Navigating the future: Insights from Mondelez’s Cloris Zhang on sustainability and supply chain innovation
10 Oct 20246 min read
Summary
- Cloris Zhang, Senior VP at Mondelez, discussed the shift towards sustainable supply chains and the importance of developing internal talent with technical expertise and supply chain knowledge. She emphasized Mondelez’s approach of training employees from procurement and manufacturing backgrounds to manage emissions across different scopes.
- Zhang highlighted growing job opportunities in tech-driven sectors like digital data, supply network design, and change management, noting the demand for multi-skilled professionals who can merge data expertise with business insights to drive sustainability.
- She also touched on China’s evolving role in supply chains, shifting to a "Made in China for China" strategy. While successful in China, replicating this model in other regions is challenging due to differences in infrastructure and regulations.
0At the recently concluded Supply Chain Connect event in Singapore, Value Chain Asia had the chance to sit down with Cloris Zhang, Senior Vice President of Integrated Supply Chain AMEA at Mondelez, to discuss the shift towards sustainable supply chains and the evolving job landscape.Following her panel session on “Building Sustainable & Agile Supply Chains Through Innovation,” Zhang shared her insights on how managers can pivot to sustainability roles, emerging job opportunities in the industry, and China’s evolving role in supply chain collaboration.
Transitioning to sustainability roles
When asked how managers can transition into sustainability roles focusing on sustainable supply chains Zhang highlighted the diverse skill set required.
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“Sustainability roles contain different skills, including management of government and NGO relationships, understanding carbon emissions including definition of data with regards to collection and analysis to enable visibility and change management to work on people’s mindset.” she said.
To Zhang, technical expertise and an understanding of the end-to-end supply chain are important for those looking to advance in sustainable supply chains. She explained that Mondelez has found success developing talent from within, rather than hiring externally.
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“To illustrate, a team member managing Scope three would normally come with some procurement background whereas a team member managing Scope two and one would have some manufacturing background as they need to understand the equipment and the technology in relation to how the goods are produced,” she noted further.
Scope one, two and three are classifications of emissions a company produces. The first scope covers emissions that a company makes directly, while the second scope covers those made indirectly. For example, running vehicles and cooling buildings respectively. The third scope covers all emissions up and down its value chain, from resource extraction to manufacturing.
The role of education vs work experience
Zhang acknowledged both formal education and adjacent work experience can be valuable when transitioning to sustainability roles. “Either way works,” she noted.She gave Mondelez as an example. Their management trainee program allows graduates from different majors to rotate through various roles. They rotate through roles in manufacturing, planning, and environmental functions.
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This will give them the multi-disciplinary training that a sustainability role will require for greater career success.” she stressed.
This program is established in key markets like China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Egypt. According to Zhang, she takes around 15 to 16 new management trainees. Mondelez also plans to expand the program to Thailand and Singapore as business grows.
Emerging job opportunities in supply chain
Looking ahead, Zhang highlighted several areas where job opportunities are likely to emerge in the next 24 months. This is driven by tech advancements, automation and artificial intelligence in supply chains.
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“I would not say it in terms of job titles as this might differ by organization but job areas which are likely to see increased job opportunities in the next 24 months,” she adds.
Sustainability: Sustainability is a big trend. Zhang anticipates continued investments in the area as customers look for sustainable action from organizations.Digital data: Zhang explained the role of digital data as a “cross-over” position. This requires employees to bridge technical data knowledge with business insights. “Purely knowing data and data technology is not enough, you need to understand the business inorder to use our data well,” she noted. For Mondelez, multiskilled talent who can work across these areas is essential.Supply network design: While not a new concept, supply network design has become increasingly crucial due to frequent supply chain disruptions. This is a model that assesses the time and costs required to bring products to market. It aims to spot risks in the supply China and aid businesses in optimizing operations. “We used to do this type of work every five years and now we do it every six months due to the disruptions in our supply chain like the Red Sea crisis,” she said. With better data and digital tools, companies can react faster to disruptions and improve resilience. Moreover, changing government policies also requires organizations to change their model as well.Change management: Zhang also stressed the importance of change management in adapting to new innovations. This is the action businesses take to optimize certain parts of their operations. This includes company culture or tech infrastructure. Mondelez has standardized training across the company to ensure the change management practices. Zhang also noted that she is a trainer in change management tools. These trainings are key to ensuring that mindset changes for the people.
China’s role in the global supply chain
Drawing on her experience in China and the AMEA region, Zhang discussed the evolving relationship between China and the rest of Asia in terms of supply chain collaboration.
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“My answer today is different today versus if you had asked me this question five years ago,” she said. For business continuity planning, the current strategy is “Made China for China” to reduce risks. However, certain dependencies remain, such as chemicals, where 60% of the global supply comes from China.
Despite this, Zhang highlighted the unique energy and innovation in China. “I would like to say that the synergy in China is very high, I can describe it as the energy of innovation in China is very high, and in my view, it is much higher than other countries,” she observed.She gave Mondelez’s West Suzhou plant as an example. This is where a $2.4 million digital transformation project generated $2 million in net savings through headcount optimization and waste reduction, alongside $600,000 in government subsidies.Zhang also pointed out that data sharing in China is more open compared to other markets.
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”Our distributors are willing to sell-in and sell-out data daily for us to enable us to do better forecasting and we can do suggestions on the order size for them,” she explained.
However, replicating this model in other countries presents challenges due to synergies among markets and industries.
Nevertheless, SEA remains an essential part of Mondelez’s supply network, particularly as a source of supply for markets like Australia. For example, cocoa powder sourced from Singapore and products from Indonesia are key exports to Australia.Value Chain Asia thanks Cloris Zhang for her time and valuable insights. From the interview, it is clear that as supply chains evolve to include a focus on sustainability, there are many pathways for professionals looking to develop their careers further in the wide area of business activities that relate to sustainability. While we see sourcing trends change as the markets adjust to the volatility of supply chains, there is definitely growth within the Asia region. This is despite China’s role changing from being the single source for raw materials and manufacturing activities to one where “region for region” supply chains become the norm.We look forward to future discussions with leaders in supply chain and logistics on topics around talent and growth.