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Texas A&M Distribution Program Tracks ‘Sweeping Change’ Across the Industry
By Mitchell Beer
May 23, 2024 8:45 am EDT
When he attends TUG CONNECTS 2024 this week, Ret, Col. Mark H. Johnson will co-lead the network meeting on reporting analytics on Tuesday afternoon and present his own session on prescriptive analytics on Friday.
But what he’ll really want to tell you about is the sweeping change he’s seen in the distribution industry and how the lessons learned from the Battle of Gettysburg connect to two of the industry’s essentials—leadership and logistics.
Johnson, a professor of practice of industrial distribution at Texas A&M University, held a series of command positions with the U.S. Army before retiring in June 2008 with the rank of colonel, then served in the Army’s senior executive service through September 2011. Since then, he’s been a keen observer of the distribution industry’s evolution and growth from his position at Texas A&M, home of the country’s oldest and largest academic program in wholesale distribution.
“Students really like the program for many reasons, but the best part of it for them is the combination of engineering and business,” he says. “Our students are engineers, so they don’t just understand the business aspects of the job. They understand the technical aspects.”
That combined background translates into a particularly solid footing for a career in sales: rather than just “selling a widget”, Texas A&M students acquire the tools to understand what a client needs and suggest the right solution.
“Anybody can sell a product,” Johnson says. “But if you’re selling a solution, now you’re helping me, as opposed to just putting a hand in my pocket, and that really helps everyone. It gives them more confidence,” just as the business side of the program leaves students with better communication skills than many typical engineers.
“These young men and young women get that entire experience and become well-rounded individuals, and that’s why our industry partners find our students so popular,” leading to a 100% job placement rate for Texas A&M Industrial Distribution graduates.
The added sophistication of the program becomes ever more important as the distribution business gets more complex—and more visible. “Two, three years ago, the average person you asked would say, ‘What’s a supply chain? Don’t know, Don’t care,’” he said.
But after the disruptions of the past few years, businesses and customers are far more attuned to the logistics of moving product and getting it there on time.
That line of thought underpins a threat briefing that Johnson gives his students to help them understand how events halfway around the world can affect the distribution business—how instability in the Red Sea region, for example, drives up transportation costs, slows down deliveries, and prompts companies to nearshore their supply chains to the U.S., Canada, or Mexico.
…Or how a historic battle that took place 161 years ago can come to life as a guidepost for a successful distribution business. As a student of history, Johnson says he’s well aware of the leadership failure that nearly cost Union forces the battle when a senior officer insisted on leading from the front, died in action, and left no one in charge.
Or the logistics failure that left the Confederate army under-supplied and vulnerable. Johnson will bring those insights and more to his lessons learned session at 9 AM Friday.
