As part of Celerant's Operations Leadership Team, Steven Taylor was charged with leading a team of consultants in the development, management, and delivery of a joint Radio Shack/Celerant supply chain project initiated in 2002. Specifically, he worked directly with the Radio Shack top management team, including CEO David Edmondson, to translate the company's business strategy and objectives into changes in its supply chain processes. The project has been widely cited as the catalyst for Radio Shack's recent success, drawing praise from investors and being referenced in valuations by industry analysts. To date, the project has yielded more than $250 million in savings for Radio Shack, a refreshing change from previous decade, when Radio Shack's high cost to generate each dollar in revenue failed to beat budget by even a penny.
Widely regarded as a supply chain expert today, Taylor stumbled into supply chain management in only a roundabout way. He graduated from college as a petroleum engineer at a time when the petroleum industry had tanked and showed no promise of recovery anytime soon. He ended up in the restaurant industry, where he worked as a cook and later managed the purchasing for a chain of restaurants. It was there that he got hooked on supply chain management. However, "I can still cook very well, thank you," he notes, adding that he will invite friends to his home and spend a few days preparing a sumptuous meal.
Taylor finds working with clients the most rewarding part of consulting work. In particular, he enjoys reaching the point on each client engagement, typically about one-third of the way through, when the level of client initiative ramps up. Until this point, the consultants have mainly been carrying the ball, with the client following along. Then, the project hits this inflection point where the lights go on and the client's management team takes over and starts driving the project.
He also enjoys interviewing, recruiting, developing, and mentoring new consulting talent, going so far as to interview each team member at the start of an engagement to assess how the project fits with the consultant's career plan. His least enjoyable part of consulting, on the other hand, is dealing with the details of the operational process, such as filling out expense reports.
Outside of work, Taylor likes to exercise and manages to squeeze a few workouts a week into his schedule. Recognizing that work cuts into the time he spends with his family, he tries to make every moment with his wife and two young sons count, particularly in watching the boys play Little League baseball. — A.R.
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