 it s not how to think it s what to think  i recently had a refreshing phone discussion with a supply chain leader who had relocated from his job home and friends in boston to the southern charm of charlotte we were discussing a very complex supply chain issue that involved sourcing importing and distributing in the us to serve some of this country s biggest retailers i was very impressed with his wit and direct approach to problem solving and was taken back when he revealed that he had only been in this position for two weeks we intermixed the conversation with vignettes from both of our careers in the field and he said something that i found to be very profound we were referencing the current job market and emerging young labor pool in regards to what is taught in school in relation to what actually is expected on the job my new friend simply said in school they teach you how to think once you go to work you get taught what to think wow now there s something that really makes sense in these days of change changing economics changing world government changing regulations fuel prices get the drift today s logistics environment demands that we put our thinking hats on every day no longer are the paradigms of even yesterday good enough for the challenge at hand today today s supply chain leaders like my friend who explained that he really wasn t a proponent of outsourcing in his last job realized that he needed to at least explore the option that would take some control from him but that could also save him significantly in regards to learning curve and potential risks as he navigated his hot new product to market effectively i have never professed to have all the answers but hopefully i ll never profess that i stopped looking at what the answers could be what do you think my hat goes off to my new friend and to any of you out there that are working on the what instead of just focusing on the how  