QWhat is your research focus?
A How outcome-based strategies align incentives to cre- ate investment—looking at product support from the
perspective of providing life-cycle value instead of repairing
parts really intrigues me. I’m also getting involved in retail
supply chain management and transportation demand
forecasting projects with colleagues at Auburn.
QWhat challenges do you see facing academic institu- tions, and how must they evolve to stay relevant?
A We need to stay close to the practitioner. The world is just moving too fast, and academics have to learn to
move with it. We need to understand real problems, find
new ways to solve those problems, and develop generalizable solutions, and we have to do it more rapidly. We need
rigorous theoretical or mathematical academic research
that moves the discipline forward. At the same time, we
have to keep pace with our audience. Deliberate is good, but
ponderous is not.
QWhat knowledge is essential for an individual going into the supply chain profession today?
A Understand cost and spend. Know where the money is and where it went. Understand how your supply chain
strategy directly supports firm strategy. Appreciate knowledge and information. We are to the point where knowl-edge-based infrastructure, like SAP, Oracle, and other systems, may be the most critical production resource available. You don’t need to be an enterprise resource planning
expert, but you must know how to use and interpret the
knowledge these systems provide.
QWhat advice would you offer a young person who is considering a career in logistics or supply chain
management?
A Work hard, learn the basics, find a mentor, be willing to take a lateral job to learn a new skill, and don’t be
afraid to go international. For my family, the time spent
internationally was some of the best of our lives. And care
about the people around you. I recently heard an executive
from The Container Store say, “Culture eats strategy for
breakfast.” How true that is. There is an emerging realiza-tion that attracting and keeping talent is critical to sustained competitive advantage.
QIf you could return to school as a student for a day, what’s the one course you would take?
A Data mining and analysis. It provides incredible insight. I’m a novice at it, but I realize the potential. I
am currently sitting in on a colleague’s Ph.D. seminar in
data mining, so I’m actually backing up my answer with
action.
QWhat’s your greatest personal accomplishment to date?
A It isn’t a single thing, but a collection of related events. I think it is the e-mails and phone calls from
students and employers. It’s hearing from former students
that I have impacted their lives and careers by teaching
them a critical concept or simply encouraging them in a
difficult time.
From employers it is when I have helped match the right
student to the right company. This is truly a win for the
company, student, Auburn, and me.
Dale Rogers
WHEN DALE S. ROGERS’ NAME IS MENtioned, most people automatically think of
reverse logistics. A pioneer in research in
that field, Rogers co-authored the now-stan-dard text Going Backwards: Reverse Logistics
Trends and Practices and is chairman of the
Reverse Logistics Executive Council. The
Foundation Professor, Logistics and Supply
Chain Management at the University of
Nevada, Reno, and director of the university’s Center for Logistics Management, he has
expanded his research to include sustainable supply chains
and e-commerce supply chain management. Over the years,
he has lectured at more than 200 executive education seminars and conferences and has written several books on supply chain management.
For the last decade, the intrepid Rogers has shared his
expertise with students throughout Latin America, particu-
larly in Brazil and Argentina. As a result, he
can sketch a current—and for many people,
probably surprising—picture of the state of
logistics and supply chain management in
the Southern Hemisphere.
QYou’ve become involved in logistics and supply chain education in Brazil.
How did that come about, and what kind of
work are you doing there?
A The first time I went down there was in 2000. [Ohio State University professor]
Walter Zinn, who is from Brazil, talked to me about speaking down there, so I went and struck up a very close friendship with Cesar Lavalle of ILOS, the Instituto de Logística e
Supply Chain. … I’m doing so many things there, including
a recent appointment as the leader in sustainability and
reverse logistics practices at ILOS.
