June 20, 2024 • 35 mins
For our June episode, co-hosts Ted Stank and Tom Goldsby speak with University of Tennessee colleagues Joe Buckley executive education director for supply chain management, and Dan Pellathy, assistant professor of practice for SCM.
Buckley, who spent three decades in industry (including seven years as director of materials management and transportation for the Tennessee Valley Authority), is the mastermind behind UT’s highly acclaimed virtual learning academies. After the success of the Leadership and Finance academies, he and Pellathy collaborated on the Planning academy launching Fall 2024 and are working on a Procurement academy for 2025. More than 1,500 students, ranging from managers to VPs, across every industry have participated since the first Leadership academy was launched three years ago.
In this conversation, they discuss talent development efforts, the mid-level manager crunch, pairing hard- and soft-skill development for emerging leaders, delivering education flexibly and in digestible forms for busy professionals, and more.
Ted and Tom also talk about the reopening of the Port of Baltimore, the Container Port Performance Index Global Ranking of Container Ports, labor scarcity and automation, and more.
The episode was recorded virtually on June 11, 2024.
Related links:
- Baltimore’s busy port fully reopens after bridge collapse
- The Port of Charleston (53) is the top U.S.-ranked port, ahead of Philadelphia (55), Miami (74), and Boston (75), in CPPI’s 2023 rankings
- Potential strikes at East Coast and Gulf ports threaten further disruption
- Sudden container crunch sends ocean freight rates soaring
- Understanding America’s labor shortage: state-by-state analysis
- Tom Goldsby on the Dynamo Future of Supply Chain podcast discussing the complexities of global trade and logistics
- Learn more about SCM Talent Development programs at UT
- Download (free) Dan Pellathy’s white paper on supply chain planning talent development and leadership
- Become a Supply Chain Forum member
- Subscribe to GSCI’s monthly newsletter
- Read the
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Introduction (00:00):
Welcome to the Tennessee on Supply Chain
Management podcast.
Listen in as co-hosts Ted Stankand Tom Goldsby set sail into
the world of end-to-end supplychain management, diving deep
into today's most relevantbusiness topics.
They'll share insights inpressing industry issues and
tackle the challenges keepingsupply chain professionals up at
night.
If you're enjoying the ride,download and subscribe to
(00:22):
Tennessee on Supply ChainManagement on your favorite
podcast platform now.
Ted Stank (00:28):
Hello everyone and welcome to Tennessee on Supply
Chain Management podcast.
This is season two, episode 10.
Coming to you from Knoxville,tennessee, it's June of 2024,
and I'm here with my good friend, tom Goldsby.
Got a lot of things going on inthe last few weeks.
Tom is our world traveler.
I think, if you recall lastpodcast, he'd just gotten back
(00:50):
from Italy.
I just have a hard time keepingtrack of him.
I have become the cranky oldman that just wants to hang out
in my attic and not go anywhere.
So we're going to do that foryou this time, tom.
A lot of things going oneconomically, all kinds of new
statistics coming out, wallStreet gets all worked up over
it, lots of media coverage,markets go up and down and
(01:14):
nothing changes.
So here we are, I think, abouttwo years into reporting on
these economic statistics.
Labor report still remainsstrong, we keep creating jobs,
wages are going up, Inflation ismixed, depending on what you
look at, and the Fed keepssaying, well, maybe we're going
to lower interest rates and thenthey go.
(01:34):
Well, not so fast, but theeconomy just keeps clicking
along.
What are your thoughts on that?
Tom Goldsby (01:40):
Well, you're right, ted, and it seems like, episode
in, episode out, we kind oftake a look at the numbers and
we've called it out.
Hey, I'm an economist, I getpretty geeked out and excited
about this stuff.
But you're right, I mean, froma supply chain standpoint, we
just keep persevering, Right,whether the numbers are
favorable or not so favorable.
You know, it seems like to yourpoint.
(02:01):
You know the economy is doingpretty well and growing A lot of
speculation about the Fedactions and all that.
But before we set sail on thispodcast, it was like, hey, why
don't we change it up a littlebit and we'll talk about a few
key issues, maybe, maybe alittle bit closer to home in the
world of logistics and supplychain, and we've got some great
(02:22):
guests we've got to bring intoday too.
So, without further ado, whydon't we go ahead and jump on a
couple of items?
Ted Stank (02:28):
Okay, so a couple things I've been tracking.
First of all, this week thatBaltimore port cleared its
channel.
The channel is fully open now.
So a couple of months afterthat terrible, tragic accident,
baltimore is getting back tobeing fully back online.
I think that's pretty big news,particularly for East Coast
logistics operations.
(02:48):
A couple of other things I'mtracking dock workers, east
Coast longshore contract talksbefore they've even started,
serious negotiations have beencalled off, mainly related to
the issue of automation in ports.
Boy, I have some pessimisticthoughts on this.
You know, the port rankingsjust came out too, of
(03:08):
productivity rankings for 2023.
The highest ranked port was ourfriends down at Charleston,
south Carolina.
They were the highest ranked USport.
They were ranked 53rd in theworld.
That was the highest US rankedproductive port, and a lot of it
has to do.
You know, I'm a child of aunion worker.
My dad was a blue-collarconstruction union worker, and
(03:30):
so I have some empathy withunion workers.
But, man, we need to overcomethis issue about automation and
productivity and I'm not surewhere we go with it.
Certainly, if we had an EastCoast and Gulf Coast port strike
, by the way, the timing of itwould be shortly before the
November election, so there'sgoing to be a lot of political
(03:52):
attention on what happens there.
Don't be surprised if thefederal government jumps in if
things look really bleak, mainlybecause of election season.
So some interest there.
Port volumes are up, by the way.
They're up almost 12% year onyear.
So freight's coming back to theUS probably will start having
an impact on domestic freightdemand as well.
(04:12):
There's been a lot of supplystripped out of the domestic
freight market and so as demandstarts coming back and we have
to start moving containers andtrailers around, we might start
seeing freight rates coming backup again.
Tom Goldsby (04:24):
You mentioned the port rankings and I like to
bring those up in class.
You know, I think what do theyrate?
Like 370 ports around the worldand routinely LA and Long Beach
, which, by the way, are our twobusiest ports, combined for
about 40% of US importstraditionally, and they're right
there at the bottom, 369, 370.
(04:46):
So it's great to hearCharleston coming in.
Ports of South Carolina comingin at 53.
That's one of our highestrankings we've seen of a US port
in a long time.
Ted Stank (04:57):
But shout out to Barbara Melvin, by the way.
Tom Goldsby (04:59):
Absolutely, UT alum Barbara Melvin out there and
previous podcast guests.
But we do need to bring USports into the 1990s, don't we?
I mean, with regard totechnology, yeah, Dare, I say
maybe the 2000s.
We're getting left behind thereand there's just no doubt.
I mean, last summer was taggedthe summer of strikes and it
(05:21):
carried on into the fall withUAW and everyone you know seeing
gains right, I mean labor'sseen tremendous gains.
So I just think about how muchattention we've directed toward
those West Coast ports.
We know, every five yearsthere's going to be some
disruption and anxiety, ringingof hands, gnashing of teeth it's
expected.
(05:41):
But the East Coast and GulfportCoast have been pretty amicable
, if you will, in comparison.
I think a lot of folks havebeen kind of caught off guard
and we do depend a great deal onthose East Coast ports.
Ted Stank (05:54):
Yeah, you know, especially as freight has
shifted somewhat from from WestCoast to East Coast with the new
Panama Canal locks, which arenow fully open again, by the way
.
New Panama Canal locks, whichare now fully open again, by the
way, we've talked about them inprevious podcasts, but they are
allowing fully deep draftvessels through because they've
had more rain than they expected.
So, you know, we saw what abouta 5% shift, I think, from West
(06:14):
Coast to East Coast and GulfCoast ports with the new Panama
Canal locks.
So, yeah, they're prettycritical to the commerce flow in
the US.
Time to pay attention.
And this issue of automationwe've touched on this podcast
about the issue of laborscarcity and how, as we move
further into this century, we'regoing to have more labor
(06:35):
scarcity.
By the way, we'll touch on thistopic later in this podcast.
You know the issue ofautomation is something that
management and labor need to gettheir arms around.
And how do we automate toincrease productivity given a
scenario rolling forward of lessand less labor availability?
And I just think it's somethingthat neither side of labor or
(06:55):
management can dig their heelsin and say we can't do anything
about.
So, tom, your most recent tripwas to Sanibel Florida for
Supply Chain Leaders in Actionand I know you participated in a
couple of presentations.
I think you chaired a panelwith some interesting folks.
Tell me what the buzz was downthere in Sanibel Florida.
Tom Goldsby (07:17):
Yeah, no certainly I've been associated with this
group.
Amy Thorne does such a greatjob with Supply Chain Leaders in
Action.
I've been associated with herand her organization for about
25 years now, if you can believeit.
One of the longest, oldestrelationships I have is with
that organization.
And we got together in Sanibel,which, by the way, is the first
time I'd been there sinceHurricane Ian struck in the fall
(07:40):
of 22.
We had just met in the summerof 22.
And I did get over to theisland to go check it out and,
my goodness, the rebuild effortthat's taking place up and down
that island is immense.
But with regard to theconference, fantastic set of
presentations and some reallygood immersive experiences too,
which you don't always get at aconference.
(08:02):
But right at the outset I'llshare about my panel.
I was fortunate to host folksfrom Procter Gamble, lenovo and
Descartes Systems and we weretalking about elevating supply
chain excellence and really whatwe're trying to hit on are ways
to create value beyondproductivity, delivering on the
bill of rights right product,right place, right time and all
(08:22):
that.
And we talked about trying toenhance agility and innovation
and even the company'sreputation through supply chain
prowess.
And three of those corporatepartners stepped up and had
great examples about ways thatthey're innovating their way to
value creation.
Some really cool things, infact.
Procter Gamble this ismind-blowing.
(08:43):
But they're selling theirsupply chain IP to
non-competitors and they'reregarded year in, year out,
recognized as a master of supplychain by Gartner, because every
year they were top one, two,three and so now they're selling
that capability throughpartnership with EY, and Lenovo
is doing a lot of great things.
(09:04):
They've started a 3PL inconsumer electronics.
They've also.
This is fascinating, but theysell access to their facilities
to suppliers who want to come inand have that touch with a
critical customer.
And then I was fortunate tohave Chris Jones of DeKarp
Systems on the venue as well andhe spoke of some really cool
(09:28):
innovations around dynamicpricing, which is kind of a hot
button issue out there with alot of companies, the fact that
you know surge pricing, if youwill, around logistics
provisions, and what hepresented that was so
fascinating is how customersactually react favorably.
That was so fascinating is howcustomers actually react
(09:48):
favorably, the sense of controlthat they have with scheduling
services.
If they're willing to pay apremium to get that primo
service, hey, it's available,it's on the table.
If they want to economize,that's another option.
So that was a really greatpanel.
But I mentioned the hands-onactivities.
One thing we got to do was somewar gaming.
We had a retired admiral fromthe Navy you'll recognize and
appreciate that, ted who came inand presented a scenario that
(10:11):
we worked through in small groupand large groups.
That was fascinating.
He talked about war gaming inthe Department of Defense and
the psychology around that andhow we need to be prepared to
deal with potentiallycatastrophic situations.
And then, in another reallycool demonstration we had,
someone from Lyric took usthrough a hands-on demonstration
(10:33):
of AI for predictive purposesand it was really fun.
We brought our laptops alongand she took us through some
data visualizations and basicmachine learning to do some
forecasting and build out someother models.
So it was a really great twoand a half days down in Santa Fe
.
Ted Stank (10:50):
That's very cool, tom , I love that, and you talked
about some issues of roboticsand AI, so we get back to that.
Yeah, that too.
The automation topic rightGreat, I love that idea of both
demand-based pricing.
Again, talk about something inthe news New York City was
considering doing thiscongestion pricing to drive into
Manhattan.
It was very controversial, sothey just called it off.
Tom Goldsby (11:12):
The governor stepped in, didn't she, and said
now we can't go, that's abridge too far right now.
Ted Stank (11:16):
One of the challenges of that was the logistic
standpoint of how do companiesin Manhattan get resupplied if
you're going to charge a $15upcharge?
Tom Goldsby (11:26):
You know it's funny .
Back in my MBA days at theUniversity of Kentucky, I was so
fascinated in economics andtransportation I did my master's
thesis on congestion pricingand that was 1993.
And I said it's coming.
Here we are 30 years later.
Ted Stank (11:41):
The other thing that stands out to me about what you
talked about was that you had aNavy Admiral there.
So, to my good friend JeffDeLulo, note that it was not an
Army General.
So Navy at the forefront ofsupply chain best practice,
that's right.
Hey, tom, let's bring our goodfriends in who are going to be
our guests today.
Let's introduce Dr Dan Pellethy, professor of Practice here at
(12:03):
University of Tennessee, and JoeBuckley, who's our director of
executive and non-degreeeducation in supply chain
management, here with us in ourGlobal Supply Chain Institute.
Guys, welcome.
Great to have you on board.
Dan Pellathy (12:16):
Great to be here.
Thanks, guys.
Ted Stank (12:18):
Hey guys, Happy to be along you know we talked about,
you know, some foreshadowingwith the labor issue, and one of
our trending topics for a longtime now has been demographic
situations and the reduction oflabor availability and therefore
talent management and talentdevelopment becomes really
important.
(12:38):
You guys are at the forefront ofsome of our big talent
development efforts here atUniversity of Tennessee Supply
Chain.
You've worked in developingprograms for non-degree in
supply chain leadership, insupply chain planning, supply
chain finance Dan, you'reworking.
I think now the next one isgoing to be a procurement
(13:00):
academy.
Right.
Companies are starting to takevery seriously not just
recruitment but also retentionof talent and development of
talent, because it's going to beone of the big competitive
areas of the next many decades.
So we'd love to have you guysgive us some of your thoughts on
the companies you're talking tothe HR folks, what they're
(13:22):
thinking about in terms oftalent development and some of
the things you're working on onthe UT side too, to be able to
deliver on that.
So I'd love to hear yourthoughts on some of the things
you're hearing from some of ourpartners.
Joe Buckley (13:34):
Sure, ted, I'll take a lead on it.
It was really.
I've been in this role forseveral years now and it was
really interesting to me intalking with a lot of our form
partners in particular thatwhile they're very much
interested in developing theiremployees, this has almost
become an expectation ofemployees that they're being
(13:56):
invested in and developed.
So these programs have becomeas much a retention tool for the
organizations we're workingwith as it has a retention tool
for the organizations we'reworking with as it has a
development tool.
So I was really surprised bythat.
At the end of one of our recentprograms that we've done for a
large retailer, we surveyed theparticipants on how impactful
(14:18):
these programs were in themdeciding to stay and continue
employment with their currentemployer, and it was high.
90% were strongly agree thatthese were the types of things
they were looking for.
Dan Pellathy (14:51):
Wow that's interesting, dan manage what
that talent's expectations werein terms of advancement and,
like Joe was saying, beinginvested in, and then also the
flexibility that comes withthose work modality changes,
work from home or kind ofpartially work from home.
It's created a lot ofchallenges for organizations and
(15:11):
I don't think anybody hasreally figured out kind of a
silver bullet for this yet, butthey are working on it.
There are a lot of differentapproaches that companies are
taking.
One of the big challenges outthere, I think, for companies is
there's a serious mid-levelmanager crunch.
It's a serious thing.
Mid-level managers are taskedwith doing their job but also
(15:35):
bringing in new talent and thenalso trying to manage up to
senior leaders who may or maynot be as quick to pivot in
terms of thinking about theseissues.
So for mid-level managers it'sa really tough job, really tough
going.
I think that's part of thereason why the kinds of
offerings that Joe was talkingabout, the kind of academies
(15:57):
that we produce here atUniversity of Tennessee, have
become such an important tool inthe tool belt of these folks as
they try to think through howdo we develop our talent, keep
our talent and make sure thatthose folks have the
capabilities to take advantageof the advances that Tom was
talking about, right.
That needs to be developed sothat folks can actually take
(16:18):
advantage of the advances thatTom was talking about.
Ted Stank (16:20):
right, that needs to be developed so that folks can
actually take advantage of thoseadvances.
It has always struck me thatorganizations struggle with
getting people from line-leveloperations into mid-level
management.
You know, we make theassumption that if you're really
good at doing your job, thenyou're also going to be really
good at managing people, and wedon't give them the skills or
training that they need to makethem good managers right.
Joe Buckley (16:42):
Ted, you hit the nail on the head.
I just had a discussion earliertoday with one of our corporate
partners and brought me back tomy age 27 when I had my first
management opportunity.
And I really didn't know atthat time that I was
ill-prepared for thatopportunity because all of the
hard skills that I was reallygood at that got me that
(17:03):
opportunity were not the softskills that I needed to be
successful at a leader.
So we've built some programmingthat marries hard skill
development with soft skilldevelopment.
That is really geared towardspreparing that young leader to
be successful with the rightskill set.
Tom Goldsby (17:24):
Joe, can you kind of describe one of these
academies?
And again, we started off withthe Supply Chain Management
Leadership Academy and Ted and Ihave been co-leading those with
your support over this pastacademic year and we hope to
continue doing so into theindefinite future.
But describe to our audiencewhat we try to pack into 14
weeks of SCMLA.
Joe Buckley (17:46):
Sure.
So just a quick history lessonwhat we're trying to accomplish
here with talent development.
A little over five years ago,we launched our online master's
program, which has been verywell received and gave us a
really high quality master's insupply chain offering online
first online program here at theuniversity.
(18:06):
So we've got a really nicedegreed program for someone that
wants to really invest heavilyin their employees and their
employees.
Well, based on the success ofthat and the amount of work that
we put into developing somehigh online educational
opportunities, we've beensetting up these individual
academies and, in essence,you're getting the equivalent of
(18:28):
a three-credit-hour master'sclass in a particular topic, the
first of which, tom, youmentioned, was the SCM
Leadership Academy.
It's a 14-week journeyend-to-end supply chain skills
we talk about.
(18:48):
What do we mean by end-to-endsupply chain?
What's a good end-to-end supplychain look like?
What's the benefits that itbrings to the organization?
But we've also worked with ourleadership team here at the
Haslam College of Business todevelop a soft skill journey
that they go on.
So when somebody comes out atthe end of that 14 weeks, they
have a very good understandingof basic end-to-end supply chain
(19:09):
skills, as well as anunderstanding of their strengths
and opportunities from aleadership perspective and
hopefully helps them buildthemselves into a better leader,
moving forward.
Dan Pellathy (19:21):
Yeah, I would emphasize too.
Just going back to the pointaround, how do we transition
someone from being kind of aline leader to a manager?
There's a lot of strength inthe kind of functional areas and
in the kind of technicalknow-how in those functional
areas and companies, but theend-to-end piece is oftentimes
missing and it's difficult forfolks to get trained in that on
(19:44):
the job.
And so one of the big thingsthat these academies emphasize
quite a bit is understandingthat end-to-end piece,
understanding where your role iswithin the larger picture,
understanding how decisions thatare made in your area affect
other areas and are affected byother areas.
I think that's a reallycritical piece moving folks from
(20:07):
kind of being within theirfunctional areas doing well
there, to being able to thenlead a larger group of
potentially cross-functionalindividuals.
Ted Stank (20:16):
larger group of potentially cross-functional
individuals.
Hey, have you guys noticed thatthere's different expectations
generationally?
I'm an old boomer, right, andthere were certain expectations
and just ways that we looked atthe world and I know that in
many ways there's suchdifferences with probably not so
much with Gen X, tom, I'm goingto glump you in with the old
boomers now but certainly withmillennials and Gen Zs.
(20:39):
Do you see, in what you guysare offering and what you're
teaching, differences inexpectations for these kinds of
skills, particularly soft skills, with those generations?
Joe Buckley (20:51):
You know, ted, I think a lot of the skills that
we teach from a soft skillperspective work for.
I can take some of us old guysthat could use some of those
skills as well.
But you know, younger employeeshave definitely grown up
differently than we, have maybea little less face-to-face
interaction, maybe the way theylike to communicate from a
technology perspective.
(21:12):
You know, some of the skillsthat we focus on may be more
beneficial for them becausethey've grown up in a different
environment and may help withthe development from that
perspective.
But as we work withparticipants, you can see a
different level of comfort withonline learning versus
face-to-face.
(21:33):
So yeah, we've had to adaptmaybe a little bit on how we
structure some of these programsto deliver the material.
Ted Stank (21:40):
So that's interesting , joe, and I do want to plumb
into this a little bit more.
I've been doing this for 30some years and non-degree
executive education when Istarted was you bring a class of
30, some people from a bunch ofdifferent companies, to a big
campus.
You know, when I started it wasat Michigan State University.
(22:01):
We did it here for a long time,and you bring them for three
days or five days, you know, andthey leave work and it's a deep
immersion for that whole fiveday period and there was a lot
of good that came out of it, alot of networking and everything
.
But that's changed, right.
I mean, from a deliverystandpoint, what are you looking
at now?
From full versus part-time,online versus face-to-face,
(22:24):
synchronous versus asynchronous?
Joe Buckley (22:27):
Yeah, it's a great point, Ted.
There's definitely been a shiftaway from face-to-face
multi-day programming, gettingfolks to get out of the office
and come to Knoxville or for allof them to come to a central
location and us to come to themfor a four or five day
programming.
We're doing a lot less of thatand a lot more of these online
(22:47):
academies, which are much moreflexible in delivery and, quite
frankly, I think they're abetter learning experience.
You know, if you sit and have a40-hour one-week lecture by day
three, your sponge is prettyfull.
I think this allows us todeliver the content more
in-depth over a longer period oftime and in a more digestible
(23:08):
format to the participant, andwe're also finding that both a
combination of synchronous andasynchronous material works
really well.
So you know, we have self-pacedreading and video work and
hands-on exercises and casestudies that they can work on
and then come together everycouple of weeks for a couple of
(23:29):
hours via Zoom with our subjectmatter experts to kind of tie it
all together.
It works really well and we'vetaken a lot of time to work with
instructional design firms tobuild this for working
professionals.
So you know if you've got 15 or30 minutes in your day.
You can pick something up, getit done, learn from it and then
go back to work and pick it upagain a little later.
(23:51):
So I think the retention ofknowledge is better because
we're not cramming it into sucha small period of delivery, and
so far things have been verywell received.
Tom Goldsby (24:01):
What you're describing is what we call the
prophecy of and around the shop.
You don't really have tosacrifice right.
You're able to offer thisflexible learning opportunity
with all the richness of what weused to have when we bring
folks to campus which, by theway, we still do that if folks
want to set that up and are soinclined.
I'll just say, as an instructorin the Supply Chain Leadership
(24:24):
Academy, it is some of the mostfun as well that I have those
two hours every two weeks.
We get together the rich smallgroup discussion, the large
group discussion to talk aboutthe topic du jour and, hey, the
chance to collaborate with you,joe and Ted, in those sessions
and you speak of the success ofthe Leadership Academy has led
(24:44):
us to kind of round out theportfolio a little bit more.
You mentioned the FinanceAcademy which we've been
offering for the past year, andDan will bring you in to talk
about the Planning Academythat's going to have its maiden
voyage this fall.
But, joe, can you talk a littlebit about that Finance Academy,
the impetus for that focus onsupply chain finance and what
you try to accomplish with thatprogram?
Joe Buckley (25:06):
Yeah, and first of all, tom, I'd like to be able to
say that it's just.
I'm a visionary when it comes topicking the next topic that
will be popular, but that wouldbe a lie.
We're fortunate to have a largepartnership with a lot of very
strong companies and we rely alot on their input as to what
they're looking for to developin their supply chain leaders.
(25:29):
That led us to that initialSupply Chain Leadership Academy
to focus on end-to-end skillsand soft skills.
The second academy we launchedis a Supply Chain Management
Finance Academy something nearand dear to my heart, being the
lone CPA on the supply chainfaculty here.
Really, this focuses ondeveloping the financial acumen
(25:51):
that our supply chain leadersneed the ability to have a basic
understanding of the financialstatements, the importance of
cash flow, the importance ofcapital allocation and
management, really to understandhow our day-to-day decisions in
the supply chain are impactingthose financial results.
So we've launched that academyjust about a year ago.
(26:14):
It's been very well received.
We had about 54 individuals inour most recent open enrollment.
We're doing some custom workwith organizations in this space
, with larger groups, and thatkind of led us to our third
academy, which is the SupplyChain Management Planning
Academy, which I'll turn it overto Dan to talk a little bit
(26:35):
about.
Dan Pellathy (26:36):
Planning Academy, which I'll turn it over to Dan
to talk a little bit about.
Yeah, so again, I think part ofthe strength here is the kind
of UT model where we reallysource the ideas of what we're
going to do in terms of our nextPlanning Academy.
We really source those ideasfrom our corporate partners.
So the planning base came outvery strongly as a place where
there's a lot of need for talentdevelopment.
(26:57):
So we developed the PlanningAcademy which will be launched
in the fall, to really upskillplanners and again to kind of
get them that end-to-endperspective and to see
themselves within a kind oflarger planning process.
That's going to be, I think, anexciting offering and we've had
some good engagement on thatalready.
(27:20):
Just going back to the kind ofgenerational differences for a
second right, I thinkflexibility is going to be
absolutely critical as we moveforward.
I think that the youngergeneration has grown up with the
expectation that they have awide range of options.
They can pick and choose fromthings.
They can do things online,synchronous, asynchronous,
(27:41):
face-to-face.
So I think that's going to bepart of keeping up with that
generation is maintaining thatflexibility and also allowing
them to move forward quickly.
I think that the generationcoming up has a pretty strong
expectation that they are goingto advance quickly.
I think that the generationcoming up has a pretty strong
expectation that they are goingto advance quickly.
They have pretty strongskepticism about the pay your
(28:04):
dues model and again these kindsof academies that allow folks
to move from strength tostrength.
They're going to move from areato area and be able to kind of
continually grow.
I think that's a very appealingmodel for folks who are looking
to really upskill quickly,advance themselves quickly in an
area.
Tom Goldsby (28:24):
Hey, I'll just speak on behalf of Generation X,
if I can do that.
I like flexibility too, so Imean, these academies are not
just for the younger folk, forsure.
Ted Stank (28:34):
Hey, also, just pay your dues, goldsby.
Tom Goldsby (28:38):
Just a point of clarification.
We mentioned that theLeadership Academy is 14 weeks
and, joe, how long is theFinance Academy?
And Dan, the Planning Academy?
Joe Buckley (28:47):
Both the Finance and Planning Academies are eight
weeks in length, so a littlebit shorter, a little more
condensed.
We packed a lot into thatleadership academy with multiple
topics, both soft skill andhard skill development, so that
one's a little bit longer.
But they're all built off of athree credit hour course that
you would take here in ourmaster's program, so you're
(29:10):
getting a really deep dive intothese subject matter areas and
correct me if I'm wrong, butsuccessful completion of these
academy courses can lead tocredit toward that MS degree
program.
Tom Goldsby (29:24):
Is that right?
Joe Buckley (29:25):
Yes, yes, so the well.
It is a non-degree program thatdoesn't transfer to other
universities.
We do have an arrangement herewith our online program.
Who has looked at thecurriculum and signed off that
this would count as a waiver forone of those 10 courses in our
master's program.
So it's a great way, I think,to come in test our online model
(29:48):
here If you're thinking aboutgoing on to that MS program a
relatively low cost way to kickthe tires, so to speak.
Yeah.
Tom Goldsby (29:56):
And you get 10% toward earning that degree,
right?
If you have one of 10 coursescould be knocked out right there
by virtue of attending theacademy, Exactly Okay, so we've
got these three academies.
All are going to be offered inthe fall, correct?
Dan Pellathy (30:11):
Yes, Leadership finance planning and there's
some more in the development.
Just to kind of tempt peoplewhat's awaiting us down the road
(30:31):
to strengthen their procurementteams, not just in terms of
driving cost savings althoughthat's always going to be on the
table but really driving valueto customers, and so a lot of
good conversations around whatsome of the content in that's
going to be.
So look forward to maybe anannouncement around that during
(30:52):
the spring 2025 UT forum andwe'll get some content out to
folks at that time.
Tom Goldsby (31:01):
And just one more thing there's also the
opportunity for corporatepartners to develop custom
versions of these.
Is that right?
Dan Pellathy (31:07):
Yes, got to be an all of the above model, right,
honestly, it's got to be all ofthe above.
And as much as companiescomplain about the bureaucracy
within their own companies,within their own organizations
boy, higher ed has got its ownbureaucracies and we've got to
be flexible as well.
Joe Buckley (31:26):
And we even have our first custom planning
academy in the works as we'refinishing up the development of
that program.
So yeah, it's a really nicemodel.
If somebody has a large groupthat they want to put through
this curriculum, it's a littlemore cost effective doing it in
(31:48):
a custom format but also allowsus to tailor some of the content
to either the company or theindustry that they're in.
Some of those live sessionswill bring in their subject
matter experts, depending on thetopic, and can really relate
the content from the course towhat's going on at the
organization and drive home someof those thoughts.
So the custom models arethey're a lot of fun to run,
(32:12):
personally speaking, because youknow we have those subject
matter experts from the companyto kind of work with and help
deliver the message.
But yeah, to Dan's point, we'repretty flexible here.
We can do these in custom.
We also run open enrollmentleadership academy.
We run spring and fall all ofthese in open enrollment.
(32:34):
The Leadership Academy kicksoff August 14th for its 14-week
run, the Finance Academy startsSeptember 9th and the Planning
Academy open enrollment willstart September 16th.
Tom Goldsby (32:48):
Excellent, and where could folks go if they
want to learn more about theseacademies?
Joe Buckley (32:52):
Email Dan or myself .
Our email address is under thefaculty page or might be posted
in this podcast somewhere.
Tom Goldsby (33:00):
We'll provide some links in the notes for sure, so
folks can find you.
Joe Buckley (33:04):
That's good.
Or we have a mailbox to ourGlobal Supply Chain Institute,
gsci.
You can email that.
All of those emails make theirway to us, but happy to have a
conversation with anyone who'sinterested in hearing more about
talent development thoughtshere at UT or any of these
programs.
Ted Stank (33:22):
You know, as I listen to this conversation, one of
the things that really strikesme is how the scope of skill
sets that people need to begreat supply chain managers has
just continued to evolve.
There was an earlier time thatif we were talking about great
skill sets for these kinds ofprograms, things like Leadership
Academy and finance andplanning would not be the first
(33:45):
three things that you thought offor supply chain-oriented
content.
I think it's a real tribute tothe work you all have done with
our partners to try to figureout what are the skill sets that
people need to become moreeffective managers have done
with our partners to try tofigure out what are the skill
sets that people need to becomemore effective managers.
So with that, guys, we reallyappreciate your time with us.
Really great stuff going on.
This is, to me, forget anevolution in non-degree
(34:08):
education.
It's a revolution, probably yetanother one of those trends
that was coming prior to COVID,but COVID accelerated these kind
of.
I love, joe, your comment aboutlet's be able to take learning
in smaller bites.
I have taught in those one weekprograms where you see on the
afternoon of the third 10 hourday of people's eyes rolling
back in their heads.
(34:29):
That's a really good insight.
Tom, you want to bring us home.
Tom Goldsby (34:32):
Yeah, I'll just encourage folks.
You can find us at gsciutkedu.
We love hearing from you,whether you're a friend or
someone looking to become afriend.
We look forward to hearing fromyou and I guess this puts a
wrap on another episode and lookforward to more good things
coming, Great guests, thebalance of summer.
So with that we'll bid youadieu from Rocky Top.
Introduction (34:55):
Thanks for tuning in to Tennessee on Supply Chain
Management.
If you enjoyed the episode,subscribe today on your favorite
listening platform to get allof our episodes as soon as they
drop, and don't forget to take amoment to leave us a rating.
Have any questions, thoughts orfeedback?
We'd love to hear from ourlisteners.
Email us at gsci at utkedu.
Join us next time as wecontinue pulling back the
(35:17):
curtain on the world of supplychain, educating and
entertaining you along the way.
Until then, listeners.
Welcome to the Tennessee on Supply Chain
Management podcast.
Listen in as co-hosts Ted Stankand Tom Goldsby set sail into
the world of end-to-end supplychain management, diving deep
into today's most relevantbusiness topics.
They'll share insights inpressing industry issues and
tackle the challenges keepingsupply chain professionals up at
night.
If you're enjoying the ride,download and subscribe to
(00:22):
Tennessee on Supply ChainManagement on your favorite
podcast platform now.
Ted Stank (00:28):
Hello everyone and welcome to Tennessee on Supply
Chain Management podcast.
This is season two, episode 10.
Coming to you from Knoxville,tennessee, it's June of 2024,
and I'm here with my good friend, tom Goldsby.
Got a lot of things going on inthe last few weeks.
Tom is our world traveler.
I think, if you recall lastpodcast, he'd just gotten back
(00:50):
from Italy.
I just have a hard time keepingtrack of him.
I have become the cranky oldman that just wants to hang out
in my attic and not go anywhere.
So we're going to do that foryou this time, tom.
A lot of things going oneconomically, all kinds of new
statistics coming out, wallStreet gets all worked up over
it, lots of media coverage,markets go up and down and
(01:14):
nothing changes.
So here we are, I think, abouttwo years into reporting on
these economic statistics.
Labor report still remainsstrong, we keep creating jobs,
wages are going up, Inflation ismixed, depending on what you
look at, and the Fed keepssaying, well, maybe we're going
to lower interest rates and thenthey go.
(01:34):
Well, not so fast, but theeconomy just keeps clicking
along.
What are your thoughts on that?
Tom Goldsby (01:40):
Well, you're right, ted, and it seems like, episode
in, episode out, we kind oftake a look at the numbers and
we've called it out.
Hey, I'm an economist, I getpretty geeked out and excited
about this stuff.
But you're right, I mean, froma supply chain standpoint, we
just keep persevering, Right,whether the numbers are
favorable or not so favorable.
You know, it seems like to yourpoint.
(02:01):
You know the economy is doingpretty well and growing A lot of
speculation about the Fedactions and all that.
But before we set sail on thispodcast, it was like, hey, why
don't we change it up a littlebit and we'll talk about a few
key issues, maybe, maybe alittle bit closer to home in the
world of logistics and supplychain, and we've got some great
(02:22):
guests we've got to bring intoday too.
So, without further ado, whydon't we go ahead and jump on a
couple of items?
Ted Stank (02:28):
Okay, so a couple things I've been tracking.
First of all, this week thatBaltimore port cleared its
channel.
The channel is fully open now.
So a couple of months afterthat terrible, tragic accident,
baltimore is getting back tobeing fully back online.
I think that's pretty big news,particularly for East Coast
logistics operations.
(02:48):
A couple of other things I'mtracking dock workers, east
Coast longshore contract talksbefore they've even started,
serious negotiations have beencalled off, mainly related to
the issue of automation in ports.
Boy, I have some pessimisticthoughts on this.
You know, the port rankingsjust came out too, of
(03:08):
productivity rankings for 2023.
The highest ranked port was ourfriends down at Charleston,
south Carolina.
They were the highest ranked USport.
They were ranked 53rd in theworld.
That was the highest US rankedproductive port, and a lot of it
has to do.
You know, I'm a child of aunion worker.
My dad was a blue-collarconstruction union worker, and
(03:30):
so I have some empathy withunion workers.
But, man, we need to overcomethis issue about automation and
productivity and I'm not surewhere we go with it.
Certainly, if we had an EastCoast and Gulf Coast port strike
, by the way, the timing of itwould be shortly before the
November election, so there'sgoing to be a lot of political
(03:52):
attention on what happens there.
Don't be surprised if thefederal government jumps in if
things look really bleak, mainlybecause of election season.
So some interest there.
Port volumes are up, by the way.
They're up almost 12% year onyear.
So freight's coming back to theUS probably will start having
an impact on domestic freightdemand as well.
(04:12):
There's been a lot of supplystripped out of the domestic
freight market and so as demandstarts coming back and we have
to start moving containers andtrailers around, we might start
seeing freight rates coming backup again.
Tom Goldsby (04:24):
You mentioned the port rankings and I like to
bring those up in class.
You know, I think what do theyrate?
Like 370 ports around the worldand routinely LA and Long Beach
, which, by the way, are our twobusiest ports, combined for
about 40% of US importstraditionally, and they're right
there at the bottom, 369, 370.
(04:46):
So it's great to hearCharleston coming in.
Ports of South Carolina comingin at 53.
That's one of our highestrankings we've seen of a US port
in a long time.
Ted Stank (04:57):
But shout out to Barbara Melvin, by the way.
Tom Goldsby (04:59):
Absolutely, UT alum Barbara Melvin out there and
previous podcast guests.
But we do need to bring USports into the 1990s, don't we?
I mean, with regard totechnology, yeah, Dare, I say
maybe the 2000s.
We're getting left behind thereand there's just no doubt.
I mean, last summer was taggedthe summer of strikes and it
(05:21):
carried on into the fall withUAW and everyone you know seeing
gains right, I mean labor'sseen tremendous gains.
So I just think about how muchattention we've directed toward
those West Coast ports.
We know, every five yearsthere's going to be some
disruption and anxiety, ringingof hands, gnashing of teeth it's
expected.
(05:41):
But the East Coast and GulfportCoast have been pretty amicable
, if you will, in comparison.
I think a lot of folks havebeen kind of caught off guard
and we do depend a great deal onthose East Coast ports.
Ted Stank (05:54):
Yeah, you know, especially as freight has
shifted somewhat from from WestCoast to East Coast with the new
Panama Canal locks, which arenow fully open again, by the way
.
New Panama Canal locks, whichare now fully open again, by the
way, we've talked about them inprevious podcasts, but they are
allowing fully deep draftvessels through because they've
had more rain than they expected.
So, you know, we saw what abouta 5% shift, I think, from West
(06:14):
Coast to East Coast and GulfCoast ports with the new Panama
Canal locks.
So, yeah, they're prettycritical to the commerce flow in
the US.
Time to pay attention.
And this issue of automationwe've touched on this podcast
about the issue of laborscarcity and how, as we move
further into this century, we'regoing to have more labor
(06:35):
scarcity.
By the way, we'll touch on thistopic later in this podcast.
You know the issue ofautomation is something that
management and labor need to gettheir arms around.
And how do we automate toincrease productivity given a
scenario rolling forward of lessand less labor availability?
And I just think it's somethingthat neither side of labor or
(06:55):
management can dig their heelsin and say we can't do anything
about.
So, tom, your most recent tripwas to Sanibel Florida for
Supply Chain Leaders in Actionand I know you participated in a
couple of presentations.
I think you chaired a panelwith some interesting folks.
Tell me what the buzz was downthere in Sanibel Florida.
Tom Goldsby (07:17):
Yeah, no certainly I've been associated with this
group.
Amy Thorne does such a greatjob with Supply Chain Leaders in
Action.
I've been associated with herand her organization for about
25 years now, if you can believeit.
One of the longest, oldestrelationships I have is with
that organization.
And we got together in Sanibel,which, by the way, is the first
time I'd been there sinceHurricane Ian struck in the fall
(07:40):
of 22.
We had just met in the summerof 22.
And I did get over to theisland to go check it out and,
my goodness, the rebuild effortthat's taking place up and down
that island is immense.
But with regard to theconference, fantastic set of
presentations and some reallygood immersive experiences too,
which you don't always get at aconference.
(08:02):
But right at the outset I'llshare about my panel.
I was fortunate to host folksfrom Procter Gamble, lenovo and
Descartes Systems and we weretalking about elevating supply
chain excellence and really whatwe're trying to hit on are ways
to create value beyondproductivity, delivering on the
bill of rights right product,right place, right time and all
(08:22):
that.
And we talked about trying toenhance agility and innovation
and even the company'sreputation through supply chain
prowess.
And three of those corporatepartners stepped up and had
great examples about ways thatthey're innovating their way to
value creation.
Some really cool things, infact.
Procter Gamble this ismind-blowing.
(08:43):
But they're selling theirsupply chain IP to
non-competitors and they'reregarded year in, year out,
recognized as a master of supplychain by Gartner, because every
year they were top one, two,three and so now they're selling
that capability throughpartnership with EY, and Lenovo
is doing a lot of great things.
(09:04):
They've started a 3PL inconsumer electronics.
They've also.
This is fascinating, but theysell access to their facilities
to suppliers who want to come inand have that touch with a
critical customer.
And then I was fortunate tohave Chris Jones of DeKarp
Systems on the venue as well andhe spoke of some really cool
(09:28):
innovations around dynamicpricing, which is kind of a hot
button issue out there with alot of companies, the fact that
you know surge pricing, if youwill, around logistics
provisions, and what hepresented that was so
fascinating is how customersactually react favorably.
That was so fascinating is howcustomers actually react
(09:48):
favorably, the sense of controlthat they have with scheduling
services.
If they're willing to pay apremium to get that primo
service, hey, it's available,it's on the table.
If they want to economize,that's another option.
So that was a really greatpanel.
But I mentioned the hands-onactivities.
One thing we got to do was somewar gaming.
We had a retired admiral fromthe Navy you'll recognize and
appreciate that, ted who came inand presented a scenario that
(10:11):
we worked through in small groupand large groups.
That was fascinating.
He talked about war gaming inthe Department of Defense and
the psychology around that andhow we need to be prepared to
deal with potentiallycatastrophic situations.
And then, in another reallycool demonstration we had,
someone from Lyric took usthrough a hands-on demonstration
(10:33):
of AI for predictive purposesand it was really fun.
We brought our laptops alongand she took us through some
data visualizations and basicmachine learning to do some
forecasting and build out someother models.
So it was a really great twoand a half days down in Santa Fe
.
Ted Stank (10:50):
That's very cool, tom , I love that, and you talked
about some issues of roboticsand AI, so we get back to that.
Yeah, that too.
The automation topic rightGreat, I love that idea of both
demand-based pricing.
Again, talk about something inthe news New York City was
considering doing thiscongestion pricing to drive into
Manhattan.
It was very controversial, sothey just called it off.
Tom Goldsby (11:12):
The governor stepped in, didn't she, and said
now we can't go, that's abridge too far right now.
Ted Stank (11:16):
One of the challenges of that was the logistic
standpoint of how do companiesin Manhattan get resupplied if
you're going to charge a $15upcharge?
Tom Goldsby (11:26):
You know it's funny .
Back in my MBA days at theUniversity of Kentucky, I was so
fascinated in economics andtransportation I did my master's
thesis on congestion pricingand that was 1993.
And I said it's coming.
Here we are 30 years later.
Ted Stank (11:41):
The other thing that stands out to me about what you
talked about was that you had aNavy Admiral there.
So, to my good friend JeffDeLulo, note that it was not an
Army General.
So Navy at the forefront ofsupply chain best practice,
that's right.
Hey, tom, let's bring our goodfriends in who are going to be
our guests today.
Let's introduce Dr Dan Pellethy, professor of Practice here at
(12:03):
University of Tennessee, and JoeBuckley, who's our director of
executive and non-degreeeducation in supply chain
management, here with us in ourGlobal Supply Chain Institute.
Guys, welcome.
Great to have you on board.
Dan Pellathy (12:16):
Great to be here.
Thanks, guys.
Ted Stank (12:18):
Hey guys, Happy to be along you know we talked about,
you know, some foreshadowingwith the labor issue, and one of
our trending topics for a longtime now has been demographic
situations and the reduction oflabor availability and therefore
talent management and talentdevelopment becomes really
important.
(12:38):
You guys are at the forefront ofsome of our big talent
development efforts here atUniversity of Tennessee Supply
Chain.
You've worked in developingprograms for non-degree in
supply chain leadership, insupply chain planning, supply
chain finance Dan, you'reworking.
I think now the next one isgoing to be a procurement
(13:00):
academy.
Right.
Companies are starting to takevery seriously not just
recruitment but also retentionof talent and development of
talent, because it's going to beone of the big competitive
areas of the next many decades.
So we'd love to have you guysgive us some of your thoughts on
the companies you're talking tothe HR folks, what they're
(13:22):
thinking about in terms oftalent development and some of
the things you're working on onthe UT side too, to be able to
deliver on that.
So I'd love to hear yourthoughts on some of the things
you're hearing from some of ourpartners.
Joe Buckley (13:34):
Sure, ted, I'll take a lead on it.
It was really.
I've been in this role forseveral years now and it was
really interesting to me intalking with a lot of our form
partners in particular thatwhile they're very much
interested in developing theiremployees, this has almost
become an expectation ofemployees that they're being
(13:56):
invested in and developed.
So these programs have becomeas much a retention tool for the
organizations we're workingwith as it has a retention tool
for the organizations we'reworking with as it has a
development tool.
So I was really surprised bythat.
At the end of one of our recentprograms that we've done for a
large retailer, we surveyed theparticipants on how impactful
(14:18):
these programs were in themdeciding to stay and continue
employment with their currentemployer, and it was high.
90% were strongly agree thatthese were the types of things
they were looking for.
Dan Pellathy (14:51):
Wow that's interesting, dan manage what
that talent's expectations werein terms of advancement and,
like Joe was saying, beinginvested in, and then also the
flexibility that comes withthose work modality changes,
work from home or kind ofpartially work from home.
It's created a lot ofchallenges for organizations and
(15:11):
I don't think anybody hasreally figured out kind of a
silver bullet for this yet, butthey are working on it.
There are a lot of differentapproaches that companies are
taking.
One of the big challenges outthere, I think, for companies is
there's a serious mid-levelmanager crunch.
It's a serious thing.
Mid-level managers are taskedwith doing their job but also
(15:35):
bringing in new talent and thenalso trying to manage up to
senior leaders who may or maynot be as quick to pivot in
terms of thinking about theseissues.
So for mid-level managers it'sa really tough job, really tough
going.
I think that's part of thereason why the kinds of
offerings that Joe was talkingabout, the kind of academies
(15:57):
that we produce here atUniversity of Tennessee, have
become such an important tool inthe tool belt of these folks as
they try to think through howdo we develop our talent, keep
our talent and make sure thatthose folks have the
capabilities to take advantageof the advances that Tom was
talking about, right.
That needs to be developed sothat folks can actually take
(16:18):
advantage of the advances thatTom was talking about.
Ted Stank (16:20):
right, that needs to be developed so that folks can
actually take advantage of thoseadvances.
It has always struck me thatorganizations struggle with
getting people from line-leveloperations into mid-level
management.
You know, we make theassumption that if you're really
good at doing your job, thenyou're also going to be really
good at managing people, and wedon't give them the skills or
training that they need to makethem good managers right.
Joe Buckley (16:42):
Ted, you hit the nail on the head.
I just had a discussion earliertoday with one of our corporate
partners and brought me back tomy age 27 when I had my first
management opportunity.
And I really didn't know atthat time that I was
ill-prepared for thatopportunity because all of the
hard skills that I was reallygood at that got me that
(17:03):
opportunity were not the softskills that I needed to be
successful at a leader.
So we've built some programmingthat marries hard skill
development with soft skilldevelopment.
That is really geared towardspreparing that young leader to
be successful with the rightskill set.
Tom Goldsby (17:24):
Joe, can you kind of describe one of these
academies?
And again, we started off withthe Supply Chain Management
Leadership Academy and Ted and Ihave been co-leading those with
your support over this pastacademic year and we hope to
continue doing so into theindefinite future.
But describe to our audiencewhat we try to pack into 14
weeks of SCMLA.
Joe Buckley (17:46):
Sure.
So just a quick history lessonwhat we're trying to accomplish
here with talent development.
A little over five years ago,we launched our online master's
program, which has been verywell received and gave us a
really high quality master's insupply chain offering online
first online program here at theuniversity.
(18:06):
So we've got a really nicedegreed program for someone that
wants to really invest heavilyin their employees and their
employees.
Well, based on the success ofthat and the amount of work that
we put into developing somehigh online educational
opportunities, we've beensetting up these individual
academies and, in essence,you're getting the equivalent of
(18:28):
a three-credit-hour master'sclass in a particular topic, the
first of which, tom, youmentioned, was the SCM
Leadership Academy.
It's a 14-week journeyend-to-end supply chain skills
we talk about.
(18:48):
What do we mean by end-to-endsupply chain?
What's a good end-to-end supplychain look like?
What's the benefits that itbrings to the organization?
But we've also worked with ourleadership team here at the
Haslam College of Business todevelop a soft skill journey
that they go on.
So when somebody comes out atthe end of that 14 weeks, they
have a very good understandingof basic end-to-end supply chain
(19:09):
skills, as well as anunderstanding of their strengths
and opportunities from aleadership perspective and
hopefully helps them buildthemselves into a better leader,
moving forward.
Dan Pellathy (19:21):
Yeah, I would emphasize too.
Just going back to the pointaround, how do we transition
someone from being kind of aline leader to a manager?
There's a lot of strength inthe kind of functional areas and
in the kind of technicalknow-how in those functional
areas and companies, but theend-to-end piece is oftentimes
missing and it's difficult forfolks to get trained in that on
(19:44):
the job.
And so one of the big thingsthat these academies emphasize
quite a bit is understandingthat end-to-end piece,
understanding where your role iswithin the larger picture,
understanding how decisions thatare made in your area affect
other areas and are affected byother areas.
I think that's a reallycritical piece moving folks from
(20:07):
kind of being within theirfunctional areas doing well
there, to being able to thenlead a larger group of
potentially cross-functionalindividuals.
Ted Stank (20:16):
larger group of potentially cross-functional
individuals.
Hey, have you guys noticed thatthere's different expectations
generationally?
I'm an old boomer, right, andthere were certain expectations
and just ways that we looked atthe world and I know that in
many ways there's suchdifferences with probably not so
much with Gen X, tom, I'm goingto glump you in with the old
boomers now but certainly withmillennials and Gen Zs.
(20:39):
Do you see, in what you guysare offering and what you're
teaching, differences inexpectations for these kinds of
skills, particularly soft skills, with those generations?
Joe Buckley (20:51):
You know, ted, I think a lot of the skills that
we teach from a soft skillperspective work for.
I can take some of us old guysthat could use some of those
skills as well.
But you know, younger employeeshave definitely grown up
differently than we, have maybea little less face-to-face
interaction, maybe the way theylike to communicate from a
technology perspective.
(21:12):
You know, some of the skillsthat we focus on may be more
beneficial for them becausethey've grown up in a different
environment and may help withthe development from that
perspective.
But as we work withparticipants, you can see a
different level of comfort withonline learning versus
face-to-face.
(21:33):
So yeah, we've had to adaptmaybe a little bit on how we
structure some of these programsto deliver the material.
Ted Stank (21:40):
So that's interesting , joe, and I do want to plumb
into this a little bit more.
I've been doing this for 30some years and non-degree
executive education when Istarted was you bring a class of
30, some people from a bunch ofdifferent companies, to a big
campus.
You know, when I started it wasat Michigan State University.
(22:01):
We did it here for a long time,and you bring them for three
days or five days, you know, andthey leave work and it's a deep
immersion for that whole fiveday period and there was a lot
of good that came out of it, alot of networking and everything
.
But that's changed, right.
I mean, from a deliverystandpoint, what are you looking
at now?
From full versus part-time,online versus face-to-face,
(22:24):
synchronous versus asynchronous?
Joe Buckley (22:27):
Yeah, it's a great point, Ted.
There's definitely been a shiftaway from face-to-face
multi-day programming, gettingfolks to get out of the office
and come to Knoxville or for allof them to come to a central
location and us to come to themfor a four or five day
programming.
We're doing a lot less of thatand a lot more of these online
(22:47):
academies, which are much moreflexible in delivery and, quite
frankly, I think they're abetter learning experience.
You know, if you sit and have a40-hour one-week lecture by day
three, your sponge is prettyfull.
I think this allows us todeliver the content more
in-depth over a longer period oftime and in a more digestible
(23:08):
format to the participant, andwe're also finding that both a
combination of synchronous andasynchronous material works
really well.
So you know, we have self-pacedreading and video work and
hands-on exercises and casestudies that they can work on
and then come together everycouple of weeks for a couple of
(23:29):
hours via Zoom with our subjectmatter experts to kind of tie it
all together.
It works really well and we'vetaken a lot of time to work with
instructional design firms tobuild this for working
professionals.
So you know if you've got 15 or30 minutes in your day.
You can pick something up, getit done, learn from it and then
go back to work and pick it upagain a little later.
(23:51):
So I think the retention ofknowledge is better because
we're not cramming it into sucha small period of delivery, and
so far things have been verywell received.
Tom Goldsby (24:01):
What you're describing is what we call the
prophecy of and around the shop.
You don't really have tosacrifice right.
You're able to offer thisflexible learning opportunity
with all the richness of what weused to have when we bring
folks to campus which, by theway, we still do that if folks
want to set that up and are soinclined.
I'll just say, as an instructorin the Supply Chain Leadership
(24:24):
Academy, it is some of the mostfun as well that I have those
two hours every two weeks.
We get together the rich smallgroup discussion, the large
group discussion to talk aboutthe topic du jour and, hey, the
chance to collaborate with you,joe and Ted, in those sessions
and you speak of the success ofthe Leadership Academy has led
(24:44):
us to kind of round out theportfolio a little bit more.
You mentioned the FinanceAcademy which we've been
offering for the past year, andDan will bring you in to talk
about the Planning Academythat's going to have its maiden
voyage this fall.
But, joe, can you talk a littlebit about that Finance Academy,
the impetus for that focus onsupply chain finance and what
you try to accomplish with thatprogram?
Joe Buckley (25:06):
Yeah, and first of all, tom, I'd like to be able to
say that it's just.
I'm a visionary when it comes topicking the next topic that
will be popular, but that wouldbe a lie.
We're fortunate to have a largepartnership with a lot of very
strong companies and we rely alot on their input as to what
they're looking for to developin their supply chain leaders.
(25:29):
That led us to that initialSupply Chain Leadership Academy
to focus on end-to-end skillsand soft skills.
The second academy we launchedis a Supply Chain Management
Finance Academy something nearand dear to my heart, being the
lone CPA on the supply chainfaculty here.
Really, this focuses ondeveloping the financial acumen
(25:51):
that our supply chain leadersneed the ability to have a basic
understanding of the financialstatements, the importance of
cash flow, the importance ofcapital allocation and
management, really to understandhow our day-to-day decisions in
the supply chain are impactingthose financial results.
So we've launched that academyjust about a year ago.
(26:14):
It's been very well received.
We had about 54 individuals inour most recent open enrollment.
We're doing some custom workwith organizations in this space
, with larger groups, and thatkind of led us to our third
academy, which is the SupplyChain Management Planning
Academy, which I'll turn it overto Dan to talk a little bit
(26:35):
about.
Dan Pellathy (26:36):
Planning Academy, which I'll turn it over to Dan
to talk a little bit about.
Yeah, so again, I think part ofthe strength here is the kind
of UT model where we reallysource the ideas of what we're
going to do in terms of our nextPlanning Academy.
We really source those ideasfrom our corporate partners.
So the planning base came outvery strongly as a place where
there's a lot of need for talentdevelopment.
(26:57):
So we developed the PlanningAcademy which will be launched
in the fall, to really upskillplanners and again to kind of
get them that end-to-endperspective and to see
themselves within a kind oflarger planning process.
That's going to be, I think, anexciting offering and we've had
some good engagement on thatalready.
(27:20):
Just going back to the kind ofgenerational differences for a
second right, I thinkflexibility is going to be
absolutely critical as we moveforward.
I think that the youngergeneration has grown up with the
expectation that they have awide range of options.
They can pick and choose fromthings.
They can do things online,synchronous, asynchronous,
(27:41):
face-to-face.
So I think that's going to bepart of keeping up with that
generation is maintaining thatflexibility and also allowing
them to move forward quickly.
I think that the generationcoming up has a pretty strong
expectation that they are goingto advance quickly.
I think that the generationcoming up has a pretty strong
expectation that they are goingto advance quickly.
They have pretty strongskepticism about the pay your
(28:04):
dues model and again these kindsof academies that allow folks
to move from strength tostrength.
They're going to move from areato area and be able to kind of
continually grow.
I think that's a very appealingmodel for folks who are looking
to really upskill quickly,advance themselves quickly in an
area.
Tom Goldsby (28:24):
Hey, I'll just speak on behalf of Generation X,
if I can do that.
I like flexibility too, so Imean, these academies are not
just for the younger folk, forsure.
Ted Stank (28:34):
Hey, also, just pay your dues, goldsby.
Tom Goldsby (28:38):
Just a point of clarification.
We mentioned that theLeadership Academy is 14 weeks
and, joe, how long is theFinance Academy?
And Dan, the Planning Academy?
Joe Buckley (28:47):
Both the Finance and Planning Academies are eight
weeks in length, so a littlebit shorter, a little more
condensed.
We packed a lot into thatleadership academy with multiple
topics, both soft skill andhard skill development, so that
one's a little bit longer.
But they're all built off of athree credit hour course that
you would take here in ourmaster's program, so you're
(29:10):
getting a really deep dive intothese subject matter areas and
correct me if I'm wrong, butsuccessful completion of these
academy courses can lead tocredit toward that MS degree
program.
Tom Goldsby (29:24):
Is that right?
Joe Buckley (29:25):
Yes, yes, so the well.
It is a non-degree program thatdoesn't transfer to other
universities.
We do have an arrangement herewith our online program.
Who has looked at thecurriculum and signed off that
this would count as a waiver forone of those 10 courses in our
master's program.
So it's a great way, I think,to come in test our online model
(29:48):
here If you're thinking aboutgoing on to that MS program a
relatively low cost way to kickthe tires, so to speak.
Yeah.
Tom Goldsby (29:56):
And you get 10% toward earning that degree,
right?
If you have one of 10 coursescould be knocked out right there
by virtue of attending theacademy, Exactly Okay, so we've
got these three academies.
All are going to be offered inthe fall, correct?
Dan Pellathy (30:11):
Yes, Leadership finance planning and there's
some more in the development.
Just to kind of tempt peoplewhat's awaiting us down the road
(30:31):
to strengthen their procurementteams, not just in terms of
driving cost savings althoughthat's always going to be on the
table but really driving valueto customers, and so a lot of
good conversations around whatsome of the content in that's
going to be.
So look forward to maybe anannouncement around that during
(30:52):
the spring 2025 UT forum andwe'll get some content out to
folks at that time.
Tom Goldsby (31:01):
And just one more thing there's also the
opportunity for corporatepartners to develop custom
versions of these.
Is that right?
Dan Pellathy (31:07):
Yes, got to be an all of the above model, right,
honestly, it's got to be all ofthe above.
And as much as companiescomplain about the bureaucracy
within their own companies,within their own organizations
boy, higher ed has got its ownbureaucracies and we've got to
be flexible as well.
Joe Buckley (31:26):
And we even have our first custom planning
academy in the works as we'refinishing up the development of
that program.
So yeah, it's a really nicemodel.
If somebody has a large groupthat they want to put through
this curriculum, it's a littlemore cost effective doing it in
(31:48):
a custom format but also allowsus to tailor some of the content
to either the company or theindustry that they're in.
Some of those live sessionswill bring in their subject
matter experts, depending on thetopic, and can really relate
the content from the course towhat's going on at the
organization and drive home someof those thoughts.
So the custom models arethey're a lot of fun to run,
(32:12):
personally speaking, because youknow we have those subject
matter experts from the companyto kind of work with and help
deliver the message.
But yeah, to Dan's point, we'repretty flexible here.
We can do these in custom.
We also run open enrollmentleadership academy.
We run spring and fall all ofthese in open enrollment.
(32:34):
The Leadership Academy kicksoff August 14th for its 14-week
run, the Finance Academy startsSeptember 9th and the Planning
Academy open enrollment willstart September 16th.
Tom Goldsby (32:48):
Excellent, and where could folks go if they
want to learn more about theseacademies?
Joe Buckley (32:52):
Email Dan or myself .
Our email address is under thefaculty page or might be posted
in this podcast somewhere.
Tom Goldsby (33:00):
We'll provide some links in the notes for sure, so
folks can find you.
Joe Buckley (33:04):
That's good.
Or we have a mailbox to ourGlobal Supply Chain Institute,
gsci.
You can email that.
All of those emails make theirway to us, but happy to have a
conversation with anyone who'sinterested in hearing more about
talent development thoughtshere at UT or any of these
programs.
Ted Stank (33:22):
You know, as I listen to this conversation, one of
the things that really strikesme is how the scope of skill
sets that people need to begreat supply chain managers has
just continued to evolve.
There was an earlier time thatif we were talking about great
skill sets for these kinds ofprograms, things like Leadership
Academy and finance andplanning would not be the first
(33:45):
three things that you thought offor supply chain-oriented
content.
I think it's a real tribute tothe work you all have done with
our partners to try to figureout what are the skill sets that
people need to become moreeffective managers have done
with our partners to try tofigure out what are the skill
sets that people need to becomemore effective managers.
So with that, guys, we reallyappreciate your time with us.
Really great stuff going on.
This is, to me, forget anevolution in non-degree
(34:08):
education.
It's a revolution, probably yetanother one of those trends
that was coming prior to COVID,but COVID accelerated these kind
of.
I love, joe, your comment aboutlet's be able to take learning
in smaller bites.
I have taught in those one weekprograms where you see on the
afternoon of the third 10 hourday of people's eyes rolling
back in their heads.
(34:29):
That's a really good insight.
Tom, you want to bring us home.
Tom Goldsby (34:32):
Yeah, I'll just encourage folks.
You can find us at gsciutkedu.
We love hearing from you,whether you're a friend or
someone looking to become afriend.
We look forward to hearing fromyou and I guess this puts a
wrap on another episode and lookforward to more good things
coming, Great guests, thebalance of summer.
So with that we'll bid youadieu from Rocky Top.
Introduction (34:55):
Thanks for tuning in to Tennessee on Supply Chain
Management.
If you enjoyed the episode,subscribe today on your favorite
listening platform to get allof our episodes as soon as they
drop, and don't forget to take amoment to leave us a rating.
Have any questions, thoughts orfeedback?
We'd love to hear from ourlisteners.
Email us at gsci at utkedu.
Join us next time as wecontinue pulling back the
(35:17):
curtain on the world of supplychain, educating and
entertaining you along the way.
Until then, listeners.
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