SCMR: It’s been a great run!

I can’t believe it’s been 16 years.

Back in 1997—the dawning of the supply chain age, if you will—we founded a fledgling magazine called Supply Chain Management Review. The rational behind this move seemed pretty straightforward at the time. Our company (then Reed Business Information) had traditional magazines in just about all of the functional areas that were being placed under this new discipline called supply chain management.

We had a traffic/transportation magazine (I was editor of that one) as well as publications covering warehousing, purchasing, materials handling, plant management, industrial distribution, packaging, and more. What we didn’t have—and what we believed was sorely needed—was a publication that covered all of these functional areas in an integrated manner. So from that standpoint, the decision to launch SCMR was relatively easy.

The harder part became how to distinguish the magazine from the others in the field—not just the ones our own company published but also those of our competitors. We decided to clearly differentiate ourselves in a number of ways. First, the publication would cover topics across the spectrum of supply chain management—from sourcing to customer service and reverse logistics, and everything in between. Second, much of the content would be strategic in nature and, as such, would devote sufficient space (sometimes as much as eight pages an article) to cover a subject appropriately. Finally, we would aim the editorial material at an upper level audience of practitioners, who were assuming broader supply chain-related responsibilities at an increasing rate.

Put another way, we would make SCMR the Harvard Business Review of supply chain publications.

So why am I bringing up all of this history? It’s because this is my last issue as editorial director of Supply Chain Management Review. Not to get too overdramatic here, but watching the magazine grow has not been unlike watching a young person’s development from infancy through adolescence. You go though some joyous times, some tough patches, many frustrations, a lot of celebrations…but in the end, the important thing is that the “child” is happy and healthy.

I’m so thankful for so many things as I wind up my career. I’ve been blessed with a hugely talented creative director and art staff, unflaggingly supportive production people for the magazine and our growing number of online products, a smart and forward-looking boss, and an almost continuous flow of great articles from the best minds in the supply chain business—practitioners, educators, consultants, analysts, business authors.

In thinking about those whom I’m indebted to for the success of SCMR over 16 years, there is one constituency that must rank first on the list—you, the reader. You’ve been loyal and supportive of us from the beginning. You have stood with us through the economic downturn and have wholeheartedly embraced the new online products we’ve developed in response to your growing and changing information needs. The best way to say it is the simplest: Thank you!

The next editorial that you see in this space will be from my successor, Bob Trebilcock. Bob is a veteran editor and writer with a broad and in-depth knowledge of warehousing and materials handling—two core components of the supply chain process. SCMR will be in good hands under his stewardship.