In this episode, Tony hosts Katherine Ross, former President of Health Care Services and SVP of Worldwide Customer and Logistics Services at Johnson & Johnson. Katherine’s 35-year career in supply chain and operations leadership spans all supply chain functions in the healthcare and CPG industries and includes time at Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, and McKinsey.
Her varied roles and leadership experience have given her a unique perspective on connecting the dots across the supply chain as well as building diverse global teams.
Key takeaways:
There is always ROI in building a resilient supply chain
Allocating investment towards developing a resilient supply chain creates significant long term value. It may be tempting to make tradeoffs that prioritize boosting cost performance over building a robust, responsive supply chain, but when a crisis happens this decision could put a company at a competitive disadvantage. Being proactive about building stronger customer and supplier relationships, as well as investing in technology, infrastructure, and targeted inventory will help a company better handle demand and supply shocks because they have an extended network that can be leveraged to navigate through volatility.
Focus on developing leaders who can connect the dots
Today’s leadership needs to develop a digital mindset that spans the enterprise, rather than focusing on just their individual function. Digitization can help uncover the gaps between silos and leaders need to connect the dots across those silos to optimize strategy, planning and processes across the organization. Equally important are communications, development, and reward systems that help create future leaders that understand how their responsibilities impact the success of the overall enterprise.
Take on stretch roles
Katherine has had opportunities to lead global teams in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. She considers it a career highlight to build and lead diverse, global teams with different skill sets and find successful ways to work together to achieve results. She advises new managers to focus on their ability to learn, because it allows leaders to move into new situations, rapidly assess and create potential for successful results.
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