thoughtleaders GERRY FAY
tomers, which means we will get
more business, which means we can
hire more logistics people. We see a
nice healthy symbiotic relationship
between employee engagement and
customer engagement. For me, the
biggest challenges I’ve had in my
career in fixing logistics operations
usually came down to management
and employee engagement.
and who are folks that need development. Then, we create development plans. Our ultimate goal is to
grow people up in the organization.
QAs folks move up the ladder, are they primarily coming out
of logistics and supply chain management or are they coming from
other areas of the company?
AIt is a little bit of both. For the most part, they work their way
through the logistics organization
over time. One benefit we’ve had at
Avnet is that because we have
acquired so many companies, we
generally get a look at the best talent
that exists in the industry. One of
the things that we say at Avnet when
we do an acquisition is “Best people,
best practice” and we really believe
in that.
When we acquire a company, we
look at the talent they have and
determine if the talent is as good as
or better than the talent we already have,
and as much as possible, we will bring in
those folks that we think can add to our tal-
ent base. I don’t think most companies
involved in an acquisition spend as much
time evaluating the talent from businesses
they acquire because a lot of times, it’s all
about synergies. When we do an acquisi-
tion, we are looking at both the Avnet folks
and the acquired company’s folks to really
pick best of breed.
QYou used a term I haven’t heard before: war for talent.
How does a company like Avnet
approach that? How are you finding
folks with the right skills? Are you
bringing them up internally or are
you hiring people at a higher level
with more specialized degrees?
AThe fundamental thing we do is succession planning.
Through many levels down through
the organization, we have identified
who are our major succession candidates, who are our key players,
QWhat’s the next big challenge on the horizon for managers striving for
logistics excellence?
AAs operations expand around the world, driving efficiency, effectiveness, and standardization becomes a bit of
a challenge. A lot of companies have not
designed their logistics networks to support future growth.
The next big thing, I think, is logistics
leaders looking out in three- to five-year
chunks about what emerging markets their
companies are getting into and starting to
plan what their logistics infrastructure will
need to look like. I think that is a big
change. It used to be, “Hey, we are going to
open up here, find us a warehouse and use
a 3PL,” but there wasn’t a lot of thought of
connecting those because business was
generally fairly local. Now that it is global, a
lot of times, the customer will be in the U.S.
this week and move its manufacturing to
Asia and expect you to move the supply
chain. You’ve got to have a logistics infrastructure to support that.
BATTERY HANDLING
SOLUTIONS
SINCE 1946
800.433.3110
MTCWORLDWIDE.COM
QWhat advice would you offer some- one considering a career in logistics
and supply chain management?
AI would tell them that before they focus on logistics as an area of study
to try to go get a summer job at a warehouse and learn what logistics is about
from the inside out. Try to help build relationships with management there to
understand that.
Once you do that, my personal opinion is
that even if you are focused on logistics,
move on to a focus on supply chain because
you have a little bit broader background. I
think that helps anyone understand how
that all fits together and the role logistics
plays in the supply chain. ;
