T-Shaped Talent is Valuable for Your Supply Chain
Last Updated January 22, 2021
For decades, the United States’ workforce grew increasingly specialized. Disciplines have become so refined across all industries that companies today are often comprised of professionals that are experts in their discipline yet work in silos that lack connectivity with other branches of the larger business.
Educational institutions have long played into the division of labor of teaching to this philosophy of hyper-specialization, the result being what is known as “I” shaped professionals with in-depth knowledge of their respective disciplines. Meanwhile, employers and entire industries are finding a need for people with the holistic view necessary to work across disciplines and roles to innovate and communicate across an organization.
Enter the “T” shaped professional. Whereas both types of professionals possess a depth of skill and knowledge in a specific discipline, the T shape is defined by the horizontal stroke that represents the ability to collaborate across multiple functions.
Why do Companies Hire T-Shaped Professionals?
One area in which a T-shaped professional is becoming ever more crucial is supply chain management. In their efforts to increase efficiency while trimming costs, supply chain managers have to understand the end-to-end dynamics of how a product goes from raw material to the consumer’s hands.
With continuous advances in technology and increased globalization, companies are finding themselves making adjustments to their supply chains in response to market forces and ever-evolving customer preferences.
A “Supply Chain Talent of the Future” report by Deloitte revealed that many organizations deem supply chain management to be “a strategic role, whereas a decade ago it would have been considered a tactical one,” according to the study. Still, only 43% of respondents considered their supply chain organization to be excellent or very good when it comes to “strategic thinking and problem solving.”
Understanding multiple aspects of a business is one thing, but a T-shaped professional also possess the communication skills necessary to effectively work with other teams rather than simply presenting the point of view convenient to the interests of their discipline. This is an important trait in collaboration, which is vital to yielding better solutions to complex problems.
Importance of T-Shaped Professionals to Organizations
If an organization has T-shaped leaders, it can manage existing operations and maintain the capacity to innovate for a healthy future.
Operations and strategy are considered two very different cultures within many organizations. Operational performance involves examining products or services a company offers and searching for innovative ways to improve the quality of offerings while reducing costs.
Strategy, on the other hand, takes a more long-term view of the business by determining how operations can be modified in response to disruptive innovations or other market changes on the horizon. Strategists have to look at the business environment and plan experimentation of their own with new tools. External collaboration and continuous refinement to the definition of future goals become the work of a strategist.
The problem is, how can a strategist effectively form a strategy that improves operations if they are unfamiliar with operations or don’t communicate with operations staff? In any business, the devil is in the details, meaning any decisions regarding a company’s operational ability and needs have to align with organizational strategy. T-shaped professionals make this possible.
When it comes to supply chain management, high-level players have to understand logistics, procurement, manufacturing and customer service in some way. Being an expert in one discipline and one system of operations is enough to open doors to higher positions, but to become the leaders that create the supply chains of the future, supply chain managers need at least a little knowledge of each.
Shortage of T-Shaped Professionals in Supply Chain Management
Presently there is a shortage of supply chain talent capable of pushing innovation to the next level. According to an article from Supply Chain 247, troubling times are ahead for the supply chain talent pool. Research shows the demand for supply chain professionals exceeds supply by a ratio 6-to-1.
Michigan State University and APICS Supply Chain Council partnered to conduct research on the topic and published a whitepaper titled, “What’s Keeping Supply Chain Managers Awake at Night?” Researchers looked at the business practices of more than 50 businesses and asked their executives to identify the major issues they wrestle with.
Talent issues were a “primary concern” for many of the organizational leaders interviewed: “It’s a different type of talent that we’re going to need if we’re going to keep up with the pace of change,” one executive said.
As the leader in supply chain management education, Michigan State University’s top-ranked programs continue to develop and produce innovative, T-shaped professionals who have a holistic view of supply chain operations and the targeted skills to become end-to-end optimization specialists.
Deepen your focus in a functional specialty of supply chain management with MSU’s online certificate programs.
