The media tends to celebrate CEOs such as Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Jack Ma but the real heroes of global business often are the ones dealing with complex logistics and supply chain issues.

If you are contemplating or already pursing Fleming College Toronto’s Graduate Certificate Program in Supply Chain Management & Global Logistics, taking in the wisdom of the experts can be great for motivation or getting a sense of what the industry entails.

So, here are 8 quotations from some of the most important people in the logistics and supply chain sector.

“Put a good person in a bad system and the bad system wins, no contest.”

-W. Edwards Deming

“When we talk about 'smart transportation', it is more than moving cargo from A to B. Digitization within transport and logistics means seamless service to our customers, visibility in the supply chain, and driving a more efficient business.”

-Soren Skou, CEO of Maersk

“If you start from the farm sector, we need much better investments and capital creation on land. We need logistics support; we need cold chain and processing capability. We need proper pricing at various stages to ensure that the producers are not left out in the value-chain.”

-Arundhati Bhattacharya, former Chairperson of the State Bank of India

“Supermarket companies are big logistics companies, and one of the ways we've increased profitability in the past is by re-evaluating how they do logistics.”

-Ronald Burkle, co-found of Yucaipa Companies

“Digitization and new technologies are rapidly changing all industries, forcing them to prepare for a tomorrow that is unpredictable. This also applies to the industry of container shipping, ports, and logistics, which largely has been driven by the traditional business models focused on optimizing how you move goods.”

-Soren Skou, Danish businessman

“Know when to email vs when to meet. Logistics are best handled over a non-immediate communication channel like email or Asana tasks. Detailed status meetings will suck the life out of your day.”

-Justin Rosenstein, entrepreneur, programmer, co-found of Asana

“Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better.”

-W. Edwards Deming, engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant

“All we are doing is looking at the timeline, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing the timeline by reducing the non-value adding wastes.”  

-Taiichi Ohno, father of Toyota Production System (TPS)

To explore how Fleming College Toronto can get you started on this career path, check out the Supply Chain Management – Global Logistics Graduate Certificate Program page, or send us a message at info@flemingcollegetoronto.ca