Supply chain management: Meet Zawadi Dismuke

Where will the next generation of supply chain talent be found? It’s a question that comes up at every conference I have attended since taking on the role of editorial director of Supply Chain Management Review last July. Talent was a major focus at APICS, the MHI annual meeting and CSCMP last fall; and more recently it was on the agenda at the WERC conference in Chicago and the ISM conference last week in Las Vegas.

The biggest concern I hear from industry leaders is that while supply chain has become a hot MBA, there are too few programs and too few students interested in our little corner of the world to fill the demand for supply chain professionals. That shortage was the focus of an insightful article by Kusumal Ruamsook and Christopher Craighead we published in SCMR last January and a blog by guest columnist David Widdifield on MMH in March.

So, it was a treat to talk to Atlanta-native Zawadi Dismuke, a senior at Howard University and one of the 2014 recipients of the Institute for Supply Management’s R. Gene Richter Scholarship, an award annually presented to the top supply chain management students from across the United States. Recipients receive $5,000 in tuition assistance.

During our telephone conversation, Dismuke was a bundle of energy and enthusiasm for the day-to-day activities associated with our profession as well as the broader implications of what supply chain can mean to the people and communities we touch.

This year, for instance, she had a chance to travel to Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and India, where she worked on a case study on emerging trends in the supply chain for IBM. “That trip opened my eyes to the culture of supply chain and our impact on people,” she told me. “I saw how businesses can get more involved in a community to do more than just deliver products and services. They can impact lives.”

So, how did a 20-something who is also part of a dance ensemble and committed to community service decide to major in supply chain management? According to Dismuke, she went off to college intent on a career in marketing. Meanwhile, early in her freshman year she attended an information session on supply chain management, which was a new major at Howard. As the year progressed, she learned two things. “First, I realized I didn’t like marketing at all,” she said. “The second is that I really was interested in supply chain management and understood it. There were so many different things you can do, from distribution to logistics to purchasing to consulting. I had a passion for it.”

In fact, Dismuke says that upon graduation, she’s not setting her sights on a specific area of supply chain management as much as working for a company that is committed to the communities where it does business and to doing the right thing in an ethical way the first time. “I’m learning that the decisions we make as supply chain managers can impact our companies, our employees, our brands, and our communities,” she told me. “That’s why supply chain managers are pushing for a seat at the tables – they can be impactful.”