OK, the sky is falling. What’s next? Or excuse me, but I already knew the sky was falling.
For the past two days I have listened to a series of panelists and speakers talk about how their firm is stepping up to the plate and dedicating resources to supply chain in these tough times because their management knows that their supply chain is crucial to long term success; how they are working with suppliers to cut costs and bring the savings home. There is only one problem: all of the speakers are from large firms with resource depth that makes the average supply chain practitioner drool with envy.
2004 US Census data reports that there were 5,885,784 firms actually employing someone other than the owner (there were something like 19,000,000 plus sole proprietorships). Of this total, 5,782,199 firms, or 98% of the total, employed 499 or less employees. These firms employed 51% of the total workforce. It would be safe to assume that 51% of America’s supply chain personnel also work for these firms.
So far in Charlotte I have yet to hear the voice of 98% of businesses. Nor am I hearing solutions that will assist the supply chain person in contributing to their small to medium size business - and maybe actually help that business survive the downturn. It’s great to know that someone else’s management sees the big picture and intends to fund for the coming upturn, but that’s just rubbing salt in the wound for the guy or gal who is not so fortunate. And don’t say they should move on to a more progressive company, because the sky really is falling and there aren’t that many alternatives available. Unfortunately ISM appears to have been hijacked by big business for its exclusive use leaving nowhere to turn for over half of America’s supply chain personnel.
In good years it was nice to hear from so-in-so who held many high and mighty positions in academia and business and their individual view of the world, but right now we need practical solutions to real problems. Examples: how do I select which buyer to lay off as business continues to dwindle? What business practices should I maintain, and which should I scrap when I don’t have the resources to do it all? How do I make my operations scalable to meet variable demand? Etc., etc.
I need to work on my professional association. Complaining is cathartic, but does little to solve the problem.
For the past two days I have listened to a series of panelists and speakers talk about how their firm is stepping up to the plate and dedicating resources to supply chain in these tough times because their management knows that their supply chain is crucial to long term success; how they are working with suppliers to cut costs and bring the savings home. There is only one problem: all of the speakers are from large firms with resource depth that makes the average supply chain practitioner drool with envy.
2004 US Census data reports that there were 5,885,784 firms actually employing someone other than the owner (there were something like 19,000,000 plus sole proprietorships). Of this total, 5,782,199 firms, or 98% of the total, employed 499 or less employees. These firms employed 51% of the total workforce. It would be safe to assume that 51% of America’s supply chain personnel also work for these firms.
So far in Charlotte I have yet to hear the voice of 98% of businesses. Nor am I hearing solutions that will assist the supply chain person in contributing to their small to medium size business - and maybe actually help that business survive the downturn. It’s great to know that someone else’s management sees the big picture and intends to fund for the coming upturn, but that’s just rubbing salt in the wound for the guy or gal who is not so fortunate. And don’t say they should move on to a more progressive company, because the sky really is falling and there aren’t that many alternatives available. Unfortunately ISM appears to have been hijacked by big business for its exclusive use leaving nowhere to turn for over half of America’s supply chain personnel.
In good years it was nice to hear from so-in-so who held many high and mighty positions in academia and business and their individual view of the world, but right now we need practical solutions to real problems. Examples: how do I select which buyer to lay off as business continues to dwindle? What business practices should I maintain, and which should I scrap when I don’t have the resources to do it all? How do I make my operations scalable to meet variable demand? Etc., etc.
I need to work on my professional association. Complaining is cathartic, but does little to solve the problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment