Wine. Napa Valley. Supply Chain. Lean. You?

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Adam Zak

Wine.  Napa Valley, CA.  Lean.  Operations. Supply Chain.  Possibly, the best Lean Supply Chain Executive career opportunity in America today?  

I’m asking for your help in identifying the perfect candidate for the position I’ll be describing below.  Not an average candidate, nor a good one. Or even a great one. The perfect candidate.

Because this truly is an exceptional opportunity, and I’m confident we’ll be able to entice just such an individual to join our client’s leadership team.  Judge for yourself. 

Our client is one of the largest wine companies on Earth. And quite likely, the best.   For the last 150+ years, slowly, passionately and with uncompromising attention to quality and detail, they’ve grown into a truly unique purveyor of premium wines.   Thousands of hectares of vineyards;  annual  production at 30 million+ cases;  over 4,000 winemakers, viticulturists, supporting players, across 12 countries  -  all focused on creating this international portfolio of universally acclaimed brands and vintages. Some of the best wine on, yes, Earth. 

The company has boldly embarked on a Lean transformation of its operations.  And the person we’re seeking, as Vice President, Fulfillment Operations, will take on the highly-visible role of driving that transformation throughout the Americas region, beginning with its extensive and complex supply chain organization.  That’s the job. Simple to describe. Difficult to execute. 

So, why might someone jump at this opportunity?  Someone you may know.   

Well, for one thing, the perfect candidate will clearly understand the nature of the work involved. The enormous content of the job. The impact on the company. Possibly, the effect on the wine industry overall. It’s huge, it’s challenging, it will be amazing fun.  

Secondly, it’s the wine industry, with maybe just a bit of cache and mystique that make it perhaps a touch beyond the ordinary. Probably a bit more excitement than cookies, fresh frozen or chips (computer or otherwise). No disrespect whatsoever to these fine industries,  but this…this is wine.  Joie de vivre!  

And then there are the exceptional people with whom our new VP will interact daily. A group of highly-engaged, high-potential peers and team members, delivering customer value under the inspired executive leadership of a seasoned industry pro, an innovative and challenging mentor and coach in his own right.   

Fourth on my list, but clearly no less important, are reward and recognition, professionally, personally and financially, for work well-done. And excellent domestic or international career growth and advancement opportunities.  

And finally, did I mention that the Americas region is based in a small town in the rolling hills of northern California? A little place called Napa Valley? Not a lot of commuter traffic heading for the office each morning, though one might need to keep an eye out for the occasional tipsy weekend winery tourist. Reservations at the French Laundry next Saturday night, anyone? Let’s say at eight. 

More information?  Absolutely.  In fact, we didn’t just prepare a position description for this amazing job, we built a whole Web site for it.  So please visit  http://VPSupplyChain.com  and read in much more detail why this might be just the right career situation for that perfect candidate we have in mind.  

Thank you for reading. If you know the perfect candidate, well, why not tell him or her about this? Chances are they’d really like to hear about it. Or, call or email me.  

And, if we can help your own organization identify and recruit some of the most talented people around, in operations, supply chain, Lean, operational excellence, or other high-impact leadership roles, just let the right person in your company know how they can reach us. 

Adam Zak.  Adam Zak Executive Search   +1 847.304.5300

Posted in Adam Zak, Lean Executive Search, Lean Leader Opportunities, Operational Excellence, Supply Chain | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Shingo Award – the New Critical Criteria for Hiring a Lean Leader?

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Adam Zak

Earlier today I happened to stumble upon a position description for a Director, Lean Enterprise within a Fortune 1000 company. While the company identified itself in the posting, I’m not going to name names because it’s not my intention to embarrass anyone.

What struck me as unusual here was catagorized as one of the company’s non-negotiable (i.e., “knock-out” factors) hiring criteria, the second requirement, as shown below:

Non-Negotiable Hiring Criteria:

  • Broad leadership roles from disciplines such as engineering, quality, or product management
  • Shingo Prize during your management of manufacturing operations
  • Experience with continuous improvement outside of manufacturing operations
  • Worked with Toyota Production System (TPS),Danaher Business System (DBS), or other recognized Lean business system
  • MBA desirable
  • Proven leadership skills with the ability to influence and negotiate across all levels of the organization
  • Must have strong metric and analytical focus
  • High ethical standards to support a professional business code of conduct
  • Detail oriented with the ability to see bigger picture and envision step-change scenarios

Now, I find this very interesting, don’t you?  This is the first time, to my knowledge, that participation in the Shingo Prize challenge has ever been a requirement for a Lean leadership position.  And I’ve been recruiting Lean leaders for some 16+ years.

It would appear that our mystery company is going to pursue (“challenge” in Shingo parlance) this contest,  and sooner rather than later.  In which case this maybe makes sense.

But I have additional questions such as:  “is it necessary for the ideal candidate’s previous employer to have actually won the Shingo Award, or just made the attempt” (impossible to tell from the syntax);  and “are all the things further down the list actually less important than this one specific criteria?”   Looks to me that it would be fairly difficult to win a Shingo Prize, much less actually achieve a Lean transformation, without first having brought aboard anyone who did not meet the other requirements.  But perhaps it’s me who’s been looking at this backwards?

So dear reader, is mystery company going for the publicity of a Shingo challenge (“sizzle”), or will they first actually attempt to do some continuous improvement and people respecting (“steak”) on their Lean journey? Come to think of it, I would have made some pretty dramatic changes to the order of importance of these criteria, were this a search I’d been conducting…

Oh, and about that MBA. “Desireable?”  So is that, or is that not, a non-negotiable? Who writes this stuff?

Adam Zak.  I help companies achieve growth and profitability by discovering and delivering executives who actually know how to drive a successful, sustainable Lean transformation.

(this post originally appeared in the blog section of my primary Web site, http://LeanTalent.com)
Posted in Adam Zak, Employee Engagement, Leadership, Lean Business Strategy, Lean Executive Search, Operational Excellence | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off