Supply Chain Management, Procurement, and other operational functions that are critical to the
success of a business are more strategic and more important than ever. In the new realities of the post-pandemic world, the skill profiles of people in these functions have changed dramatically and talent development professionals are struggling to identify, assess, and develop the skills critical for success.
Analytical skills are always important, especially when we live in a world of seemingly infinite data. The need to analyze data to make the best decisions for the company is a core competency that needs to be constantly nurtured and developed. However, there is an emerging skill in the world of Supply Chain management that is even more critical: Business Acumen.
But what is Business Acumen in the world of Supply Chain Management and Procurement in 2021 and beyond? Here’s a hint: it’s different in Procurement than other functions such as Sales, Marketing, Manufacturing, R&D, Finance, and other core business functions. Based on our research, focus groups, observations, and insights, we share the updated competencies needed by Supply Chain and Procurement professionals around the world to be successful:
Strategic Mindset
The capabilities to understand business strategy in terms of your own company’s strategy, your customer’s strategies, and the strategies of your competitors. The strategic mindset includes the mastery of different strategic frameworks and strategic thinking tools that define a value proposition to customers.
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is a mode of thinking about any subject, content, or problem in which the thinker improves the quality of their thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it. Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking.
How Supply Chain fits into the Business Model
The ability to link the strategic mindset and critical thinking to the business and where Supply Chain and Procurement fit into the strategy and value proposition of the business to its customers. For example, if a company’s strategy is Product Innovation, the supply chain needs to acquire top quality raw materials, impactful packaging, and high-quality transportation to preserve the quality of the products.
Financial Literacy
Financial literacy is the ability to understand and use various financial skills, including financial management, budgeting, and investing. It also includes the ability to read and understand core financial statements like the Income Statement, the Balance Sheet, the Cash Flow report, and the key metrics that provide benchmarks relative to performance.
Assess Opportunities, Challenges, and Risk
Supply Chain Management presents unlimited opportunities for improvement and performance, challenges in execution, and risks at every level of the process. The ability to assess the opportunities, challenges, and risks to make the best decisions is the difference between success and failure.
Agility
Agility is the willingness to change, the ability to change, and the nimbleness you demonstrate as you adapt to change quickly—it is key to your future.
The essential skill of thinking with agility (being agile) can be learned and enhanced as you progress your career. Improving your self-awareness is essential to improving your thinking style combined with the desire and confidence to challenge the status quo and to try new ways of thinking.
Decisiveness
The ability to make decisions quickly and confidently using data and insights that are available and in support of the overall strategy and value proposition to customers.
Leading Change
Leading change requires creating experiences for people that reveal new possibilities and opportunities while uniting them to drive strategies that leverage the resources to win in the marketplace. It requires optimizing the culture of an organization while making investments to drive business growth at the same time and often when there is great ambiguity.
Summary: The Impact
In summary, the impact of developing these skills can be game changing for your organization. If your leaders develop these skills, they will be able to:
- Understand and drive the complete end-to-end supply chain strategy and key metrics of your business.
- Gather information and intelligence to be able to influence strategy and operations in support of their strategy, goals, and objectives.
- Enhance their relationships with vendors and key suppliers for better collaboration and perhaps pricing/costs.
