2021 was the year supply chain managers became cool

For supply chain managers, 2021 was the year their job became cool. Work once relegated to the dry, party-killing details of cargo schedules and warehouse management became the gripping headline sagas of snarled transport webs, clogged ports, and ships stuck in the Suez. The very phrase “supply chain” stopped being jargon and started being the deciding factor between a gift-filled Christmas and one marred by IOUs.

The crisis also served as powerful advertising for business schools that offer supply chain programs. “It was a topic that students never understood until they’d had a few years of work experience,” said Kevin Linderman, the chair of the supply chain department at Pennsylvania State University’s Smeal College of Business. “But now, with all the discussion in the news, it’s become a part of the lexicon. Students, especially undergraduates, are coming in with some idea of what it is.”

As a specialization, supply chain studies never had the lucrative allure of finance or the pizazz of marketing. Now, though, the field is having its moment in the sun. And administrators like Linderman are seeing a recognition of the importance of these courses—from students as well as from companies.

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