In the process of establishing this highly integrated organization, a clear need emerged for a talent pool with the breadth and depth of knowledge and experiences across the on-demand supply chain. Supply chain career advancement had traditionally been handled within each of the functional/process areas (for example, procurement, logistics, manufacturing, fulfillment, and demand/supply planning). This model worked to develop subject-matter expertise. And while this in-depth expertise continues to be critical to the business, IBM’s supply chain professionals today also require a broad understanding of the entire supply chain in order to design, develop, and deploy integrated solutions.
To address this need, IBM created a formal supply chain management (SCM) career path targeted at consistently high-performing employees and managers who seek to learn and apply broad, cross-functional supply chain expertise and want to be recognized as “supply chain management professionals.” These professionals work to optimize performance and drive innovation across the entire supply chain—from addressing initial solution requirements through post-installation support. The following outlines the key objectives of the SCM program and relates the experiences of IBM supply chain professionals who are succeeding in this new environment.