Crisis Management in Supply Chains – Recruiting for Resilience

The Impact of Disruptions

Global supply chains have faced major disruptions in recent years, with huge economic impacts. The COVID-19 pandemic severely restricted manufacturing and logistics operations globally. Lockdowns and border closures disrupted labour, transport, and raw materials. A McKinsey study found that 94% of Fortune 1000 companies faced supply chain disruptions during COVID-19. These disruptions are estimated to have cost businesses billions in lost revenue.

Other events like trade wars, Brexit, natural disasters, and geopolitical conflicts have also significantly disrupted global supply chains. The UK's departure from the EU in 2020 caused delays at borders and shortages of labour and materials. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, costing an estimated $94 billion in disruptions each year. With global supply chains more interconnected than ever, local disruptions quickly cascade worldwide. As such, building organisational resilience is vital.

The Role of Talent

The ability to effectively manage disruptions often comes down to the talent within an organisation. When hiring for supply chain roles, it's critical to assess candidates on domain expertise and softer skills that indicate resilience. Companies need leaders and team members who can adapt swiftly, solve problems creatively, make quick decisions, and collaborate across functions during a crisis.

Specifically, look for talent that demonstrates these characteristics:

• Adaptability: They can rapidly adjust plans, shift priorities, redeploy resources, and modify processes as circumstances change. They don't stubbornly cling to original plans when conditions need a new approach.
• Problem-solving skills: They can analyse situations from multiple angles, identify root causes, brainstorm innovative solutions, and implement the optimal path forward. During triage moments, they focus on fixing issues versus assigning blame.
• Decisiveness: They can promptly and confidently make tough calls despite imperfect information and high stakes. They don't allow analysis paralysis to slow progress during urgent scenarios.
• Collaborative mindset: They tap knowledge and build connections to drive unified action during events. They understand no function can operate in a silo during disruptions.
• Calm under pressure: They manage stress well and focus in chaotic moments. They don't panic or give up easily, even as pressure intensifies.
• Proactive learning: They actively reflect on experiences to identify lessons learned for the future. They know there is an opportunity for improvement after every disruption.

With the right mix of talent equipped with these crisis management skills, supply chain organisations can minimise the impacts of disruptions and accelerate recovery when the inevitable does occur.

Recruiting Crisis-Ready Talent

When recruiting for supply chain roles, it's crucial to look for technical expertise and crisis management capabilities. Here are some tips for identifying and recruiting talent that can navigate disruptions:

• Look for evidence of adaptability and flexibility in a candidate's background. Have they dealt with major changes or roadblocks in their previous roles? How did they handle ambiguity and rapidly evolving situations?
• Ask questions that reveal problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and the ability to make quick but informed decisions. Present real-world scenarios and ask how they would respond.
• Assess emotional intelligence and communication abilities. Supply chain disruptions can be stressful, so you need leaders who can stay calm under pressure, rally their teams, interface effectively with stakeholders, and translate complex issues into clear directives.
• Look for big-picture, strategic thinkers who can anticipate and evaluate risks and remain pragmatic. Crisis management requires a broad vision as well as practical planning.
• Cultural fit matters. You want team players who can collaborate cross-functionally at all levels of the organisation. Egos need to be checked at the door.
• Don't underestimate the importance of soft skills. Emotional intelligence, communication, collaboration, and adaptability are vital in crises. Technical skills can be taught more easily than crisis leadership capabilities.
• Ask candidates directly about their experience and comfort level with uncertainty. The ability to operate effectively despite ambiguity is essential.
• Assess readiness to make tough calls quickly with limited information. Over-analysis can be paralysing in a crisis, while decisive action is critical.

With supply chain volatility on the rise, building teams with the depth and breadth of talent to tackle disruptions is critical. Those with both the technical grounding and soft skills to handle crises will give your business the resilience to persevere.

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Preparing for the Next Disruption

The one certainty in today's business environment is that more disruptions are inevitable. Companies cannot become complacent during periods of stability but must use them as an opportunity to get ready for the next crisis. Preparation is an ongoing process that requires the total commitment of leadership and involvement across the organisation.

Some key ways companies can continually prepare include:

• Conducting regular training and simulations. Run scenarios and exercises to practice responding to different supply chain disruptions. This helps identify weaknesses and improves readiness. Training needs to involve staff at all levels to be truly effective.
• Reviewing and updating plans. Supply chain contingency plans should be living documents, not static ones. As risks evolve and business practices change, plans must be kept current. Build in regular reviews and have key stakeholders re-validate them.
• Monitoring early warning indicators. Look for signs of potential disruptions through leading indicators, metrics, and emerging risk reports. The earlier your company knows about a looming crisis, the more time it has to prepare a response.
• Learning from experience. Hold debriefs after any significant disruption to uncover lessons learned. Study both what went well and where improvements could be made. Feed these insights back into enhancing crisis management protocols.
• Sharing information across the network. Maintain open lines of communication with suppliers, logistics providers, and customers. Transparency helps provide advanced alerts.

With constant vigilance and preparation, companies can build truly resilient supply chains ready to weather the storm of whatever disruption comes next. But preparation cannot be a one-time event—it requires an ongoing commitment.

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic and other recent disruptions have shown supply chains' vulnerability. Companies that want to build resilience must look hard at their supply chain talent.

Leaders who can navigate uncertainty, collaborate across functions, and make quick decisions are essential in times of crisis. Organisations should focus their recruiting and development efforts on finding supply chain professionals with these skills. They should also invest in training for existing employees to improve agility and crisis readiness.

The next big disruption is likely just around the corner. Companies can get ahead by ensuring their supply chain talent has the inherent abilities and training needed to cope with whatever comes next. With the right people leading the way, businesses can survive crises and emerge stronger.

Martin Veasey Talent Solutions specialises in recruiting high-calibre supply chain and logistics professionals for businesses worldwide.