This morning I attended an analyst phone briefing hosted by IBM on their Global Chief Supply Chain Officer study (an executive summary of “The Smarter Supply Chain of the Future” will be available for download tomorrow at this link).  The presentation highlighted some of the key findings from the study, based on a survey of 400 global supply chain executives.  The presentation contained a lot of interesting information (too much to comment on here), but I’ll share with you a couple of quick impressions.

First, I was glad to see that talent management was included in the study (even if it wasn’t discussed much during the call; it’s always much more fun to talk about processes and technologies).  I wrote a piece on talent management last month (“Talent Management in Supply Chain and Logistics“) that struck a nerve with readers because of all the downsizing taking place.  According to the IBM study, “building leadership talent” was the largest issue supply chain executives face in managing worldwide talent (cited by 78 percent of the survey participants).  During the Q&A session, I asked if the survey delved deeper into what defines “leadership talent” and I was told that the full report includes additional insights.  But in short, the findings seem to align with what I stated in my post-i.e.,  supply chain and logistics professionals with the right mix of analytics, business, and relationship skills will be in high demand (but low supply ) in the future.

Second, the study underscored the “Jekyll and Hyde” faces of globalization.  On the one hand, low cost country sourcing and operations have caused lead time, cost, quality, and service level issues, but on the other hand, supply chain executives plan to increase sourcing from these regions, particularly from Asia and Eastern Europe.  The positives (increased sales, improved margins, etc.) apparently outweigh the negatives.  However, as I highlighted in my “A ‘Buy American’ Supply Chain” posting last week, a growing number of companies are taking a different perspective, adopting “near sourcing” strategies in response to the increased costs, risks, and complexities associated with managing long, global supply chains.  This could be one of those topics where if you ask ten executives for their opinion, you’ll get ten different answers.

Karen Butner from IBM, who presented the results this morning, will be speaking next week at the SAP Insider event in Orlando.  I’ll be there too, so I hope to spend a few minutes with her to get some additional insights on the study results.  If you download the report and have some questions you’d like me to ask Karen, just send me an email or post a comment.  For my own views on what attributes will define tomorrow’s industry leaders, read my post from last month that includes a short list of things.  And as always, feel free to add your own viewpoints on this topic by posting a comment on the website.