Page 10 - Logistics News - December 2021

O P I N ION

The value of leadership –

the mark of a successful supply chain

By Arno Meyer, arnom@richfield.ac.za and Aveshin Reddy, aveshinr@richfield.ac.za
of Richfield Graduate Institute of Technology

Leadership, a trait that all industry professionals strive to develop, yet very few possess in
its entirety. This elusive attribute is the ability to inspire, guide and support individuals to
achieve success. The value created by leadership in a supply chain is evident but sometimes
misunderstood by supply chain stakeholders.

supply chain is a multifaceted function that A supply chain leader fulfils the role of being
involves many critical processes such as the team captain, aligning each department to
A procurement, operations management and achieve the supply chain’s vision and realise long-
logistics management. Each of these departments term organisational success. The importance of this
is then broken down into smaller facilitating teams position has been embodied by the globalisation
that create value within an organisation. This makes of supply chains, and increases in complexity in
it incredibly difficult for an organisation to manage organisational structures and the disruptions caused
its supply chain without resilient leaders. Supply by the COVID-19 pandemic.
chain leaders provide the motivation, know-how
and direction to the various teams and departments Being a good leader does not solely rely on a
that drive the supply chain team to achieve singular skill, but rather a compilation of various
organisational success. personal competencies such as creativity, effective
communication, compassion towards the needs of
To understand the impact of leadership on a individual team members, strong interpersonal
supply chain, you can consider the following analogy. skills and dedication towards upholding integrity.
In soccer, you have a team of players, each of whom These skills lead to the realisation of the supply
has a specific role in guiding their team to success. A chain vision and ultimately drive the organisation’s
goalkeeper’s role is to prevent the opposition from mission and vision.
scoring whilst the striker’s role is to score against
L O GI S T I CS NEWS the opponent. Each of these team members has a their leadership style according to the supply chain’s
A supply chain professional needs to develop
different role, but ultimately the same objective – to
vision, the two most common types of leadership
win the match. This is where the team captain comes
styles being transactional and transformational.
in; he guides the team to success by providing a
strategy and inspiring the team to achieve success.
Transactional leadership is primarily task-driven

8 NO V E MB E R/D E C E MB E R 2021 www .l o g ist i csn e w s .c o .z a