involvement in so many infrastructure initiatives? Q

A We are used to using the infrastructure, but when asked to think about how it was working, I became interested in learning and doing more. So I’ve been slowly increasing my involvement over the last five or six years. It has been a real awakening for me about how government works or does not work. I really got excited several years ago when I was asked to be part of a Rockefeller Foundation think tank on American competitiveness through 2050. We studied several areas, including what kind of infrastructure we would need for goods and people. It’s a goal in my life to think about the future and then back into the present and decide what to do.

I’ve been involved for the last two years with the Brookings Institution on the “metropolitan nation.” We are a nation of metropolitan areas today. That’s where the

You have also been active in encouraging women to look at the supply chain for careers. Q

A I encourage young women to study and major in it. I think the supply chain is the business of the 21st century—that’s how important I think it is. Supply chain executives are running companies. There’s a lot of opportunity for women.

It is true that advancement for women has been very slow. But given the importance of collaboration, leadership, and vision—all things that women are pretty good at—I think supply chain management is a great place for women, and I’m encouraged to see more and more women involved.

Why do you see supply chains as so important? Q A There are plenty of opportunities to improve supply chains. Manufacturing we’ve got well honed. But the supply chain is in many ways in its infancy. There are so many ways to improve supply chain responsiveness, so much opportunity to do it better and become integrated with everything a company does. It is global in scope. It is as important as it gets. It is all about change and change management, upgrading people and processes, and collaboration.