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Wayne Eckerson, founder of the Eckerson Group, is credited with coining the term \u201cpurple people\u201d back in 2010. Last year, in an article,* Eckerson wrote about the yawning gulf between business (blue) and information technology (red) groups in most organizations. He said that successful leaders\u2014the purple people\u2014not only know how to talk the language of both camps and but also how to create from these two disparate groups a team that can deliver real business value.<\/p>\n
For today\u2019s supply chain organizations, facing new and demanding digital, technical and business challenges, it is imperative to find, hire and cultivate more purple people.<\/p>\n
On the business side, companies will require managers with a deep understanding of the various functions in a supply chain organization\u2014the best practices that companies follow in transportation, warehousing, inventory management and customer service, according to J. Paul Dittmann, executive director of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee.<\/p>\n
\u201cBusiness people in the supply chain also need to be able to translate all of that into language that other parts of the organization, and especially senior executives, can understand,\u201d he continued. \u201cInstead of talking about how they\u2019re going to save money in the warehouse by reducing the time required to pick a case of goods, supply chain managers will need to talk instead about how they\u2019re going to better serve the customer, how they\u2019re going to help drive revenue for the company and how they\u2019re going to help generate higher profits.\u201d<\/p>\n