2009 Pros to Know

2009, so far, has not offered many economic bright spots, either in the United States or abroad. It has been – to put it mildly – financial carnage on a colossal scale, with public and private wealth being destroyed at an alarming rate, and companies have been forced to shed parts of their businesses and countless workers just to stay afloat.

But despite all the doom and gloom being heralded from every sector, we’d like to put forward that this crisis is the very event that will put Supply Chain on the corporate map, so to speak, as senior management realizes the incredible power that an integrated, real-time supply chain can have on internal efficiency and costs savings, competitive advantage and brand building. Indeed, those companies that use these troubled times to polish up their supply chains – to invest in them – will not only stand a better chance of making it to the other side but will be poised to grow faster and gain market share when the business cycle turns upwards again, even as their competitors are still just getting back onto their feet.

So this year’s Pros to Know is a tribute to those who have seen the importance of Supply Chain – both on the Practitioner side and the Solution Provider side – and have quietly been working over the years to strengthen the supply chain at their own companies or at their clients.