The technology giant strengthens its supply chain talent pool by focusing on geographic, cognitive, skill, and generational diversity; its unusual approach to leadership development has created a deep bench of internationally savvy managers.
Contributing Editor Toby Gooley is a freelance writer and editor specializing in supply chain, logistics, material handling, and international trade. She previously was Editor at CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly. and Senior Editor of SCQ's sister publication, DC VELOCITY. Prior to joining AGiLE Business Media in 2007, she spent 20 years at Logistics Management magazine as Managing Editor and Senior Editor covering international trade and transportation. Prior to that she was an export traffic manager for 10 years. She holds a B.A. in Asian Studies from Cornell University.
Lenovo, best-known for its laptops, also makes and sells desktop and tablet computers, smartphones, and servers. Because the company serves customers in 160 countries, its supply chain organization values a diverse, international workforce.
Supply chain executives in North America who are faced with human resource challenges can take heart: they are far from alone. According to Nicole Jefferies, executive director, worldwide fulfillment for the technology giant Lenovo, the supply chain talent shortage and its attendant difficulties in recruiting, developing, and retaining supply chain professionals is a global phenomenon. "It's a very competitive talent marketplace everywhere we do business," she said in a presentation at the Gartner Supply Chain Management Executive Conference, held in late May in Phoenix, Arizona. That is saying something: Lenovo, which provides computers, smartphones, and servers, has customers in more than 160 countries, and employs more than 55,000 people.
As a truly global business—the company even has two headquarters, one in the U.S. and one in China—Lenovo seeks to capture the business benefits of its employees' diversity while minimizing barriers like language. That approach gives the company "access to innovation and thought leadership globally," not just at corporate headquarters, Jefferies said.
The company values other types of diversity beyond geography, she added. One is generational: About 8 percent of Lenovo's employees are baby boomers born between 1946 and 1960; 32 percent are Generation X, born between 1961 and 1980; and 61 percent are millennials born after 1980. Like the talent shortage, intergenerational conflict seems to be a nearly universal problem. Jefferies related a recent conversation with a Brazilian plant manager, who contended that millennials were his "biggest problem." In her view, managers' attitudes are the problem; they don't understand how to relate to and get the best out of their younger employees, she said. Jefferies offered some recommendations:
Millennials are easily bored. They like to multitask and are more productive when they have a lot of projects and variety in their work.
Adjusting the standard 9-to-5 workday to accommodate millennials' desire for flexibility makes a big difference in their job satisfaction and their level of engagement.
They will play by the rules, but only if you define those rules and clearly communicate specific expectations.
Lenovo also values and pursues cognitive, skill, and functional diversity in its global supply chain workforce. Thirty percent of supply chain employees are engineers, valued for their ability to solve problems, analyze supply chain networks, and manage automation. Fourteen percent focus on customer experience; their performance is measured based on customer satisfaction, Jefferies said. The remaining 56 percent fall under the foundational "plan-source-make-deliver" functions.
Talent development occurs through a combination of formal learning, learning through relationships, and "learning by doing." For example, employees may take a class in lean manufacturing processes in the morning and then put what they learned into practice in the afternoon. This lets them get experience immediately, rather than waiting until after a months-long program has ended, Jefferies said.
Lenovo's supply chain organization uses techniques like pairing an experienced employee with a newer one who has "a beginner's mind," a Zen Buddhism term for someone who is completely fresh to an idea or situation and thus has no preconceived notions. Both can learn from and spark ideas in each other, Jefferies explained. Another is a "mentoring circle," a group of about 10 people with similar functional responsibilities and skills. They meet regularly to share ideas, concerns, and advice with each other, an approach that builds a supportive peer group and "allows you to scale up one-on-one mentoring," as opposed to the time-consuming responsibilities of individual coaching, she said.
To develop managers and executives who are comfortable with the global nature of Lenovo's business, the company developed a mid-career rotation program that sends candidates to work in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. "This program helps [participants] to learn how to manage teams everywhere, not just in their home countries," Jefferies said. For such international programs to succeed, she added, companies must pay special attention to how the program is structured and candidates are selected. Lenovo sends its managers overseas with specific objectives for building relationships and gaining expertise. To help ensure a successful experience, participants are paired with a local mentor in each location. Assignments last eight to 10 weeks—"long enough that they will be viewed as colleagues and learn a lot, but not so long that it's disruptive to the individual and the local organization," Jefferies said.
A separate program is targeted to managers with executive potential who are already experts in their particular field. Launched seven years ago, the program sends high-potential employees on a trip together; as they travel, they work on building leadership skills, problem solving ability, empathy, and a network of peers. According to Jefferies—a member of the inaugural group—the program has been effective in identifying strong executive candidates and in improving retention. Currently about 40 percent of program graduates are Lenovo executives, according to Jefferies.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The U.S. manufacturing sector has become an engine of new job creation over the past four years, thanks to a combination of federal incentives and mega-trends like nearshoring and the clean energy boom, according to the industrial real estate firm Savills.
While those manufacturing announcements have softened slightly from their 2022 high point, they remain historically elevated. And the sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of the November U.S. presidential election, the company said in its September “Savills Manufacturing Report.”
From 2021 to 2024, over 995,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs were announced, with two thirds in advanced sectors like electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries, semiconductors, clean energy, and biomanufacturing. After peaking at 350,000 news jobs in 2022, the growth pace has slowed, with 2024 expected to see just over half that number.
But the ingredients are in place to sustain the hot temperature of American manufacturing expansion in 2025 and beyond, the company said. According to Savills, that’s because the U.S. manufacturing revival is fueled by $910 billion in federal incentives—including the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—much of which has not yet been spent. Domestic production is also expected to be boosted by new tariffs, including a planned rise in semiconductor tariffs to 50% in 2025 and an increase in tariffs on Chinese EVs from 25% to 100%.
Certain geographical regions will see greater manufacturing growth than others, since just eight states account for 47% of new manufacturing jobs and over 6.3 billion square feet of industrial space, with 197 million more square feet under development. They are: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee.
Across the border, Mexico’s manufacturing sector has also seen “revolutionary” growth driven by nearshoring strategies targeting U.S. markets and offering lower-cost labor, with a workforce that is now even cheaper than in China. Over the past four years, that country has launched 27 new plants, each creating over 500 jobs. Unlike the U.S. focus on tech manufacturing, Mexico focuses on traditional sectors such as automative parts, appliances, and consumer goods.
Looking at the future, the U.S. manufacturing sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of November’s presidential election, Savills said. That’s because both candidates favor protectionist trade policies, and since significant change to federal incentives would require a single party to control both the legislative and executive branches. Rather than relying on changes in political leadership, future growth of U.S. manufacturing now hinges on finding affordable, reliable power amid increasing competition between manufacturing sites and data centers, Savills said.
The number of container ships waiting outside U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports has swelled from just three vessels on Sunday to 54 on Thursday as a dockworker strike has swiftly halted bustling container traffic at some of the nation’s business facilities, according to analysis by Everstream Analytics.
As of Thursday morning, the two ports with the biggest traffic jams are Savannah (15 ships) and New York (14), followed by single-digit numbers at Mobile, Charleston, Houston, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Baltimore, and Miami, Everstream said.
The impact of that clogged flow of goods will depend on how long the strike lasts, analysts with Moody’s said. The firm’s Moody’s Analytics division estimates the strike will cause a daily hit to the U.S. economy of at least $500 million in the coming days. But that impact will jump to $2 billion per day if the strike persists for several weeks.
The immediate cost of the strike can be seen in rising surcharges and rerouting delays, which can be absorbed by most enterprise-scale companies but hit small and medium-sized businesses particularly hard, a report from Container xChange says.
“The timing of this strike is especially challenging as we are in our traditional peak season. While many pulled forward shipments earlier this year to mitigate risks, stockpiled inventories will only cushion businesses for so long. If the strike continues for an extended period, we could see significant strain on container availability and shipping schedules,” Christian Roeloffs, cofounder and CEO of Container xChange, said in a release.
“For small and medium-sized container traders, this could result in skyrocketing logistics costs and delays, making it harder to secure containers. The longer the disruption lasts, the more difficult it will be for these businesses to keep pace with market demands,” Roeloffs said.
Jason Kra kicked off his presentation at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) EDGE Conference on Tuesday morning with a question: “How do we use data in assessing what countries we should be investing in for future supply chain decisions?” As president of Li & Fung where he oversees the supply chain solutions company’s wholesale and distribution business in the U.S., Kra understands that many companies are looking for ways to assess risk in their supply chains and diversify their operations beyond China. To properly assess risk, however, you need quality data and a decision model, he said.
In January 2024, in addition to his full-time job, Kra joined American University’s Kogod School of Business as an adjunct professor of the school’s master’s program where he decided to find some answers to his above question about data.
For his research, he created the following situation: “How can data be used to assess the attractiveness of scalable apparel-producing countries for planning based on stability and predictability, and what factors should be considered in the decision-making process to de-risk country diversification decisions?”
Since diversification and resilience have been hot topics in the supply chain space since the U.S.’s 2017 trade war with China, Kra sought to find a way to apply a scientific method to assess supply chain risk. He specifically wanted to answer the following questions:
1.Which methodology is most appropriate to investigate when selecting a country to produce apparel in based on weighted criteria?
2.What criteria should be used to evaluate a production country’s suitability for scalable manufacturing as a future investment?
3.What are the weights (relative importance) of each criterion?
4.How can this methodology be utilized to assess the suitability of production countries for scalable apparel manufacturing and to create a country ranking?
5.Will the criteria and methodology apply to other industries?
After creating a list of criteria and weight rankings based on importance, Kra reached out to 70 senior managers with 20+ years of experience and C-suite executives to get their feedback. What he found was a big difference in criteria/weight rankings between the C-suite and senior managers.
“That huge gap is a good area for future research,” said Kra. “If you don’t have alignment between your C-suite and your senior managers who are doing a lot of the execution, you’re never going to achieve the goals you set as a company.”
With the research results, Kra created a decision model for country selection that can be applied to any industry and customized based on a company’s unique needs. That model includes discussing the data findings, creating a list of diversification countries, and finally, looking at future trends to factor in (like exponential technology, speed, types of supply chains and geopolitics, and sustainability).
After showcasing his research data to the EDGE audience, Kra ended his presentation by sharing some key takeaways from his research:
China diversification strategies alone are not enough. The world will continue to be volatile and disruptive. Country and region diversification is the only protection.
Managers need to balance trade-offs between what is optimal and what is acceptable regarding supply chain decisions. Decision-makers need to find the best country at the lowest price, with the most dependability.
There is a disconnect or misalignment between C-suite executives and senior managers who execute the strategy. So further education and alignment is critical.
Data-driven decision-making for your company/industry: This can be done for any industry—the data is customizable, and there are many “free” sources you can access to put together regional and country data. Utilizing data helps eliminate path dependency (for example, relying on a lean or just-in-time inventory) and keeps executives and managers aligned.
“Look at the business you envision in the future,” said Kra, “and make that your model for today.”
Turning around a failing warehouse operation demands a similar methodology to how emergency room doctors triage troubled patients at the hospital, a speaker said today in a session at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP)’s EDGE Conference in Nashville.
There are many reasons that a warehouse might start to miss its targets, such as a sudden volume increase or a new IT system implementation gone wrong, said Adri McCaskill, general manager for iPlan’s Warehouse Management business unit. But whatever the cause, the basic rescue strategy is the same: “Just like medicine, you do triage,” she said. “The most life-threatening problem we try to solve first. And only then, once we’ve stopped the bleeding, we can move on.”
In McCaskill’s comparison, just as a doctor might have to break some ribs through energetic CPR to get a patient’s heart beating again, a failing warehouse might need to recover by “breaking some ribs” in a business sense, such as making management changes or stock write-downs.
Once the business has made some stopgap solutions to “stop the bleeding,” it can proceed to a disciplined recovery, she said. And to reach their final goal, managers can use the classic tools of people, process, and technology to improve what she called the three most important key performance indicators (KPIs): on time in full (OTIF), inventory accuracy, and staff turnover.