Dr. David Closs Discusses MSU’s Supply Chain Management Program

Last Updated July 5, 2019

Transcription

The characteristic of MSU – and this is described to me from people that recruit here and it’s also how we designed it – is to be a balanced program where we look equally at procurement, production and logistics, and say we want to create individuals who understand that big perspective, who understand that whole process.

So that if somebody recruits them, they can put them in procurement and two years later they can shift to logistics and two years later they can put them in operations, and after six years or 10 years of experience they’ve got somebody that can really move up to the top level of supply chain because they understand all the pieces.

I think we’re ahead of many schools, yes. I think the relationship we have with the industry because we’ve been involved in executive ed programs and research programs over the years, we have strong relationships with some key industry partners. They also happen to be some very large global companies and I think that combination puts us on a pedestal, or a soapbox if you will, that differentiates us from everybody else.

Our top ranking in supply chain is critical from the point of view of the students. We obviously take a lot of pride in it, on the part of the faculty and on the part of the Broad School, because it is one of our highest-ranked programs. It is the highest-ranked program in the College of Business. Recruiters look at the programs they want to recruit at. Like any other purchasing situation, major companies are looking at suppliers and say I want to only go to the top suppliers.

Well, we are the top supplier of supply chain talent. As the top supplier, we also believe we attract the top businesses. We think the top supply chain organizations come to us to look and, in fact, it’s verified by research last year from AMR who surveyed recruiters and they … put out a survey and said where do you get your supply chain talent and Michigan State came out as the top school in terms of the source of supply chain talent.

Employers, I think, like two things specifically or cite two things they really like about the program. One of them is that the students come out with a breadth of experience we talked about earlier, so they’ve got that broad perspective of supply chain.

That doesn’t mean we should be the only supply chain school that companies recruit from, but they hire our students because they have that broad perspective and it’s easy to move them around in an organization and develop the top talent.

The second thing they really like is the hands-on work ethic of our students.

I’m excited about being at a top-ranked school and we get many opportunities that other programs don’t to see the particular program at Michigan State, to have the faculty we have here and be recognized as a major contributor and provide major direction in the supply chain curriculum, not just at Michigan State but around the country.