Famous tech venture capitalist Marc Andreesen recently quipped, “We’re heading into a world where a flat-screen TV that covers your entire wall costs $100 and a 4-year degree costs $1M”. The takeaway for an ambitious 18-year-old should be obvious: skip college and get a job in supply chain management.
Andreesen’s point was that technology is driving massive productivity gains in some parts of the economy (i.e., manufacturing, retail, etc.) but not others, especially education. Buried in the headline, however, is a golden opportunity for Chief Supply Chain
Six Must Have Skills for 2030 Supply Chains
Post-COVID, and in keeping with the long-term push to digitize and decarbonize supply chains, classical skills seen in purchasing, production and transportation aren’t enough. Six new skills that draw on a mix of vocational experience, analytical training, and interpersonal learning look set to change the game for functional roles in sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, and planning. These six include:
Skills 2030
Of course, very little of this future skillset really exists as a set of job description points. An analysis we conducted of LinkedIn job posts found only 3.8% of all “supply chain” listings included most of the essential terms baked into these six.
Three Tactics for Building 2030 Skills
For supply chain leaders and their HR partners this means that in addition to hiring the right people to fit your culture, you’ll also need to use a few basic tactics to develop these skills within the functional roles of your organization. Three specific tactics emerged in our research which depend more on intelligently using what you already have than on buying or building ambitious new training programs.
Skills 2030
Make a Million Dollars or Spend a Million Dollars – You Choose
Back to Andreesen’s point: “technology whips through [unregulated sectors of the economy], pushing down prices and raising quality every year”, he says. If this is true, and especially if we’re still on the front end of a long-term trend, why would a kid, or her parents, want to plunk down hundreds of thousands of dollars for a college degree when it’s not only possible, but arguably better to start an exciting, meaningful career in supply chain by working in an Amazon
The technology, machinery, and processes being developed in these operations are all advancing fast due both to machine learning as an accelerant, and persistent labor shortages in the US and Europe which are forcing the issue. That means new hires get to see, use, and even help develop the tech as it rolls out. The experience they get will not only look good on a CV but will also make them better students for any future training or targeted education they take as they grow.
The better deal for all concerned may be some combination of vocational secondary school, part time community college and a mashup of APICS certification, six sigma training, and company-specific skill-building programs based on the three tactics described above. We may look back in ten years and think how smart it was to say no thanks to the prestigious ivy-clad college who “accepted” you, and instead take an entry-level job in supply chain and start getting paid.
CSCO’s Can Lead the Way
The revolution in higher education that some (hello Prof G!) have argued is waaaaay overdue won’t come from within. It seems clear that the university establishment is slow at best to embrace change. The sanctity of tenure makes it nearly impossible to seriously disrupt existing models of university degree programs. Plus, with scarcity is enforced in the admissions process, prestige will be hard to unseat.
The unlock may be as simple as celebrating new hires in plants, warehouses, and delivery systems the way we do college admits. With brand names as prestigious as Colgate Palmolive, John Deere and Microsoft
If you build it, they will come.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinomarah/2023/03/09/skills-2030-why-go-to-college-when-you-can-go-straight-to-work-in-supply-chain/