Oct 25, 2021
We were proud to be joined by Stuart Whiting, Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain – Logistics & Planning at Schneider Electric, on the EMEA Recruitment podcast.
“The Supply Chain leaders of the future are the ones that are truly end-to-end.”
Stuart spoke to Paul Toms after taking “a tremendous number of positives” away from the COVID-19 period. He reveals the four key learnings that he’s experienced during the pandemic, as well as the biggest challenges that he’s faced both personally and professionally.
After 30 years in the Supply Chain discipline, Stuart has “been through it all”, but maintains a continual thirst to learn. One area that he’s seeing real value is the pairing of younger talents in the digitisation field with the older generation’s business wisdom. Through coming together, he believes that they will drive the next level of efficiency.
In fact, Stuart has seen a shift towards organisations recognising Supply Chain as the true differentiator that can provide the winning edge; CFOs are now understanding the power of Supply Chain, he believes.
Despite his passion for the discipline, Stuart wasn’t always destined to work in Supply Chain. As a child, his aspiration was to become a fighter pilot with the Royal Air Force in the UK. When he “fell into” Supply Chain, the field was still known as Distribution. As the discipline grew in the 90s and early 00s, Stuart felt privileged to facilitate global trade.
After living on most continents and boasting a track record of successfully growing businesses during his career, Stuart explores the key focus areas that have contributed to his accomplishments. He’s taken his approach from many experiences: his education, playing rugby, the military and a mentor, Dr. John Gattorna.
Stuart and Paul move onto the efficiency and effectiveness that Business Intelligence (BI) and Data are providing to organisations. The need for speed, agility and resilience was accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, but BI & Data has allowed teams to focus on areas where value is provided to the business.
Stuart explains how he manages both day-to-day operations and the transformation agenda. The key to success is the ability to learn from the transformation, but also what can be learnt daily, he says.
Looking at recruiting diverse teams, Stuart and Paul explore why managers must lead by example. Stuart feels that organisations can be too conservative sometimes and rely on experience and existing competencies, but fail to pay attention to a candidate’s ability to learn and adapt, and their passion to get the job done with excellence.
Stuart offers advice to young talent looking to get into the Supply Chain discipline and reveals the books he’s reading for his mental welfare. We also find out about Stuart’s hidden talents – find out how he breaks out of work mode at the end of the episode.
If you’re looking for a particular part of the episode, you can use the timestamps below:
01:05: The last thing that made Stuart
smile
02:29: The positives taken from the
pandemic
05:01: Personal and professional challenges of
the pandemic
08:00: A continual thirst to
learn
11:40: How Stuart fell into Supply
Chain
14:15: The key to Stuart’s
success
19:59: Where Stuart’s approach comes
from
22:41: How BI & Data will affect Supply
Chain
27:16: How to avoid working a 15-hour
day
31:23: Creating diverse, multi-cultural
teams
34:31: Advice for young
talent
38:27:
Recommended reading for personal and professional
development
40:55: The benefits of
loyalty
44:36: Stuart’s hidden
talents
47:25: How to reach out to
Stuart
If you’d like to drop Stuart a message, find him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartwhiting/
We’re proud to support Operation Smile, an international medical charity that provides life-changing surgery to children born with cleft lip and palate, through the EMEA Recruitment podcast. Find out how you can support Operation Smile’s work through our website: https://www.emearecruitment.com/operation-smile
This podcast episode was hosted by Paul Toms, Founder of EMEA Recruitment, and Rose Jinks, our Senior Marketing Executive.
To find out more about our professional recruitment services, please visit our website: https://www.emearecruitment.com/
You can also find us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/emea-recruitment-limited/
Connect with Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paultoms/
Or follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/paul_toms
If you have any topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes of the EMEA Recruitment podcast, please contact Rose: rose.jinks@emearecruitment.com
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