"The school has a global network of professionals and is very well recognised globally, which opens doors you never even expected."
Country of origin: Turkey
Course: MSc Digital Supply Chain Management (Global Supply Chain Management at time of study)
Graduation year: 2019
Why Supply Chain Management?
If you look at the world from a supply chain perspective, you could easily spot its importance for the world’s continuous and sustainable growth. In fact, supply chain management is the engine for growth and achieving the common goals around the globe.
Before attending the MSc in Digital Supply Chain Management, I had sufficient knowledge about the impact of supply chain management. Without supply chain management processes, you could not produce goods or services to customers. For example, one car is made of around 30,000 parts and a majority are imported to the original manufacturers.
Until recently, global chip shortages will result in global car productions shrinking by 5%. During the recent coronavirus pandemic, which hit globally, which group of people were exempt from lockdowns? Transportation and logistics workers. We need to be able to obtain goods and services, or this will create a snowball effect leading to global inflation.
Therefore, I knew it was key for businesses to have a strong supply chain management process to avoid these pitfalls and run a profitable and sustainable organisation.
My experience
Once I knew I wanted to explore supply chain further, I decided to study at the Business School (formerly Cass). It is in the heart of where the world is being managed: London. Even more appealing, the City of London. This aspect alone allows you to feel like you are an important person who is showing a willingness to do something beneficial in the business world.
The school has a global network of professionals and is very well recognised globally, which opens doors you never even expected. For instance, my hiring manager from Deloitte’s Bucharest office reached out to me via LinkedIn, simply because I put my title in supply chain management and the school on my profile.
She later told me that she had narrowed her search down solely to supply chain management because it was in demand at that time. After finishing my internship at Deloitte, I then received an offer from another big 4 company: PWC.
The MSc in Digital Supply Chain Management equipped me with intellectual knowledge that I feel is not broadly known by others. For example, the Supply Chain Finance module helps you find effective finance processes and understand how to professionally navigate payments with suppliers. I also learned how to implement my knowledge into real world challenges.
In a class we had with Dr Dimi Paraskevopoulos we had a challenge where we wanted to locate our pizza shop to maximise the profitability. It was a really fun challenge and I’d never thought of it before, because the delivery driver just brings it to my doorstep. It was a privilege to be in this class.
I could write a book on my favourite memories from my time at the Business School, but one which I was amazed by was a visit from our society to the MINI car factory. This memory stuck in my mind, which is why the above examples are related to the automotive industry. The factory really will blow your mind.
My career
I am due to start a new role with PWC, one of the big 4 companies, this September. This role found me via LinkedIn, as I mentioned previously, but the postgraduate Careers Team helped me enormously with my interview preparation and for the psychometric tests.
PWC has multifunctional business roles ranging from consulting, to tax, to auditing. I am going into a specialised corporate finance role where I’ll be dealing with mergers and acquisitions where technical knowledge is required for successful completion.
I will be responsible for smooth and rapid integration of two companies supply chain functions and trying to achieve cost reduction where possible on daily site visits. I will also be responsible for detecting any opportunities for investors, where I believe it would be a nice fit if the candidate companies share something in common.
My role is to try and create more potential and added value for these companies.
What I’m doing now is centred around my master’s and will be for the future, because effective supply chain is required always. From a port in China, or Germany, workers are there even in the night, it never stops.
I am planning to invest in the beverage industry in Romania and am benefiting form European funds for this investment, and even the government ask in the proposal where I could source raw materials from. So, I feel the knowledge I acquired on my master’s is always relevant.
My advice to future students
Try to choose a course that will open your vision and widen your perspective, as well as shaping your understanding of the world. Don’t be preconditioned to just one function without exploring the ways in which finance or management fit in to other disciplines like supply chain.
Try to absorb as much information as possible and be distinguished from the rest.
There has never been such a time to jump into a career in supply chain management, as you have seen how the whole system can be hacked by one virus, and one chip that was smaller than a Lego brick.
I’m such a proud alumnus of the Business School and believe that you could find your passion when you’re surrounded by people who really know your subject. They will guide you and inspire you for sure.
You will be part of a truly global community; sorry, family of proud graduates around the world.
