At the Institute for Supply Management’s 103rd annual conference in Nashville last month, I was invited to attend a panel discussion featuring five 30-under-30 Rising Supply Chain Stars. The 30-under-30 “Rising Supply Chain Stars” program, which is a partnership between ISM and THOMASNET.com that began in 2014, annually recognizes 30 high-performing procurement and supply chain management professionals that are 30 years of age or younger in an effort to raise the profile of the supply management industry among other Millennials and elevate the generation’s brand across the industry. It’s a great program, and every year I’m impressed with the poise, humility, and achievements that these young men and women exhibit at the annual ISM conference. They are what the industry needs; and frankly, they are what their generation needs.

It’s no secret that the Millennial generation (also called Generation-Y, or simply Gen-Y) is the default face of youth entitlement and privilege. It has (almost) become passe to deride “the Millennials” as the polar opposite of what determination, grit, and earned success looks like. With helicopter parents, participation trophies, new-age math, and Google giving them the answers anyway, these kids, the logic goes, have been pampered their whole lives, are entitled, want everything now, don’t appreciate hard work, and complain about everything. As a result, beating up on Millennials is still your salty uncle’s favorite pastime (to be fair, it’s good practice for telling those neighborhood kids to get off his lawn). But in all seriousness, Millennials routinely and unfairly get a bad rap for being who they are. And if four years of the Rising Supply Chain Stars program has taught us anything, it is that there are at least 120 talented and ambitious, yet humble and respectable Millennials in the industry. And boy, does it need them.

Baby boomers have been retiring in recent years, at least since the economy rebounded from the Great Recession and their retirement funds recouped enough of their losses. So many Boomers have retired or will retire that there has been and will be a shortage of qualified candidates to fill vacancies in supply management roles. Industry has been slow to catch up, but it is making headway. College-level degree programs have increased in numbers in recent years, as more higher-learning institutions are offering concentrations and degrees in supply management-related disciplines. And public and private-sector organizations have begun recruiting at the undergraduate level for positions in supply management, rather than counting on students to “fall into” the industry after passing through several others, like finance or marketing.

As a result, the freshest faces of supply management today are much more likely to have a baseline understanding of the discipline, have more career focus, ambition, and advancement opportunities, and are much more likely to be in leadership positions at this stage of their careers. And, of course, they are much more adept at wielding modern business tools to solve problems. These are the kinds of Millennials I met at ISM 2018 in Nashville last month. They were quite the group.

Getting into it for All the Right Reasons

One of the first questions asked of the 30-under-30 panel was how they got into the supply management profession in the first place. The answers were extraordinary, even compared to their predecessors. One finalist got into it because of the technology that is transforming the industry. Recent innovations, like artificial intelligence, Big Data analytics, Blockchain, connected devices (the “Internet of Things”), and machine learning, are hot right now and will be for quite some time. Supply management is experiencing a wave of digital transformation involving these technologies and many more, which are all interconnected. It is prime ground for digital disruption.

Another finalist chose supply management because she felt that it was an “untapped industry,” and that there are lots of opportunities to make a difference within her business. Similarly, another finalist saw an “immediate need’ in supply management; unlike other fields, there were job opportunities for her right after college. Another finalist saw long-term job security and career growth in the industry, and that supply management is a field where he could spend the next 35 years progressing in his career.

The one consistent reason why these finalists got into supply management is for the challenges the industry presents to organizations. Supply chain and procurement touch many different aspects of the business, and as a result, these roles are primed for challenges that keep their work interesting. And the satisfaction that comes from overcoming challenges is hard to achieve elsewhere.

Overcoming Millennial Stereotypes

As in years’ past, the one question that seemed to get a muted response was in regards to how these Millennials feel about Millennial stereotypes. [To be fair, it is a loaded question and one expects an earful in response.] But the panel seemed self-aware, almost as if they understood why they have the reputation in the first place. Undoubtedly, there are those that embody the worst of the stereotype; and chances are they have college friends or roommates that are the stereotypical Millennial. But in Nashville, the 30-under-30 panel handled the question with grace and empathy. They fully understand the reputation they have and, rather than be bitter about it, they take it in stride.

One finalist said that he tries to let his leadership skills speak for themselves, rather than be boastful and throw his weight around. Another finalist said that the secret to her success has been to understand where she is in relation to everyone else in the organization; she is the youngest of 84 people on her team, and one of the newest. She cannot let her early success go to her head. In that vein, another finalist quoted Dale Carnegie, who said, “In order to be interesting, you need to be interested.” The secret to her success has been to ask questions and be interested in the answers.

#TimesUp in Supply Management

The discussion then turned to the rise of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements in today’s social climate, and what the panelists’ experiences, if any, have been in this context. The consensus was that, despite the advances that women, people of color, and people with disabilities have made in the modern business world, there is still a lot of progress that needs to be made.

One finalist stated that she was the only woman on a team of 84 males, who all assumed that she would not want to travel internationally to work on extended projects. Her advice to women was to speak up and let their wishes be known, because their leaders are not mind readers: how would they know that she’d like to travel abroad for work? Also, their unconscious bias may lead them to believe that women are not bold enough to travel abroad by themselves, so there is no point in asking. Another finalist, an African American woman who graduated from a historically-black college/university (HBCU), spoke of how she has had to overcome the perception that HBCUs are not “as good” as other elite colleges and universities. Compared to her colleagues, it can be an uphill battle for her simply because of her gender, race, and alma mater.

A third finalist, a male supply chain leader who has four women on his team, including women of color who are all older than him, gave his perspective. As their manager, he tries to not see color or race, but their performance and interests. It was a fair response, and kudos to him as a young supply chain manager for trying to fairly manage a diverse team. But the root cause of at least some workplace issues is a failure to acknowledge our biases, and how they may affect our judgement. There ought to be nothing wrong with acknowledging who we are and what makes us unique (i.e., seeing race and gender). What is wrong is letting biases affect our judgement, either way, and treating people differently because of who they are.

Final Thoughts

Considering the path not taken, the panel consensus was that they would do it all again and change nothing, except perhaps that they would dive in and embrace the career path sooner. This ought to be welcome news to Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) and other supply management leaders that have to fill vacancies and staff teams with fresh, bold talent. And it ought to take some of the heat off of the Millennial generation, which has been labelled as a generation of job hoppers. This generation is clearly energized and empowered to work in the supply management industry, particularly at such a critical time in 2018. But rest assured, CPOs: the Millennials are not going anywhere. They are alright.

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