hot shots and old codgers

WHETHER WE WORKED ON THE RAILROADS, around trucks, or in warehouses and distribution centers, most supply chain professionals of our generation started out in the trenches. We worked in the execution of basic physical distribution; that’s how we learned about logistics and supply chain management.

Later in our careers, we gravitated toward planning and strategic issues related to our functional specialties. We became bosses if we lived long enough or managed to dance through the minefields of corporate politics. The overwhelming majority of us were, and still are, autodidacts— self-taught, learning-by-doing professionals.

The new breed

The pathway into the profession began to change some time ago. A slowly growing army of fresh-faced naïfs began to enter the supply chain arena, armed with diplomas from an exponentially larger and larger number of institutions of both higher and lower learning.

The bastions of research and education had been around for quite a while: Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State, Georgia Tech, and Tennessee, among others. They produced some top-flight practitioners; they also populated the next generations of academia with teachers and researchers. In later years, supply chain and logistics curricula have multiplied like rabbits. They are found—and heavily promoted—at mainstream universities and at obscure community colleges alike. Faculty members may come from traditional academia, but they may also be retired practitioners or former consultants whose knees can’t take the pounding any longer.

The Old Guard—that’s us, folks—were, and are,
encouraged. This development meant that we
were for real—that management and the entire
business community were ready to take us seri-
ously. Our team could go in and do battle on a
more even playing field with the financial and
marketing types, and we didn’t have to be sub-
servient to manufacturing.