Some measure success by salaries and titles. Others use a different yardstick altogether. Take the 11 professionals selected as our 2013 Rainmakers, for example. When asked about their proudest professional accomplishments, one spoke of the rewards of nurturing talent within his organization and the satisfaction of watching protégées go on to achieve greater glory. Another cited the opportunity to develop a product that helps users meet sustainability goals. Yet another pointed to his work in establishing an environment where all team members can make a difference for themselves, the company, and the organization's customers.
So who are these Rainmakers and how were they chosen? As in the past, DC Velocity selected the 2013 Rainmakers in concert with members of the magazine's Editorial Advisory Board from candidates nominated by readers, board members, and previous Rainmakers and ThoughtLeaders. This year's selections represent different facets of the profession—from practitioners to academics to suppliers of goods and services. But as the profiles on the following pages show, they're united by a common goal of advancing the logistics and supply chain management profession.
James B. Rice Jr.
Jim Rice wears a multitude of hats at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL). As deputy director, he oversees research, industry outreach, and CTL's executive education courses. He also teaches a course on the interaction between business functions and supply chain management in MIT's master of engineering in logistics program.
When Rice ventures off campus, it's often to teach at CTL's SCALE research and education centers in Spain, Colombia, and Malaysia, or to speak at conferences on supply chain resilience, a subject he's been studying for more than a decade. An appointment as a visiting faculty member periodically takes him to the Politecnico di Milano M.B.A. School in Milan, Italy, where he teaches in the supply chain management program.
Prior to joining MIT, Rice managed manufacturing and distribution operations at Procter & Gamble, and was a sales and market manager at General Electric. He earned his M.B.A. in operations and finance from the Harvard Business School and holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame.
Q: What have been the most important growth areas for CTL during your tenure?
A: There are several, but three stand out in particular. One is the master of engineering in logistics degree developed by [CTL Director] Yossi Sheffi. It was the first graduate degree program aimed at practitioners already in the field. It's more oriented toward developing leaders in logistics and supply chain management, as opposed to developing model builders.
The second is the development of the SCALE education and research network—SCALE stands for "supply chain and logistics excellence." First, we created the SCALE center in Zaragoza, Spain, then in Bogotá, Colombia, and most recently in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
The third is the Supply Chain Exchange outreach program, which I direct. Through that program, companies exchange information with us and with each other. When I began, there were maybe 20 companies participating. Since then, it has grown to 45 sponsoring companies, all of them shippers, carriers, and third-party logistics companies, and we now have a pretty broad research agenda. It's the foundation of how CTL works with industry.
Q: Tell us about the SCALE centers in Colombia, Spain, and Malaysia.
A: SCALE provides CTL with the opportunity to conduct research around the world and to cultivate students who will be global leaders. We integrate the SCALE programs into ours. We hire the faculty, and they mostly copy what we do, but there are regional enhancements. Zaragoza and Malaysia have a business outreach program, they offer executive education programs, and they offer the master of engineering in logistics graduate degree. They also have a research agenda they pursue. So they're tracking very closely what we do at CTL.
Bogotá is a little different. Instead of a full degree program, we created a graduate certificate course in supply chain management that is supported by a number of academic institutions. To create the center, we partnered with [the Colombian logistics company] LOGyCA, which supports the program and develops outreach. We do plan to expand the SCALE network, but we have chosen not to expand too quickly and will choose our partners carefully.
Q: What research are you working on now?
A: Recently, I was asked by the Department of Homeland Security's National Center for Secure and Resilient Maritime Commerce to apply supply chain resilience principles to port operations. As part of that project, my group developed Port Mapper, an online app that allows users to identify where else cargo could go if a particular port had a failure.
Containers can go almost anywhere, but other types of cargo, depending on their nature, can only go to certain locations. One question we looked at is, if we took out the largest port handling a specific commodity, how much additional capacity would we need at other ports to accommodate the redirected cargo? We calculated, for example, that we would need an additional 23 percent capacity [at the other ports capable of handling] chemicals and 25 percent additional capacity for food, but those ports would not be able to provide that much additional capacity. You also have the issue of hazardous materials and other specialized commodities. For instance, most ports that can handle explosives are on the East Coast. If those ports go out, you have a long trip to reach another qualified port.
I've also begun research on supply chain innovation with Antonella Moretta of Politecnico di Milano in Italy. We're conducting interviews asking what people think supply chain innovation is and how do you go about achieving it. It's early, but we think it will produce findings that will be useful to practitioners.