It does not matter what your profession, there is always the need to keep up to date with trends, new poducts/services and the latest news.  While I was doing my own regular reseach I came across an archived article labled Supply Chain-Driven Innovation. It was very interesting reading from six years ago and the message from the author,  Kevin O’Marah,  is the still the same, basically the Supply Chain Manager must:

Use more data from more sources
Inform more people
Collaborate more
Understand other corporate functions
Expect change

The Havard Business Shool article is found at:  http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/5139.html

It is only now that the Supply Chain is being seen as an equal to the traditional ‘critical’  functions such as Marketing and Finance. Companies are now realising that Supply Chain is also critical and by having the collaboration of, and between the functions, then innovative ideas will happen and overall benefits will be achieved.

I suppose this was bound to happen as the issues of supply have found their way to the top of many an agenda, for example the cost of fuel (freight), the global market place (logistics), the cost of space (storage), the requirements of the customer (demand/procurement), and the impact each has on other functions of the business.

And just as the Supply Chain Manager must understand other corporate functions, the managers of other corporate functions must also understand Supply Chain. And as Marketing is far more than just showing a product to market or Finance computing an EBITDA, so Supply Chain is more than just organising the carrier for a delivery.  So it’s good to see there are companies with Supply Chain positions at C-Level.

So the question is: do you see your Supply Chain as just support for other fuctions or as a functionitself that can help build a commercial and/or competitive advantage?