Andy George B.B.A.'03 - Success in Supply Chain Management

With an integrated supply management degree from Western Michigan University, in addition to an internship with Johnson Controls his junior year, Andy George, B.B.A.’03 developed a unique skill set to craft a global career with some of the world’s leading companies as a supply chain expert, and took every opportunity to do so.

“The Haworth College of Business’s ISM program was a perfect foundation for my career,” says George. “The mix of business, engineering, and core supply chain competencies allowed me to be very confident in my interviews for both internships and full-time positions and built a solid set of core skills which I still lean on today.”

The ISM program at Western Michigan University, recently ranked #5 in the nation, provides students like George an in-depth and comprehensive education in the industry, boasting a curriculum that combines supply chain, engineering, information technology, logistics and business education.

In his junior year, George accepted an internship with Johnson Controls. He explains that in this role as a material scheduler, he put the analytical and technical content from the classroom into use and related it to real-world MRP, bill of materials, lead time calculations and inventory metrics. 

“In my current role as senior supply chain executive with Gartner Inc., the ability to understand how supply chain impacts other business functions—marketing, sales, finance, and many others is critical,” says George.

After taking on a full-time position with Johnson Controls following his internship and then working for the managing consulting firm BearingPoint, George became managing director with RGB (a spinoff of Deloitte Consulting). With these years of diversified experience, he took on the position as senior supply chain executive with Gartner. “I lead the life sciences/healthcare vertical for Gartner’s strategic accounts organization,” says George. “I work with some of the largest life sciences and pharmaceutical companies around the world to provide advisory services and best-in-class benchmarks for their supply chain leadership teams.”  

George notes that one of the most interesting experiences in his career thus far as a supply chain professional has been traveling to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “I’ve been fortunate to travel around the world and work with some of the largest global companies,” says George. “Spending several months in Brazil and working with the Chevron refinery stands out as an experience I will never forget because of what I learned from the local culture, people, and business environment.”

In his experience working in managerial positions, he finds discussion in upper-level management to be one of the most fascinating things he’s learned throughout the years. “The higher you move up in the organization, the less complex the discussions become—executives tend to be focused more on core competencies,” says George. “They pick a few key areas of focus and work on executing them flawlessly.”

George sees one of the biggest challenges in today’s supply chain industry as the rate of change in businesses—it continues to increase dramatically, creating challenges for larger companies and, often times, opportunities for smaller companies. “One constant in today’s business environment is the amount of data we are putting out into the world and how we utilize this data to make better business decisions will determine the winners and the losers,” says George.