32 IdeaBook 2015
the team. This will approximate the situations they are
likely to encounter in their future jobs.
Similarly, our current education system rewards students based on individual performance. If students are
able to answer enough questions correctly on an exam
or write a strong paper, they are rewarded with high
grades. They are then told that if they keep their grades
high enough, they will get a good job with a respectable
company when they graduate. But managing a complex
supply chain requires people to be able to do more than
correctly answer questions on an exam or analyze a case
study. This means employers and educators will have
to move away from rating individual performance and
instead rate performance based on how well a team or
even an entire class does.
If students are assigned to teams and are assigned a
team leader, as is typically the case in businesses, how
well the team performs as a whole will be as important
as how well each individual performs. Within each
team, there will be tasks that are assigned to a team
member that he or she will not want to do or will not
know how to accomplish. It will be the responsibility of
the team leader to help team members get the resources
they need to accomplish their assignments. Under this
model, evaluations should be based not only on the
knowledge gained by individuals but also on how the
team is able to solve the problem given to them with the
resources provided.
Educators might argue that learning soft skills, such
as how to work in a team or how to effectively communicate with peers, is not the purpose of a college degree.
While that argument can be made, so can the counterargument: that supply chain knowledge is becoming
so technical, industry/company-specific, and subject
to ever-changing economic trends that it’s difficult
for universities to teach the exact skills students would
need for any particular job. Soft skills in leadership,
teamwork, and organization, however, will help make
students effective workers and leaders no matter what
job they land after leaving their academic programs.
Yet at the same time, it is important to realize that
addressing the soft-skill gap is not solely the responsibility of educational institutions or their students.
Employers themselves must do a better job of commu-
nicating to potential employees and educators about the
importance they place on soft skills as well as exactly
what they are looking for from job applicants. Consider
that many job descriptions emphasize the technical
nature of supply chain positions while including only a
brief mention that “strong written and verbal commu-
nication skills” are required. A more helpful approach
would be for employers to be more specific, and to
communicate that the job requires new hires to effec-
tively communicate their ideas, problems, and solutions
to co-workers as well as to management.
IMAGE VERSUS REALITY
In addition to a lack of awareness of the importance of
soft skills, many recent graduates enter the workplace
with unrealistic expectations about the amount and
kind of work they will have to do to advance in their
careers. In some cases, supply chain programs and faculty are fostering this attitude. For example, at a recent
presentation by a college faculty member to a group of
supply chain and logistics professionals and graduate
students, I was stunned by the air of exceptionalism
the speaker was creating by saying how great the school
was, how honored the industry professionals should
be to attend the presentation, and what outstanding
employees the students would be because they were
graduates of the university’s program. This attitude
does the students a disservice. If they believe they are
assured of success because they attended a specific
program, they will be surprised when they get out into
the workplace and find that how well they do the work
matters more than where they went to school.
There is a perception among employers, moreover,
that younger workers are myopically focused on climb-
ing to levels beyond their experience, and that they
expect to have promotions handed to them, without
putting in the necessary time and effort or delivering
results to their employer’s bottom line. As a general
manager for a multibillion-dollar distribution com-
pany put it during a session at the Council of Supply
Chain Management Professionals’ 2013 Annual Global
Conference, “They all want to be vice president in six
months.”
To prevent disillusionment and frustration, educa-
tional institutions and employers need to work togeth-
er to present to students a typical career path. For
example, undergraduates should look for rotational
programs at large companies or operational supervision
roles. After three to five years of strong performance,
they should then be able to seek a manager’s role for five
or more years before looking for senior manager posi-
tions. While there are a variety of career paths available
