In the Video, Rob O’Byrne the CEO and Founder of Supply Chain Leaders Academy explains the background and concept that is now making a huge difference to gaining knowledge in the Supply Chain field. This ‘fast track’ approach to Supply Chain Training is proving very popular.
“Hi this is Rob O’Byrne from Supply Chain Secrets and thank you for taking the time to look at this short video. I just want to share something with you that’s really exciting and new, it’s an awesome program design to boost your knowledge in Supply Chain and Logistics faster than anything I know. I made this short video to explain it to you.
Supply Chain School is something that is in my ‘To Do’ list for a very long time. It’s something that has real value to your confidence and business understanding. Now recent client surveys have highlighted that one of the major frustrations that Supply Chain Managers that has is a lack of Supply Chain understanding within their teams and across the broad of business. So Supply Chain School makes you stand out from the crowd! This program boosts your Supply Chain knowledge and it gives you the capability and confidences to not only improve customer service in your business but to dramatically reduce cost too. I’m basically giving you the knowledge that has taken me 35 years to accumulate plus the rest of my consulting team plus the experience of 1200 client projects across 23 countries. That type of knowledge injected in to your head is priceless! And will save you years of learning on the job study.
But let me explain why I’m doing this. We all need mentors who can give us a helping hand, people who can give us a leg up when we really need it and help us jump a couple of runs on a career ladder. We all need that to succeed, me too!
And yes, this is me by the age of 15. Living in the island of Jersey in the UK. I was about to be expelled from school not that I knew it then! A very expensive private school, I did very badly at school, I was constantly told I was stupid and that I will never amount to anything, I was always in trouble, so it must have been true. I was thrown out of school by the age of 15 with no qualifications, so I joined the army. I have always been keen on things in military and it seems to make sense, I joined an army apprentice college, which is basically an army high school. Well, after a couple of months my commanding officer suggested that I tried a pass off selection – I thought he must have been smoking something, after all I knew better. I knew I was too stupid and will never amount to anything in my life, that’s what I’m used to hearing for so long. But I was happy, I was amongst friends, I was, too much not expected from me and I was doing quite well for once in my life.
But at the age of 21 my boss – young captain, persuaded me that I was not stupid and really should train to be an officer. So he arranged a 3 month fast track education course, as I had a very few school qualifications and I needed to catch up. He also arranged a 3 month advance leadership course to help me pass the officer selection test. So then I have to tackled the 4 days office selection course, which was attended by the cream of the UK or hoping to gain a place in Santa’s officer training academy. I was amazed! I actually passed! I ended up becoming one of the youngest majors in British army at the age of 28. I studied my master’s degree in Logistics with no first degree and finally I left the army at the age of 37 to seek new challenges. Now, for wasn’t about that young captain Charles Hinderson my life would have been totally different – I dread where I would ended up.
So let’s fast forward a few years. Now I have 6 businesses that operates internationally, all in the area of Supply Chain, Logistics and education. Since 1997, I’ve been in management consulting specializing in the area of Supply Chain and Logistics. My chosen field of expertise since I was 17. Over that time, I’ve consulted a hundreds of corporations and government departments across 23 countries. My consulting businesses has grown to 6 offices with over 30 staff, we’ve acquired other consulting businesses and have a Supply Chain and Benchmarking business that operates globally. Since ’97, we’ve guarded that knowledge and experience that we have acquired like our lives depended on it. But now, all of that changed – and you’ve got the benefit! You see, all that success that I’ve enjoyed over the years really came about because of one man, who gave me the confidence to strive for better things – Charles Henderson back when I was 21. He set me on the right path and that success gives me the chance to do for others what he did for me – providing encouragement and motivation. And that’s what really gives me a buzz and in fact that’s what keeps me out of bed every day at the Logistics Bureau Group, helping people and businesses.
But I want to get beyond the traditional consulting business to a place where many more people can come together to gain new knowledge, share experiences and grow together. Particularly those relatively new to the Supply Chain and Logistics, a place where they can fast track their knowledge, their confidence and accelerate their value to their employers – a real win –win. That place is Supply Chain School, there’s no other learning environment like it! Because it’s where the experts share all their secrets – nothing is held back!
Okay. So what is Supply Chain School? Basically it’s a series of three –two days event each year. It’s a relax informal environment that encourages learning through presentations, discussions and practical exercises. It covers all the basics like these, end to end Supply Chain, But not just the basic 101 stuff, the real power of the environment is sharing the pragmatic tips and tricks that only come through many hard years of experience. Tips that can accelerate the effectiveness of school members to their organisations and boost their career opportunities, as examples I’ve persuaded my transport specialist to share their knowledge of 20 – 30 years in the industry to show how to best utilise transport assets and how to manage rage structure to save cost. Or the very essential Supply Chain IT systems that businesses need, what key features are important and traps to avoid in buying and implementing systems. And at the most strategic end, we’ll take a path different Supply Chain to see what keeps them tick. So members will understand the dynamics of Supply Chain across different industries and countries.
The facilitators and presenters won’t just be me and my specialist team, I’ll be inviting specific industry experts and high profile guess celebrity speakers too. Other exams and assessments’? No! Supply Chain School is about engaging and imparting knowledge and not about taking test, members will be highly motivated to learn and achieve without the need of assessment. An important element of the school is the interaction and sharing with other school members and so apart of the program I’ve included a relax networking dinner at each event to encourage members and faculties to be closer and more open to one another.
Members of the Supply Chain School comes from a really diverse background – Major food suppliers, large beverage companies, major retailers and also small business owners! It’s a great mix! Supply Chain School memberships is really the who’s who in the Supply Chain Industry. Who does is suit? Who would gain the most benefit in attending? Well, probably doesn’t suit someone who has a 20+ years of hands-on Supply Chain experience. It does suit this kind of people, people who are feeling new to the Supply Chain and Logistics maybe less than 5 years’ experience, maybe people who recently moved in to Supply Chain role or people who don’t work directly in Supply Chain but needs to know more about the topic, maybe people in a Non-Supply Chain roles such as IT, Finance, HR, Engineering or even Property Management. But older and more experienced people too, we have Supply Chain Managers because they recognise the value of filling their knowledge gap and the benefit of being part of a highly motivated group like this. It’s really for people who don’t want to spend months and years of study in a university or colleges; they want the real nuggets of knowledge serve on a plate fast! So they can start to use it in their jobs and in their business.
So why I have established Supply Chain School? Well, there are two reasons.
1. Is a definite need for practical hands-on pragmatic education that can accelerate learning way beyond that offer of traditional training establishments – it’s just not available anywhere!
2. Helping to develop our Supply Chain leaders of the future is something that I’ve longed wanted to be a part of that until now I never have the right vehicle to do it – the time or the resources.
Now you might be thinking that by teaching all we know in Supply Chain and boosting your capabilities we’ll be doing ourselves out of jobs as consultants – well, to a degree that’s true. But we always have work than we needed in consulting businesses. And more importantly in teaching and mentoring others is a 100% fit with my real passion which makes me tick.
Now, I actually modelled Supply Chain School in a program that I participated with myself for many years. Totally unrelated to Supply Chain and I found the experience so energising and valuable that it was an obvious move to develop the same program in our industry. The one that I attend was actually very expensive – $25,000/year. But I don’t regret every cent of it because of the enormous value that I get from it, the energy I get from being with others highly motivated people, and the knowledge that I gain that accelerates my own performance literally cuts years of learning. And you can’t put a value on that!
Just think what would be the cost in getting this kind of education and training through more traditional means? Supply Chain degree would cost 20k+, Supply Chain conferences (which really only scratch the surface) $1500/day and those are just glorified sales pictures. So realistically I should be charging 12,000/year for Supply Chian School membership but it doesn’t cost anywhere near that.
I’d really love to see you participate in this exciting program, all you need to do is jump on to Supplychainschool.com and fill out your details and we’ll send you all the information that you need.
Thank you for watching this video.
For further information about Supply Chain Leaders Academy see:
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Supply Chain School is part of the Logistics Bureau Group of companies.
