Everything you see around you was delivered through a supply chain.

You can’t live in the world of today without supply chains. They are all around us. But more people need to study them so that they can become more efficient. If supply chains aren’t well managed, you can end up paying more for the goods and services you like – from your clothes to your food. It can also be less environmentally friendly.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you like to eat?
• Do you like nice clothes?
• Do you enjoy your tech?
• Do you care about your health?
• Do you like to socialize?
• Do you like saving money?

If you said yes to any of these questions, then you’ll be interested to know that the reason you can enjoy these goods and activities is through the operation of supply chains.

Supply Chains and the Environment

CO2e emissions from transportation account for approximately 16.2% of total global emissions. Most emissions from transportation (approximately 75%) come from road transportation. Given that we’d all like to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, you would assume that everyone in the industry would be focused on improving operations and that transportation emissions would be declining over time based on improved technology. You’d be mistaken.

A key part of the problem is that many of the transport vehicles that you see on the highway or in your neighborhood are operating at less than full capacity. This means that there are more vehicles delivering goods than are actually needed, leading to more environmental impacts.

What You Can Study to Help

Fortunately, there’s something you can study that can help. At KLU (Kühne Logistics University) in Germany, our MBA in Leadership and Supply Chain Management focuses on helping business professionals understand the importance of well run, sustainable supply chain operations and how to best manage these operations. It also teaches you how to help them leverage their knowledge and experience to more efficiently lead organizations operating in our globalized world.

KLU’s MBA in Leadership and Supply Chain Management helps students understand that reducing the number of delivery vehicles in neighborhoods requires greater efficiencies in loading, more collaboration between shippers and transport companies, and more innovative approaches to last-mile delivery operations. The KLU MBA program also stresses that sustainable change can only come about if we, as consumers, think a little before we push that online order button. However, we act as consumers. What’s needed in the industry are young, smart and innovative individuals interested in making a difference. Developing these individuals is the focus of KLU’s MBA program.

Our part-time MBA in Leadership and Supply Chain Management is an exciting educational experience focused on preparing high potential professionals to become global leaders in supply chain operations and management. Students completing this program acquire practical knowledge and skills enabling them to:

• Take on leadership roles in global businesses with complex international operations;
• Develop effective corporate and supply strategies to compete in complex international settings;
• Develop the ability to analyze complex business problems and to effectively apply management practices and principles to these challenges;
• Understand complexities of intercultural cooperation to ensure effective interaction with international subsidiaries and partners;
• Leverage the creative energies of themselves and their colleagues to create innovative solutions to global operational issues that are both sustainable and profitable.

Through the MBA program at KLU, you get to learn in an international, multicultural atmosphere: our students and professors come from all over the world, all our courses are held in English, and our curricula address the international issues facing today’s businesses. As part of the MBA program, two sessions are held at international partner universities: one at the Fisher College of Business, at the Ohio State University, USA, and one at Tongji University in Shanghai, China.

An Exciting Opportunity to Study Abroad in Germany

Our MBA helps to boost your career by enhancing your leadership skills, developing your decision-making skills, providing you with knowledge about state-of-the-art approaches to addressing current global trends like sustainability, digitalization, and increasing protectionism and providing you with the business acumen to move up the career ladder, particularly with the emphasis we place on the environment.

Join the individuals who have attended KLU’s MBA in Leadership and Supply Chain Management program and change your world for the better.

Globalization, your use of the internet for shopping, your desire for rapid home delivery, and problems with supply chain operations mean that transportation, unlike all other sectors of the global economy, is increasing its CO2e emissions. This is quite disappointing, given that we all want to limit global warming. Reductions in CO2e may come as transport companies begin employing electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles, but the social impact of the ever-increasing number of delivery vehicles in your neighborhood will not go away.

Supply chains are extremely important, and they need professional managers and strong leadership. If you are truly interested in the environment and a future where you can enjoy the many wonders of this world without being overrun with parcel delivery trucks, or buzz bombed by drones delivering packages, learn about how you can better manage the flow of everything around you. If this sounds like you, then KLU’s MBA in Leadership and Supply Chain Management is the right program for you.

Author: Prof. J. Rod Franklin, Ph.D. Full Professor of Logistics Practice & Academic Director of Executive Education

Find out more about Kühne Logistics University.

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