What is the prevailing attitude of CEOs towards supply chain management? What can supply chain executives do to attempt to change this perception?

One of the greatest challenges for supply chain managers is to get other corporate
leaders to appreciate the potential impact that effective supply chain management can have on their businesses. This challenge stems from the preoccupation of many corporate executives with growth for their companies, sometimes at the expense of maintaining short-term service levels and achieving longer-term objectives. Supply chain leaders need to position their organizations to meet their objectives and also contribute to corporate growth imperatives. To become contributing players to the growth agenda, there are three areas in which supply chain leaders need to focus: (1) think beyond cost, (2) develop world-class collaboration skills, and (3) aggressively grow your personal leadership capabilities.

The authors offer a few thoughts as to what supply chain managers can do to get their CEOs thinking about SCM more in terms of growth than cost reduction. The first step is to communicate the relationship between supply chain competency and growth. A recent study conducted by the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics did this effectively, finding that "…focusing supply chains on achieving customer objectives rather than reducing near-term costs and inventories can have a greater impact on a company's financial performance. Leading enterprises integrate elements of supply chain management with customer-facing and revenue-generating capabilities. Essentially, this requires that supply chain management be viewed as central to the enterprise, rather than as an overlooked back-office function. Also, SCM must be viewed as a competitive differentiator that helps to ensure profitable growth.