In “Developing the Next Generation of Supply Chain Planning Talent and Leadership,” researcher Dan Pellathy from the University of Tennessee’s Global Supply Chain Institute (GSCI) draws on a year-long engagement with senior supply chain leaders through the Advanced Supply Chain Collaborative (ASCC) to define what it takes to develop supply chain planning talent and leadership capable of building supply chains that will succeed decades into the future.

The research identifies five critical challenges facing supply chain planning talent and leadership development today. Changing work modalities—remote, hybrid, and in-person—constrain planning teams’ ability to collaborate on system-level changes. A significant and growing shortfall in supply chain talent over the coming decade demands a dramatic overhaul of human resource practices. The mid-level manager crunch has left managers overburdened with training and acculturating new associates while simultaneously balancing their own evolving workloads. Planning leaders have typically not occupied senior-level positions tied to strategic initiatives. And companies have failed to combine robust educational programs with processes, metrics, and incentives to create broad-based development experiences.

To address these challenges, the research team identified 11 core competencies that supply chain planning talent must develop: ambiguity tolerance, awareness, change leadership, compelling communication, conflict management, cultural leadership, data analytics, empathy, negotiation skills, team leadership, and technological fluency. Notably, the competencies identified were mainly oriented toward managing the social and personal dimensions of system transformations—not just technical or process-level skills. No single competency could satisfy the requirements of any individual leading-edge capability, and competencies complemented one another to support a range of organizational capabilities.

Because competencies don’t develop in a vacuum, the paper also defines five broad-based organizational action areas that support their development. For each action area, the research team identified specific educational opportunities, processes, metrics, and incentives companies can implement. These organizational actions are mutually supporting—no single action area is sufficient for developing any given competency, but together they create an ecosystem for supply chain planning talent growth.

Beyond talent development, the paper addresses the critical issue of planning leadership. Senior planning leaders require a distinctive professional background, including exposure to functional areas across the supply chain, strong analytical capabilities, experience with AI and automation tools, and a track record as a strategic change agent. The research outlines essential organizational supports for planning leaders, including senior-level positions that report directly to the CEO, strong connections to strategic initiatives, regular cross-functional engagement, and well-resourced teams dedicated to reviewing and developing talent across the supply chain.