respondents report working more than 45 hours a week,
and 39 percent say the amount of time they put in has
increased over the past three years.
What makes it hard for many firms seeking top talent
is that large companies with well-established supply
chain organizations don’t let top people get away easily.
As Exhibit 2 indicates, it’s the large companies that tend
to pay best. (To provide as accurate a comparison as possible, Exhibit 2 only looks at the average salary for managers, as nearly half of all respondents are managers.)
It’s at those large firms where the best opportunities
for advancement lie, and where young and ambitious
folks should go to cut their teeth, MacEachern adds.
“There are well-established organizations—P&G, GE,
Frito-Lay, Dell—that have really institutionalized supply
chain knowledge and where a lot of good people are
developed,” he says.
Supply chain skills have become so crucial that the
chief supply chain officer has, at many companies,
assumed the role of chief operating officer, MacEachern
says. “That whole role of COO has almost disappeared,
supplanted by the chief supply chain officer because now
the plants are reporting to supply chain guys, not operating guys,” he says.
WHAT EMPLOYERS LOOK FOR
What are firms looking for in supply chain talent? First
on the list, says MacEachern, is leadership. “This is a
function that as recently as 10 years ago was a fairly tech-
nical role, and technical skills were at a higher premium
than leadership,” he says. “But what we’re seeing today is
that the supply chain is being elevated to the executive
committee and reporting to the CEO. It is very often
managing 60 to 70 percent of the cost of goods sold. It is
such an integral part of a company’s success today. The
leadership element—the ability to build a team, the abil-
ity to integrate a team, the ability to have that team
working together—is so vital.”
Those skills now extend to managing third-party
logistics service providers (3PLs), a capability
MacEachern says will only grow in importance as out-
sourcing becomes a bigger part of the logistics land-
scape. “That whole partnership model and the ability to
integrate and work closely with third-party providers is
huge,” he says.
EXHIBIT 1
Salary by position
Position
Supervisor
Manager
Director
Vice president
President
Corporate officer
Overall
Average
salary 2013
$64,744
$93,266
$121,915
$167,959
$147,947
$179,171
$108,296
Average
salary 2012
$59,499
$86,934
$121,147
$146,398
$169,714
$223,950
$106,311
EXHIBIT 2
Salary for a manager
by company size
Number of employees
Fewer than 100
100–500
501–1,000
1,001–5,000
More than 5,000
Average salary
for a manager
$80,593
$83,160
$82,406
$105,316
$110,983
EXHIBIT 3
Salary by education
Level of education
High school diploma
Bachelor’s degree
Master’s degree
Doctorate
Average salary
$87,878
$115,952
$129,608
$173,600
IT skills remain a relevant part of the supply chain
executive’s résumé, according to MacEachern. Given the
importance of technology in the modern-day supply
chain, no manager can succeed and advance without a
strong grounding in that area, he says.
