Author: Sime Curkovic

I had a student ask: Shouldn’t I major in Finance or Accounting if I want to become a CEO? I said: Well, being able to talk CFO talk is critical to long term success, but you might want to give this supply chain thing some thought…CEOs Will Come from an Unlikely Place: The Supply Chain... https://fortune.com/2018/12/11/ceo-supply-chain/ "...it’s clear that supply chain professionals are poised to become the most powerful executives in...

“Walmart deployed AI-powered negotiations software w/ a text-based interface (i.e., a chatbot) to connect w/ suppliers.” https://hbr.org/2022/11/how-walmart-automated-supplier-negotiations How to approach a new technology investment, based on what I have seen in software & professional services: For example... If a company wanted to get started with using Robotic Process Automation (RPA), where & how should they begin? https://lnkd.in/eQYrHUM. FYI, a great post on RPA by Mr. Stankovic: https://lnkd.in/gM6PcT-m. From me: Have you heard...

"New workers will be offered a salary of 30 yuan ($4.16) per hour…would offer staff who had left in recent weeks a one-off bonus of 500 yuan ($69.28) should they return." https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/world-largest-iphone-factory-needs-100k-new-workers-ahead-holidays Does Apple or Google make phones in the USA? Nope. Personally, I wish there were more good paying jobs for less skilled workers in the U.S., but that’s not the world we live in anymore. https://lnkd.in/g-eq8rXm.https://lnkd.in/g7cciR-g.https://lnkd.in/gp4XNa3z From me: It is...

“Bachelor’s degree holders generally earn 84% more than those with just a high school diploma…STEM, health and business majors are among the highest-paying…Top-paying college majors earn $3.4 million more than the lowest-paying majors over a lifetime.” https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/12/the-top-10-most-regretted-college-majors.html The unemployment rate for Americans w/ a college degree has dropped to 1.9%. The avg cost of college tuition & fees at public 4-year institutions has risen 179.2% the last 20 years for an avg annual increase...

The Top Feeder Schools into Silicon Valley. Here is another college rankings list…Visualized: The Best Universities in America: https://lnkd.in/gEJwkPef. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/the-top-feeder-schools-into-silicon-valley/ Note, Secretary Miguel A. Cardona called college rankings “a joke,” & took aim at selective colleges’ obsession w/them...https://lnkd.in/gv_vZ4k9. I have been talking to high schoolers & the parents also appear to be heavily focused on rankings. Pay attention to what matters most- not necessarily rankings...especially at the undergrad level. https://lnkd.in/gc27Ne9p The Street:...

"Solar accounts for about 4% of U.S. power generation…the U.S. has little or no mfg for almost any component needed to produce solar energy. China, which can produce solar components less expensively, controls > 80% of the supply chain, dominating the manufacture of solar panels & other vital equipment. In recent years, China has spent almost 10x as much on solar mfg as the U.S. & Europe combined." https://www.wsj.com/articles/solar-energy-china-supply-chain-11668525614?st=kt9qcg1p39gaafs _Notice:...

Hottest MBA Degree Now? Supply Chain? That darn MBA degree still has a great ROI!...“Over their lifetime, an MBA grad can expect to earn $3M more than someone with only a bachelor’s.” https://fortune.com/education/business/articles/2022/11/07/mba-hiring-remains-red-hot-this-no-2-b-school-sees-grads-land-200k-plus-pay-packages/ MIT: Interesting salary & job placement data for MIT MS SCM grads. https://lnkd.in/gYimnUkP.Note, if you read this article about an MBA SCM degree, it sounds a lot like our undergrad BBA SCM degree.https://lnkd.in/gkN-ecch (great read, lots of data &...

“McKinsey did a survey in which < ½ of the orgs said they understood the location of their tier-1 suppliers & the key risks those suppliers face. Only 2% had visibility to their suppliers in the 3rd tier & beyond.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebanker/2022/11/02/top-supply-chain-trends-heading-into-2023/?sh=7da11a8d55e2 Also, great post from Esri… We've all felt the effects of an unpredictable supply chain. ??‍♀️Here's how GIS is helping companies trace delays, shortages, and other risks to anticipate—and possibly avoid—knock-on...

Our data mining class (CIS 4640) is essentially a machine learning class for business, which is the core of Artificial Intelligence (agreed?). Our SCM students also told us many times that their hiring managers valued mostly the traditional Excel capabilities (lookup functions, pivot tables, etc.), & they greatly overlooked the opportunities from other analytical solutions (that our students have!). Again, for example, our data mining class is an ML class,...

WMU launches food marketing graduate certificate. FMK+SCM = Jobs. Double Majors: Food & Consumer Packaged Goods Marketing (FMK) + Supply Chain Mgmt (SCM) = Multiple Job Offers (i.e., Stryker, J & J, Kellogg’s, Hormel, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, etc.)WMU FMK: Ranked Top 10, WMU SCM: Ranked Top 10https://lnkd.in/gBfwKyUAhttps://lnkd.in/ec9fQuahttps://lnkd.in/eRWMVP6https://lnkd.in/e9j33EQ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/where-does-our-food-come-from/ I am thinking of doing dual major in MKTG & SCM? What do you think about the combo? I get this question often,...