Top Talking Logistics Posts & Episodes (Q3 2019)

By Adrian Gonzalez

It’s October, which means the weather is starting to turn cooler (at least here in the Northeast), baseball playoffs are in full swing (sorry Dodger fans), and many companies and supply chain executives are in the process of developing or finalizing their budgets for 2020. There are the usual line items to complete: transportation costs, technology and capital investments, staffing levels and associated costs, and so on. But there is one very important line item that might still be missing from their budgets: investment in leadership development and education.

Why is leadership development and education critically important for supply chain and logistics executives? What are the biggest challenges and obstacles to investing in leadership development and education?

I addressed those questions and more in a September 2014 Talking Logistics episode (watch it below), and in other posts, including Supply Chain Learning: Think Beyond Traditional Paths and Putting Leadership Development Back on Your Calendar

In their book A New Culture of Learning, Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown state the following:

“The major pitfall of the 21st century’s teaching model is the belief that most of what we know will remain relatively unchanged for a long enough period of time to be worth the effort of transferring it…The old ways of learning are unable to keep up with our rapidly changing world.”

This is particularly true in supply chain management, where new technologies, business models, competitors, legislation, economic issues, and so on are constantly emerging, which requires companies to continuously evolve their supply chain processes, thinking and networks.

Thomas and Brown position peer-to-peer learning as a more effective learning model in rapidly-changing fields like supply chain management. Bill Taylor, cofounder of Fast Company magazine, makes a similar point in an HBR blog post published in January 2012 titled, Are You Learning as Fast as the World is Changing?

It’s also the main reason why we launched Indago earlier this year. Because we believe that the best source of practical knowledge and advice are your peers, other supply chain and logistics practitioners just like you who have already met and overcome the same challenges and opportunities you face today.

If you’re a supply chain or logistics practitioner from a manufacturing, retail, or distribution company, I encourage you to learn more about Indago and join our research community. It is confidential, there is no cost to join and the time commitment is minimal (2-5 minutes per week) — plus your participation will help support charitable causes like JDRF, American Logistics Aid Network, American Cancer Society, Feeding America, and Make-A-Wish.

You can also follow us on LinkedIn to stay informed of our latest research results and news.

Thank You!

As always, a big thank you to our sponsors for making Talking Logistics possible, and to all of you — our readers, newsletter subscribers, and social media followers — for making it all worthwhile.

In case you missed them the first time around or want to read/view them again, check out the top posts and new episodes from Q3 2019. After reading/watching them, share this post with your colleagues and social media followers, then post a comment and share your perspective on these topics!

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