Chris Caplice is a numbers guy. Throughout
his career, he has applied a mathematical
approach to analyzing and solving transportation and supply chain problems. His
technical bent gets full play in his current positions as executive director of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s
(MIT) Center for Transportation & Logistics
(CTL) and as chief scientist for the consulting firm Chainalytics. He’s also the founder
of the MIT FreightLab, which researches
the way freight transportation is designed, procured, and
managed.
Caplice holds a Ph.D. from MIT in transportation and
logistics systems, a Master of Science in civil engineering
from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor
of Science in civil engineering from the Virginia Military
Institute (VMI). He also served five years in the Army
Corps of Engineers, achieving the rank of captain.
Q Two of your degrees are in civil engineering. How did that background lead you to the field of supply chain
management, and does it influence your work today?
A Not only was I educated as a civil engineer, but I also earned my Professional Engineer license in the Army
Corps of Engineers. My path went from understanding
how to build bridges and roads to being
interested in how that infrastructure system
interacts with the users. This naturally led to
freight transportation, logistics, and eventu-
ally, supply chain management.
Engineering is the perfect discipline for
supply chain professionals for two reasons.
First, it helps you understand how to make
trade-offs between cost and service—a core
concept that underlies all supply chain man-
agement decisions. Second, it requires the
user to have a solid understanding of the theory along with
the ability to ground [that theory] in reality. The analysis
and discipline that I learned in my civil engineer days at
VMI and UT Austin shape the way I approach and solve
supply chain problems today.
Q Some see supply chain management (SCM) as a busi- ness management discipline, while others place it in
the realm of engineering. Do you see those approaches as
competitive or complementary?
A SCM is such a new discipline that the first generation of supply chain management experts is still working!
The divisions between the approaches to SCM reflect
these experts’ different origins. Those with engineering
roots tend to take a mathematical approach and look for
Chris Caplice
Q What professional achievement are you most proud of, and why?
A Being selected to lead Starbucks’ global supply chain. Everything that led me to this point and everything I
did prior to coming to Starbucks positioned me to be able
to come in and do something bigger than myself. I knew
the day I took this job that it was an opportunity to have a
much bigger impact than just supply chain. I knew it was
about being part of a company that has a social conscience
and wants to redefine what it means to be a for-profit
company and about using Starbucks’ global scale for good.
Without question, we have made substantive moves over
the last two years. When it comes to Starbucks’ journey,
our best days are ahead of us, and the supply chain is the
engine that is going to drive that growth. It really makes
you proud.
Q How does Starbucks’ social consciousness affect how the supply chain organization operates?
A There’s a question we ask ourselves here at Starbucks upply chain: “Can supply chain solve social prob-
lems?” We firmly believe that the answer is yes, and here’s
why. A growing segment of our population is “opportunity
youth,” young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 who are
disconnected from work, have never been employed, or are
severely underemployed. We believe that together with our
17,000 or so suppliers, we can bridge the gap between those
underemployed or unemployed youth and employment
opportunities.
We have a group called LeadersUp that we helped to
start as a 501(c)( 3) three years ago. I’m deeply engaged
with that group both as a member of the board of directors
and also from a Starbucks perspective as we work with
that firm. When it comes to creating employment opportunities, there has not been much focus on the demand
side, on working with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and trying to link the supply of available talent to
demand. We said, “Wouldn’t it be novel if we started with a
demand-driven perspective? Let’s create the jobs on the side
of businesses and be the intermediary that connects those
companies’ demand to the available work-force supply of
all the NGOs.”
Q What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the supply chain management profession?
A Dream big. Work hard. Never say no, and challenge the status quo.
