There are 26 leadership stories in “From Source to Sold”, coming straight from conversations with leading CSCOs and COOs in the world, and distilled by Radu Palamariu, Managing Director Asia Pacific & Europe at Alcott Global, and Knut Alicke, Partner at McKinsey & Company.
And the leadership stories don’t end there.
The book journeyed around the world on several tours in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the USA and continues to travel in different locations, inspiring professionals and leaders in the supply chain industry. Timing the book deliveries, for events, and bulk orders that need to reach the other corner of the world involves other types of heroes, those whose work goes unnoticed when everything unfolds smoothly. At times, a series of factors challenge the usual operations and that’s when resilience has to come on stage as the main character.
All was planned for “From Source to Sold” to be in the hands of the participants at an MNC Leadership Kick-off meeting, in London; 160 copies, nicely packaged were handed over to the logistics partner and were meant to arrive the day before the event. A national holiday and other objective factors turned out to be a real challenge to keeping the delivery date within the timeline of the kick-off event. Can supply chain and logistics planners relate to what we are writing here? We are sure these are situations you face more often than you would like to.
With a drive towards customer-centricity, anyone can make an impact, and creative, resilient solutions come up. This time, an Uber driver saved the day; this was a simple yet impactful idea by one of the delivery representatives of the logistics partner, who went the extra mile to think about what options are there available that would allow the delivery to happen before the leadership event ended.
Ideas can be brilliant, but the execution is what determines success. We were inspired by the spontaneous experience of collaboration and communication that took place between the kick-off event organizer, the book distributor, the logistics team at the origin, the logistics team at the destination, and the Uber driver. The suspense was palpable and so was the involvement of each party in the success of Operation “Source to Sold London”, which made a lasting impression.
The book has five pronounced themes running through each of the 26 leadership stories, on what it takes to be a successful supply chain leader, which can be summarized through what we call the CHAIN Model for Supply Chain Leadership. The model is made of Collaborative, Holistic, Adaptable, Influential, and Narrative skills. It is great to observe that, in delivering the book that teaches CHAIN, the teams involved definitely showcased collaboration and a holistic mindset: how is my job impacting the business objectives of the company I work for?
Ken Allen, the former CEO of DHL Express, shared in “From Source to Sold”:
“The leadership of the frontline people is critical to the business’s success.”
During his time, he had three different songs for three different key initiatives that he was driving with the whole organization of 200,000 people, resulting in turning losses into profits. And that was the simplest way he could relay the story, the vision, and what they were trying to achieve to make sure that everybody in the organization understands. It seems that the customer-centricity is still with the DHL teams and their leadership was recognized internally.
