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Anthony Settipani FourKites headshotAnthony Settipani

The Rolling Stones kicked off their 2019 concert tour at Soldier Field in Chicago this past June. A member of my team attended the concert – and sat in the sixth row. I, on the other hand, sat in the resulting traffic jam clogging the area surrounding the concert. As frustrating as traffic can be, I couldn’t help but be amazed and appreciate the band’s ability to still draw these kinds of crowds nearly six decades after they started touring in 1962.

The Rolling Stones must be doing something right to stay relevant after so long. My guess? They ascribe to an ideology that could serve you well regardless of your industry – a principle that some people slack on once they achieve initial success. If you want to stay relevant, you can’t stop learning, improving and reinventing your game.

improve supply chains

The term “supply chain management” has been around for decades (note: that’s still 20 years after The Rolling Stones had their first gig!), but the concept of improving business outcomes by optimizing production, inventory and/or delivery processes has been around since the industrial revolution. While that core mission of supply chain management remains the same, the technology we leverage to drive success and engage with the supply chain ecosystem is constantly evolving. So too, must we.

FourKites Certification: Because Continuous Learning Matters
Thomas Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and seven-time The New York Times best-seller, writes about the case for innovation, and how technology and digitization are driving it, in his new book, Thank You for Being Late. At a recent MIT Sloan School of Business lecture, he discussed the value of keeping up with innovation:

 

When the pace of change gets this fast, the only way to retain a lifelong working capacity is to engage in lifelong learning.

At FourKites, we agree.

Whether you’re The Rolling Stones or an inbound logistics team, innovation is at the heart of long-term success, and innovation requires continuous learning. Continuous learning is key to enabling organizational agility and helps you stay fresh so you can grow your career. The more you know, the more you’re capable of doing. And continuously learning how to do more with tech can pave a new path for supply chain innovation in the digital economy.

While continuous learning is essential to gaining knowledge, the processes you undertake in a continuous learning program also provide great benefits. Going “back to school” – even for just an afternoon – can give you new, valuable perspectives and the opportunity to further develop soft skills like goal-setting, networking, stepping outside your comfort zone and building confidence in new subject areas. Continuous learning also gives you an opportunity to mentor others and deepen your own understanding when you share learnings with colleagues and teammates.

For these reasons, FourKites will be launching our modularized online training program based on the MIT method of learning. This program will provide the opportunity initially for our shipper community to learn about visibility in the new era of digitized supply chains. They will be able to cherry-pick the modules that suit their interests and complete them at your their pace, while generating new efficiencies as they put your new knowledge into practice.

Within the program’s six modules, continuous learners can master over 30 key competencies across a breadth of topics, including:

  • Dashboards, views and filtering
  • Tracking Quality
  • Tools for success (getting clean data, establishing notification rules, using Address Manager)
  • Super users (reducing detention, network visibility, performance analytics)
  • Carrier management (supporting small carriers, onboarding, compliance)

This is a great option for individuals who prefer targeted learning rather than comprehensive program completion. Those seeking a more advanced learning path will also have the opportunity to enroll in FourKites Certification as part of this continuous learning program. By successfully completing each module and course, you will become a certified user of FourKites and receive a badge to showcase on LinkedIn.

For those of you attending our annual Visibility user conference on September 18-20, we’ll be offering a streamlined version of FourKites Certification that you can complete on site in under a few hours alongside like-minded peers looking to level up with new knowledge.

. . . . . .

Just as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards work better together, we at FourKites innovate better when our customers are all-in with us on the journey toward supply chain visibility. While we can’t entirely predict what the future of logistics holds, we’re confident that with a focus on continuous learning, “you just might find you get what you need” with our platform.

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