Last week I attended a freshman convocation at Temple University for the graduating class of 2019, and I was struck by one of the facts presented:
“The student graduating in 2019 will have nine careers in the course of their lifetimes. 50% of the occupations known today will be obsolete in ten years.” Professor Tricia Jones, Department of Communication, Temple University
This statement resonated with me. I think I will have nine careers before I retire, and I am currently working in a career that was not defined at the time I entered college.
As she spoke, I had flashbacks to my freshman year. It was 1972. I first graduated in 1976 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. At that time I thought I wanted to be a dietitian. However, after an internship in dietetics, I found it was not the career for me. I hated cooking in dark, dank basement hospitals, and talking to sick patients about low-salt diets. While I loved science, I knew I needed to find a new career.
So, after interviewing the graduates in my dormitory, and quizzing them on what they were able to do with their careers, I enrolled in the college of Chemical Engineering. When hearing the news, my mother cried. My dad wrung his hands. Worried about his daughter, my dad asked, “Would you consider being a nurse?” It his mind it was a gender acceptable position. Both of my parents thought I would never get out of school. They quickly threw up the obstacle that I would have to pay my own way. I accepted the challenge and found jobs to pay my college bill.
One of the few women in my class in 1976, in introductions, the faculty disdainfully would mention the fact that I previously graduated from the school of Home Economics in Dietetics. They discouraged me. To graduate with an engineering degree, I had to take an additional 240 credit hours.  To pay for the classes, I worked three jobs.
I did not like my engineering classes, but I was motivated by the work in my co-op position in manufacturing at Procter & Gamble. I loved the rhythm of the factory when I opened the door and the tangibility of results. I thrived in leading high-performance work teams and driving improvements in Six Sigma programs. My plant manager, Bob Marsden, mentored me. When I got discouraged with the Statics and Dynamics classes in the school of chemical engineering, he would caution me to hang in there. He would tell me that the if I could focus, and do what I did not want to do, that the benefit would outweigh the pain. He was right. I was lucky to get his coaching. Graduating with a chemical engineering degree in 1978 resulted in 22 offers. When my dad read the offer letters he gradually accepted the fact that I was going to be OK moving into a male-dominated profession.Today, I own a small firm specializing in research for the supply chain leader. At my company we conduct business-t0-business studies on the evolution of supply chain practices. We conduct about 30 quantitative studies a year, and I write 20 reports and two ebooks a year. I give away the research and make money through speaking, advisory services, training, and events. I write for the supply chain visionary. I have had seven careers in my life:
  • Career 1: Dietetics
  • Career 2: Manufacturing Management
  • Career 3: Research and Development
  • Career 4: Software Product Management
  • Career 5: Marketing and Corporate Communications
  • Career 6: Industry Analyst
  • Career 7: Small Business Owner
Today I am known as a supply chain expert. Yet, in 1976, sitting on a hard wooden bleacher at my convocation, there was no career termed “supply chain management.”  I fell into the career. It was a natural extension of my work in manufacturing. This career choice could not have been predicted. At that time I thought I would have the same job until I retired. Nothing could be further from the truth.
My dad had two careers: typesetting, and sorting mail for the post office. They are both obsolete today.
I am 61 and working on my DBA at Temple. In my next career I want to be a professor and a writer. I would like to continue to manage my current company; but over time, my interests are in teaching others. Many who I went to school with have retired, but I have no interest in retiring. I have passion for what I do. I think that supply chain saves the world and the planet. I think it matters economically. For all, I think it means jobs. To make my point on this pretty fall day, let me share some trivia.
  1. Decline in U.S. Manufacturing. In the late 1940(s), manufacturing in the United States accounted for around 25% of US GDP and about one-third of the non-farm jobs. In 2013, manufacturing accounted for 12% of US GDP and one in eleven non-farm jobs.
  2. New Source of Jobs. The American middle class represented 60% of the job losses in the last recession, but middle class jobs only represent 27% of the post recovery jobs. In 2012, the Georgia Center of Innovation reported that the United States will be short one million workers in supply chain by 2016. Many of these are in supply chain management.
  3. Shifts in Wealth. Since 2000, 52% of the companies in the Fortune 500 have either gone bankrupt, been acquired, ceased to exist, or dropped out of the Fortune 500. Through the redefinition of supply chain, Amazon, FedEx, and Walmart each defined new business models to become Fortune 500 leaders. Our graduates today, through new forms of supply chain, can create new business models. Supply chain matters more than ever.
  4. Earth to Consumption. The average American born in 2013 will consume three million pounds of minerals, metals and fuels in their lifetime. This includes 27,416 of iron ore, 978 pounds of copper, 521 pounds of zinc, and 1.77 ounces of gold. Today, the supply chain spans many companies and countries with intricate flows from earth to shelf. There are new opportunities for heavy equipment operators and software to enable the Internet of Things to keep mining machines running.Improvements in Commerce. Why It Matters. Because of supply chain management capabilities, 5 billion barcodes are scanned each day. This includes two Barbies sold every second, McDonald’s serving 6.8 million customers a day and Starbucks using 4 billion paper cups a year. Behind every effective supply chain are hard-working people.
  5. Drivers of  Productivity. There are many stories of shrinking time out of the supply chain, but one of my favorites is the iconic Easter treat, the Peep. The first Peeps product took 27 hours to manufacture 15 years ago: it now takes six minutes. There are more and more horizons to improve effectiveness.
  6. Improving the Planet. Social Responsibility While we talk of cradle-to-cradle, we are still very new at effective recycling. It takes 90 days for a recycled aluminum can to cycle back to the shelf. While over 90% of companies have a corporate social responsibility statement, and over 70% make a marketing claim about improving the planet, only 22% of companies take ownership of carbon, water and energy usage and the final waste impact in their extended value chain. As more and more companies focus on the extended supply chain, there will be new opportunities, and evolving careers.
In 1982, the term supply chain management was first used to define the physical and logical flows between sourcing, manufacturing and logistics. In 1990, the department of labor added a logistics job classification. It is now 30-years old. So, if your child comes home and states that they want to study supply chain, I hope you will not wring your hands. It is a field which is rapidly changing with great economic impact. For this old gal, it turned into an exciting career. I hope it does for your child as well.
Sources:
Washington Post, How the Recession turned Middle-class Jobs into Low-Wage Jobs, February 28,2013
Global Employment Trends 2014, Risk of a Jobless Recovery?, International Labour Office, Geneva
CNBC, Keep on Truckin’?, August 20, 2014
US Mines to Market, www.SNLmetals.com, September 9, 2014
Supply Chain Insights Trivia, www.supplychaininsightsglobalsummit.com, September 2015