Chris Barnes (00:06):
Hey, it’s Chris. The supply chain doctor and host of supply chain is boring. Over the years. I’ve interviewed some of the brightest minds and successful leaders in the world of supply chain management. In May, 2020. I sat down with Ken Ackerman to learn more about him, collect a little supply chain management history. After our discussion. Ken told me about a similar interview he had with Dr. James stock many years prior, and the related work Dr. Stock was doing in November, 2020. I was able to catch up with Dr. James stock to learn about his work as an academic in the field of transportation logistics. And now what we call supply chain manage ment. Jim was well connected to many of the original academic thought leaders in the space. Jim did interviews with many of these original thought leaders and shared them with me. The list includes Ken Ackerman, Don Bauer, SOS James Hasket, bud littleand John Langley, Jr. Tom Menser, Tom SP and Daniel Ren To carry on the great work started by Dr. Jim stock. I’m dusting off these interviews and bringing them to you on supply chain is boring.
Dr. Jim Stock (01:14):
Good morning. My name is James stock, professor of marketing and logistics at the university of south Florida. We’re here today to conduct a new interview with one of the luminaries in the academic discipline of logistics and supply chain management. The purposes of this interview are several first and perhaps foremost is to get to know the personal side of one of the leading logistics and supply chain academics, a person who’s had significant influence on their profession. We often read the person’s book books and journal articles, listen to their presentations at academic or professional meetings, and sometimes even have individual discussions with them at various events and venues. However, we rarely get to know the person beyond their, the professional aspects of their careers in the field of literature and art. For example, researchers often consider the what I, how who, and when of a particular book or painting short story poem, and so on.
Dr. Jim Stock (02:09):
They speculate on what might have motivated the writer, the artist to write the book or paint the painting, to determine the message or the story of the text or art and the writers or artists’ perception of the contributions of their work in the same way through this and other interviews that will be conducted of leading business scholars as Paul Harvey so often is expressed, will attempt to get the rest of the story. These videotaped interviews will hopefully serve as supporting material for various university courses where the works of these academics may be discussed, be significant impact in courses where history and theory are being examined. Since these individuals contribute extensively to history and theory, each interview is based on a set of structured questions, uh, using an interview guide. Of course, the interview responses are spontaneous. They may lead to other questions related to those responses.
Dr. Jim Stock (03:05):
However, the general format for this and other interviews will be conducted that will be conducted in the future will be similar. I hope that audiences who view these interviews will get a broader and richer view of the people and event that have shaped their disciplines. We hope that you learn from what will be said and discussed during these interviews and be able to more fully appreciate and understand the significant contribution made by these luminaries in the field. So let’s begin by introducing our distinguished guest, Dr. John Donald J BAU. So is presently distinguished university professor in Dean emeritus, Michigan state university, east Lansing, Michigan. Although he now resides in retirement in lady lake Florida. He graduated from Michigan state university with a bachelor of arts in pre-law divisional, social science obtained a master’s degree in of arts in major master of arts business administration, also from Michigan state.
Dr. Jim Stock (04:02):
And he completed the trifecta, uh, when he obtained his PhD in 1960, also from Michigan state university, where he majored in marketing and minored in transportation, economics and management, his dissertation topic was titled evaluation of alternative solutions to the distribution center location problem. Prior to assuming his academic career, Don was a pilot holding the rank of captain in the United States air force. He was the director of new business development for the railway express agency and was a vice president and general manager for the F McDonald company prior to assuming his first a position as an associate professor at Michigan state university in 1967, he was promoted a professor during his tenure there and altogether Don served at Michigan state for 40 years. While at MSU Don held various positions academically and administratively. He held a position of professor of market in logistics from 1969 to 1989.
Dr. Jim Stock (05:05):
He became the first person to hold to John H. McConnell chair university, professor of business administration in 1989 and held that distinction until his retirement. He was assistant Dean of the MSU business school executive development program from 19 98, 19 99. You did assume the position of Dean of the Eli broad school, college of business and the Eli broad graduate school of management from 2000 to 2001 upon retirement. In 2006, Don was award the title distinguished university professor and Dean emeritus from MSU during his career. Don has received numerous awards for achievement, including the council supply chain management professionals, distinguished service award for outstanding achievement and logistics and supply chain management. He was one of the founding members of CS CMP called at that time, the national council of physical distribution in 1963 and was its second president. He’s received the Armitage medal from Seoul, the international society of logistics and numerous other awards and recognitions.
Dr. Jim Stock (06:14):
He served as a member of the editorial words of the journal of business logistics, journal, marketing theory, and practice the international journal of logistics management, supply chain management review, and several others. He’s published more than 250 articles and 17 books and book chapters that have appeared in almost every major marketing logistics and supply chain AC de in professional publication. He was co-author of the first college textbook on physical distribution, which has influenced literally thousands of logistics students in the United States and throughout the world. Don has made significant contributions to Michigan state and was the recipient of the broad school alumni lifetime achievement war. In 2002, he developed and directed since 1967, the MSU logistics management executive development seminar. That’s been recognized as one of the world’s premier executive education programs and logistics and supply chain management during his tenure ATSU, more than 60 programs were presented, impacting literally thousands of business executives in north America and around the globe also significant is that Don has served as dissertation chairperson for almost 30 doctoral students.
Dr. Jim Stock (07:31):
Many of whom have become leading educators and researchers in the disciplines of marketing and logistics. Examples include David close, Tom Meer, Tom SP, pat Doty, Peter Gilmore, and several others throughout his career. Don has been a giver to his university. His students, countless businesses have interfaced with Michigan state and the scholars throughout the globe. It’s our distinct pleasure to get to know the personal side of this man. So we can more fully appreciate his significant professional contributions and achievements. And Don interestingly as, uh, all of those we’ve interviewed, uh, they think back and say, wow, we’re able to do that much. And, uh, it’s amazing. The folks that we’ve talked to including yourself have been so productive for so long and, uh, as, uh, indicated in the introduction, we’re gonna try to get to know a little bit more about you beyond what we’ve seen in, in your professional writing. So let’s start with, uh, when you were a child at the typical question, when and where were you born?
Donald Bowersoz (08:37):
Wow, that’s a long time ago, Jim. I was born in 1932 on July 27th in Youngstown, Ohio, right in the, the trailing years of the great depression.
Dr. Jim Stock (08:50):
And was there anything in your childhood that, uh, you say was significant in shaping your present personality?
Donald Bowersoz (08:58):
Well, I certainly think there were many things, but I, as I think back on it, it was sort of a driving, uh, spirit of our household was that all the boys and girls were going to go to school because my parents didn’t have that opportunity and they’d been through a serious time in the depression. And so they were really focused on education. Mm-hmm <affirmative> so much, so they almost scared us all off.
Dr. Jim Stock (09:27):
Was there a personality trait that, uh, drove you to succeed or perhaps alternatively impeded your progress?
Donald Bowersoz (09:35):
Well, there were a lot of days. I thought I was impeding my process or progress. Uh, I was a stubborn little guy from what people tell me that, that I, uh, wasn’t the easiest to get along with all the time, but I remember myself always being in the great mode and being cheerful. So I don’t know if that’s stubbornness, uh, and the it up being focused on goals and hanging on to get things finished. But if there was a trade, I would say that probably was it.
Dr. Jim Stock (10:05):
And how would your parents, if we could talk to them now, describe you as a child and why would they describe you that way?
Donald Bowersoz (10:14):
Well, you know, that’s hard to remember. I guess my mom would say I was cute and my father would laugh. So, uh, I, I just feel I was a typical child, no particular, uh, traits that made me outstanding and, and, uh, I can’t remember anything that impeded my behavior in any way, so. Okay. I guess typical would be the, uh, the word I’d use.
Dr. Jim Stock (10:40):
Okay. And what did your parents do? What was your dad’s profession and what did your mom do?
Donald Bowersoz (10:45):
Well, my dad, uh, had been a, uh, typewriter repairment back in the days of, uh, the mechanical typewriter and, uh, the depression kind of changed his whole life. He, uh, uh, that’s how we ended up moving from Youngstown to Lansing, Michigan. And, uh, there was a little bit behind that story, which I’m sure we’ll get to later, but, uh, he never did get fully employed in a career again, after the depression, he did, uh, various things like repaired typewriters, but soon they became obsolete and, uh, he didn’t have the knowledge or training to do electrical machines. So he did other things, uh, until, uh, age forced him to retire. My mother, uh, did sales work and she was very active in the democratic political party and, uh, was a delegate to a couple national conventions and, and the whole family seemed to be dedicated to, uh, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s success. Mm-hmm, <affirmative>, uh, that’s the environment of the thirties.
Dr. Jim Stock (11:53):
Don, do you have any specific memories, uh, from your childhood that you’ve not forgotten?
Donald Bowersoz (11:59):
Uh, I thought about that quite a bit. And there, there are little memories of things which are not significant, but you remember ’em at time, I believe the move, the move from Youngstown, Ohio, where my family, I had always lived where my parents had met and where, uh, life had been good prior to the, uh, the great depression. The move was, uh, a migration of the family. And it was rather traumatic. I remember, uh, that I ended up going to kindergarten three times. Wow. And I feel that’s probably what gave me a real heads up on the academic world, because I really learned how to, to do, uh, the Billy goat play and everything really great. Uh, but what happened was one year I went because the kindergarten teacher babysat me and I was illegal. I, while my mother was working the next year, uh, I went because they started school a year earlier in Ohio. And the next year I went again because we were in Michigan where they started school a year later. So I remember clearly I was probably the best kindergarten student around. I, I had, I really had a mass,
Dr. Jim Stock (13:14):
Well, that probably fits into that one play about everything I learned. I learned in kindergarten. Well, I, you got it three times. Yeah,
Donald Bowersoz (13:20):
It probably does. And, uh, I think I’m still using some of that material. Good.
Dr. Jim Stock (13:26):
Um, now as after you moved to, uh, Lansing. Yeah. Um, tell us a little bit about, uh, your educational background in terms of secondary school education
Donald Bowersoz (13:36):
There. Um, the, the move to Lansing, I think is significant why Lansing, uh, my father did get a chance to go back with Remington, ran after work picked up again, and that was the typewriter that he was a repair person for and work for them for several years till the electrical typewriter more or less took over the landscape. Uh, he had a choice of three different locations to go to, and we definitely went to Lansing because there was a university there, and that’s all part of that drive for all of his sons to get, uh, education. And so the, the family made a move based on that they could have gone to other locations. And, um, so, so that, that kind of set the stage from day one, we were gonna go to college and we were gonna go to Michigan state and there was no other discussion. My family mm-hmm <affirmative>, uh, even to the point where, uh, later on, I had an opportunity for a scholarship to another school and, and my father insisted I’d not taken and go to Michigan state cuz that was his plan. And, uh, he wasn’t overly domineering in general, but on that point he was non compromising and I’m really proud of that. Cuz turned out to be a good decision.
Dr. Jim Stock (15:02):
Okay. So you went to junior high or middle school and high
Donald Bowersoz (15:04):
School. I went to grade school, junior high school and high school in, uh, Lansing.
Dr. Jim Stock (15:11):
Did you have a favorite subject that you studied while you were especially in high school? And why was that your favorite subject?
Donald Bowersoz (15:19):
I don’t, I’m not sure I had a totally favorite subject, but I did like history history seemed to intrigue me because, uh, um, I had a couple of teachers who could really bring the subject alive and is such, uh, I found it very interesting, but I did the standard college preparatory, which was four academics majors in our high school. So, um, uh, I was, did the route in the full route in, in all the subjects, but I think, think history was the one that I enjoyed the most.
Dr. Jim Stock (15:54):
Okay. Did you play on any sports teams while you were in
Donald Bowersoz (15:57):
School? Yep. I, I was, uh, typical going to be a star in all three sports. Uh, I ended up, uh, playing primarily baseball, but uh, uh, I did play football and some basketball ran cross country also after I stopped playing football.
Dr. Jim Stock (16:16):
Okay. And, uh, how about school clubs or other activities?
Donald Bowersoz (16:21):
Um, I was in a, a couple of different clubs. Uh, I remember in particular we had a club that was called the fur feather and fin, and it was a sports, uh, of outdoor sports club. And we did trips where we would go fishing trips and, and although I didn’t hunt, we had canoe trips and that was a, a club I greatly enjoyed. I was also in a, uh, history club, uh, and probably a few other ones for, at least of the time. I can’t remember. ’em all.
Dr. Jim Stock (16:55):
Okay. Did you participate in any kinds of student government activities while you
Donald Bowersoz (16:59):
Were in school? I ran for an office. I didn’t win. I was a campaign manager of, uh, a person who did win. So I was involved in a little bit of student council. Uh, I was what I would call marginally involved.
Dr. Jim Stock (17:13):
Was there a teacher or perhaps more than one that had a significant influence on you? Uh, particularly in those high school years. And if so, who was that and what kind of influence did they have?
Donald Bowersoz (17:25):
Yes, I had, uh, I think three teachers that in the history area that I mentioned earlier, a guy by the name of John Breslin who, uh, was really a fabulous teacher. Uh, another guy by the name of John Young, who, uh, was a very, uh, motivational person who really stimulated us to wanna go beyond. And then I had a, uh, teacher by the name of Millie too good who forced us in our senior year to, uh, to write the identical paper that we’d have to write in our freshman year of college footnotes and everything. I hated her then, but I loved her a year later to
Dr. Jim Stock (18:07):
All right. That’s interesting.
Donald Bowersoz (18:08):
<affirmative>
Dr. Jim Stock (18:10):
How would you describe yourself both academically and socially, uh, as a high school student,
Donald Bowersoz (18:17):
Far more social than academic <laugh>? Uh, uh, I would say that I was, uh, Very active in high school socially mm-hmm <affirmative> um, and academically I was about average mm-hmm <affirmative>. Okay.
Dr. Jim Stock (18:34):
And, uh, outside of school, were there any other kinds of activities that you, uh, were involved in?
Donald Bowersoz (18:41):
I worked, um, I had a part-time job most of the time I was in school. I worked in drug store and actually that’s where the potential scholarship came from to go to FARs, to become a pharmacist. And I was pretty convinced that that was, uh, a good road to take. And my father, uh, felt it was absolutely the wrong road to take. And so we had, uh, a few great debates over it, uh, but he, he prevailed and boy, am I thankful for that?
Dr. Jim Stock (19:15):
Well, I’m sure you would’ve been as successful in pharmacy as you were in the academic business.
Donald Bowersoz (19:20):
I, I don’t know Jim, I have trouble counting, uh, pills, so I’m not sure I would’ve.
Dr. Jim Stock (19:25):
Did you, uh, receive any kinds of academic honors or sports honors while you were in?
Donald Bowersoz (19:31):
Uh, I won a letter, which team team, uh, all team members do that participate in sport. I had no other outstanding awards.
Dr. Jim Stock (19:45):
Now, an interesting question in the area you were growing up, did you have, uh, any person and that you idolized a teen idol, whether it was a movie star or a business person or politician and why?
Donald Bowersoz (19:59):
Yeah, well, a big part of our life of course, was to go to Saturday football at Michigan state. And during the years of my high school with were the same years that their football program emerged and their university began to grow. And so we had a few players on that team. Uh, I remember, uh, a good friend of mine now, but at that time, by the name of George Gary, who was, uh, a very small overachiever, that was extremely good football player. And I kind of, uh, thought he was pretty special. Um, I don’t remember any other sports or business, uh, idols at the time. Uh, Mars was the decade before the sport cards. We didn’t really have, uh, quite the same, uh, tension on national sports. I really don’t remember any other hero. I thought a lot about that question.
Dr. Jim Stock (20:58):
Is there anything that people would find surprising about you, uh, to find out now, uh, something about you when you were a teenage, something that they might not expect?
Donald Bowersoz (21:10):
Well, I, I guess, uh, uh, they would be surprised to know that I was very serious about becoming a pharmacist cause people who know me now would probably be the last profession they would cast me in. Um, I, I also think that probably most of the people I went to school with didn’t think that, uh, I would, uh, end up in as a professor they’d. Uh, so, uh, I guess from that viewpoint, uh, those people would be surprised mm-hmm <affirmative>, I, I look pretty much like a guy that was on his way to, uh, to O mobile where an awful lot of the people from my class went and were very successful. And, uh, I remember in my freshman year of college, the first semester we had to, uh, see an advisor from our high school to sort of tell him about our experience. And, uh, I’ll never forget meeting the assistant principal. And he looked at me and he said, what are you doing here? And, uh, I found that very, both, uh, humbling and inflating at the same time. So, uh, I don’t think people expected that I would go on to, to become, uh, a pH D I’m not sure they were surprised I went to college, but, uh, maybe graduating did surprise them.
Dr. Jim Stock (22:36):
Now you mentioned, um, interest in college from your parents and you, uh, ultimately attended, uh, Michigan state university. How were you able to attend college? Was it through scholarships working? Did your parents provide the funds or some combination of all of those?
Donald Bowersoz (22:52):
Well, it was, uh, it was a better time for our family than the earlier years, but there really wasn’t a lot of money to support people going to college. Um, my brother had, had gone my older brother first and, uh, he’d been in the military while he went, was to his school. Um, of course I had not gone to the military at first. I was right between world war II and the Korean war. So, uh, I started right outta high school into college. And, um, at that time I remember my parents, uh, of being very enthusiastic and, uh, uh, as I recall now, they did help me each year. For four years. They gave me tuition for winter term. We were on the 10 week terms, mm-hmm <affirmative> for Christmas. So for four years, they did pay for my winter term. And now the amazing thing that most people don’t understand is it cost, uh, $18 and 95 cents to take all the credits you wanted to at Michigan state <laugh> in the, uh, fall, winter and spring.
Donald Bowersoz (24:03):
You had to pay that three times. And, uh, I had worked during the summer, uh, after high school driving a truck, it was my introduction to logistics. And, uh, I, um, continued to work all the way through school. I had a job, uh, uh, from before I started school, right through the end, there were many different jobs. So I was able to meet those expenses. And I lived at home for two years and commuted to the campus. And then, uh, life took a little different turn and I was able to live on campus for one year. And then I got engaged and I back home for a year, so, okay. I only lived about five miles from the campus and you could hitchhike in the morning and I rode with the same people every morning. I didn’t even have to put my thumb up. I’d meet ’em at a certain time after cuz they were going to work and I’d ride to campus and then go over and meet them at their car and ride back home. And they dropped me off a block from my house. So it worked out pretty good. It was a simpler life in those days. Mm-hmm
Dr. Jim Stock (25:13):
<affirmative>. So the one year that you were, uh, on campus, was that in the dormitory?
Donald Bowersoz (25:17):
No, I joined Sigma Chi fraternity. Okay. And, uh, I lived actually not in the fraternity house. I lived in an apartment, uh, with a couple other students about a block from the fraternity house mm-hmm <affirmative> and uh, I enjoyed it. It was a good year on campus, but then my life took a slightly different turn.
Dr. Jim Stock (25:39):
Okay. Um, were you as excited about going to college as your parents were having you go?
Donald Bowersoz (25:48):
Um, I was afraid because I hadn’t taken my, uh, high school work academically as serious as I should have to me passing was good enough. And so, um, I had to take a battery of entrance examinations and fortunately I had had a good balanced high school education in the four primary academic disciplines. So I did quite well on the tests and, uh, and I was, uh, challenged. I worked hard mm-hmm <affirmative> and uh, I remember at the end of my first year of college, I had the only thing I didn’t have a C in was pH ed and RO OTC. Those two things I got A’s and fees in, but everything else was a C, but then by the time I graduated, I, I had been on the Dean’s list several times, so good.
Dr. Jim Stock (26:47):
And so, um, how do you think your college experience those four years of college prepared you to be an academic?
Donald Bowersoz (26:56):
Uh, until my senior year, not at all. I was in pre-law and was on my, a way to, uh, um, go to law school and was trying to be sure I had the grades for admission to law school that allowed me to get in some advanced political science classes. So I was in some seminars with four and five students of which two or three were graduate student. And we really had, uh, uh, an opportunity to share our experiences with each other. And, uh, of course the graduate students were not of course, but the two graduate students I remember in particular were on their way for PhDs. So that gave me the first feeling that there was a life that could relate to the campus mm-hmm <affirmative>. So it was about only at that time that I even thought about it, but then it was a passing thing because to me law school was in the future and, and I was fairly committed to that. That’s why I was in the political science divisional, social science major.
Dr. Jim Stock (28:05):
So how did you get to that point to decide to go for PhD as opposed to, uh, law school or pharmacy or anything else?
Donald Bowersoz (28:14):
Well, pharmacy was long gone by then. Uh, as a matter of fact, I hadn’t worked in the drug store for those four years. I worked other places, but, um, uh, that, that really occurs much later because it wasn’t until I was in the military that I had some experiences that, that drove me back to the campus. And then I had a couple of things happened on the campus that, that changed my orientation.
Dr. Jim Stock (28:42):
Okay. Um, That on, you mentioned the military as, uh, as a turning point or something that impacted you. How did it come about that you went into the military, uh, after your, uh, college experience?
Donald Bowersoz (28:57):
Well, Korean war was, uh, was going full while I was in school. All of us were on a military deferment. We were all and RO OTC. And if, uh, our grades actually drop below a two point for any one term, we were back in the military draft. So that kind of kept you focused. And the RO OTC led to a commission in the air force. And I was in the pilot preparatory program. I am, so it was automatic that I would go in. I had a five year military commitment after four years of college before I could do anything else turned out. I was only in about three and a half years, a little longer because the military was able to cut back after things settled down. So when I graduated, I went to pilot, uh, training. And while I was in the pilot training program, the Korean war, uh, finally fully settled down. And so, uh, I wasn’t, it wasn’t necessary for me to go to Korea at that point.
Dr. Jim Stock (30:07):
Okay. Yeah. Uh, can you tell us a little bit about, uh, that military experience, what you did, where you were stationed, other activities related to that military time that you had?
Donald Bowersoz (30:21):
Well, we, um, I started, uh, in San Antonio, Texas and, and was moved, uh, from there to Columbus, Mississippi, and, and then from there to, uh, mission field, Texas, and from there to San Angelo, Texas, and then to Panama city flow Florida. At that point, I was done with my, my, uh, all of my aviation training as a pilot, single to mal engine piston and jet. And at that point, uh, I went to a radar controller school because they did not have enough pilot slots. We had more pilot than we needed, cuz we had a beefed up training program for the war. I was assigned to Tacoma, Washington, uh, where I served my military time. Uh, I also got reassigned for a period of time for six months while I was at, uh, at McCord field in Tacoma, Washington to the ran corporation, Santa Monica, California. And that turned out to be just quite an eye opening experience for me. So, uh, I was in the, uh, 25th air division air tra air traffic controller and air defense command. And we were doing the a 24 hour a day, uh, radar surveillance of the Northwest and the due line up across Alaska during the height of the cold war.
Dr. Jim Stock (31:54):
Okay.
Donald Bowersoz (31:54):
It wasn’t combat duty, but it was an unusual piece time. We were sort of sitting on the edge all the time.
Dr. Jim Stock (32:01):
Now was there, uh, what, what was the most difficult part of your military experience?
Donald Bowersoz (32:08):
Well, I, I think the, the most difficult part was also a maturing part. After you finished pilot training, uh, you were a pilot and they put the wings on and uh, and then they assigned you to go fly. So while you were training, like you, in most businesses, you slowly work into things. Well, there’s no slow and you’re the pilot command and you got an airplane full of people and you have to go somewhere. So it was that quick, uh, emergence into real responsibility after all those relatively easy years of college life and part-time work mm-hmm <affirmative> in the, uh, air radar command. We, uh, we had some, some fairly interesting moments when we had unidentified airplanes in our zones and some decisions had to be made that were pretty big decisions for 22 and three year old kids to be making. So you weren’t treated as kids.
Chris Barnes (33:09):
Supply chain is boring as part of the supply chain. Now network the voice of supply chain, interested in sponsoring this show or others to help you get your message out. Send a note to chris@supplychainnow.com. We can also help with world class supply chain, education and certification workshops for you or your team. Thanks for listening. And remember supply chain is boring.
