Work Life Balance
I asked in the last edition whether you enjoy your job or not. It never ceases to amaze me the incredible range of titles that are
given to the job of supply chain manager – something our subs manager struggles with when classifying new subscribers.

To give you some examples, I’ve received business cards from a number of people who have listed their title as ‘warehouse purchasing officer’, ‘logistics supply manager’, ‘distribution manager’, ‘global procurement officer’ and (my favourite) ‘partner collaboration
manager’ (give that man a medal for individuality).
No matter what the title, underneath the jargon is usually a person who’s tasked with doing the right thing for their company in terms of getting the goods in, storing them efficiently, productively and safely, and getting them out the door again – moving goods along the chain of supply from creator to consumer.

So when an email popped into my inbox a couple of months ago,
asking if I’d like to interview a fellow who went by the title of ‘senior
vice president, global sales and service’ for one of the world’s largest
providers of supply chain technologies, I felt a little daunted. I’ve met
a number of people of this calibre, and they have their own language
which consists mostly of industry-specific jargon and space-agesounding
acronyms. I seem to spend most of the interview wishing
I’d brought along a translator.

However, as it turned out, a face-to-face interview was out of the
question (due principally to the fact that my interviewee was across
the Tasman at the time) and so we conducted the interview by email.
Over an exchange of questions and answers, I discovered that I had
far more in common with Mr Vice President than I could have possibly
imagined (other than spending too much time away from home).

You can read the full interview with Mike Wills on page 15 of this
edition, but I’d just like to include here Mike’s not-so-secret formula
for success. I asked him how he managed to get to be a senior VP
of a global company so fast (you can probably guess from this that
he’s younger than me) and his answer was simple: “Good preparation
and planning for assignments; surround yourself with people as
good or better than yourself; support them, and hold solid lines of
accountability. Oh, and don’t forget to have fun once in a while.”
No matter what you call yourself, I think every one of us could adopt this attitude to our job.

Until next time …

Lynne Richardson, Editor