SCN: What advice do you have for other supply chain executives who are struggling to inspire greater innovation from their teams?
JK: To achieve breakthrough change, you cannot play it safe. We have to take risks and even if a project doesn't yield the results we may have expected or hoped for, it allows us learn and leads us in the direction of significant breakthroughs.
One of the biggest challenges is getting people to fully embrace change. Many companies say they value and support innovation, but do not put in the right structure that enables experimentation and does not punish failure. Without this, people are not going to trust this different way of thinking, and you are not going to get the results you need to stay relevant.
From a leadership perspective, you cannot manage a team like this in the same way you would manage a traditional portfolio team-with a single-minded focus on return on investment. The priority for these teams must be creating solutions that first and foremost benefit our customers, shareholders and the industry. Your team members must be empowered to pursue those sometimes "off-the-wall" ideas that can lead to truly disruptive innovation.
