Dr. Tom Goldsby, professor of logistics, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University is providing faculty leadership of the project. In addition to his role at Fisher, Dr. Goldsby serves on the CSCMP Research Board, which evaluates and approves opportunities to study issues of importance to the supply chain profession.
Working with the Center and CSCMP, Dr. Goldsby helped organize a focus group of nine supply chain leaders from various industries and services to help define the most critical areas of challenge. Based on results from a pre-survey, the areas of discussion were condensed to the following:
- Supply Chain Flexibility/Agility
- Margin Management
- Regulatory Compliance
- Globalization
The discussion was lively - as with most supply chain leaders, there was no shortage of analysis and educated opinion. Through the two-hour session, margin management kept emerging as a consistent gap - where does my company make money, and where do we lose money? What are the most profitable lines of service for our company? What customers are the most costly to serve?
Over the coming months, the research team will be surveying middle market executives to learn more about these questions. We look forward to our continued partnership with CSCMP. We are currently targeting Q2 2013 for our first published results. Stay tuned!