Allison P. Corry, Chief Supply Chain Officer and Vice President, Supply Chain Organization, Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, Utah
Editor’s note: The following interview originally ran in the December 2021 issue of The Journal of Healthcare Contracting, a sister publication of Repertoire Magazine.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What are the characteristics of a successful supply chain leader in today’s marketplace?
Allison Corry: I think there are three major characteristics of a successful supply chain leader today.
Be Bold. A great coach and mentor of mine talks a lot about the ability to be bold. This results in bold leadership, ideas, fearlessness, and energy. With all the challenges facing industry, we have to be bold.
Have Resiliency. If we have learned anything from the pandemic, it is that of greater importance to preparedness and flexibility is resiliency. While we all do our best to be proactive and adjust on the fly, there will be challenges that require correction. Our personal and team’s ability to be undiscouraged and quickly resilient is a key attribute of success.
Live your Mission/Vision/Values. Try and remember the “so what” of what motivates you, your teams, your organizations when you’re in a rut. By getting to the most foundational mission of what your work contributes to or enables, you can find the spark needed for reinvigoration.
JHC: What is the most interesting/challenging project you’ve worked on recently, or an initiative you look forward to working on?
Corry: Recently we’ve been working on a Procurement team transformation which has really been fulfilling. The main objectives of the assessment and design work involved a comprehensive look at our current maturity as a function, comparing our organizational structure to non-healthcare procurement models, and identifying some foundational gaps that needed attention before we were prepared to scale and support organizational growth. We’ve been clarifying roles and accountabilities, re-evaluating what we do well and what we need to do well, identifying how to encourage development and growth from our teams, and identifying where we need automation support in our Procurement processes. This multi-year transformation is the result of significant thoughtful design, heavy communications of the vision to garner team buy-in, and now, deliberate systematic implementation. Hopefully we can return to AHRMM in 2022 and give an update on our journey with some meaningful metrics to show the value of our efforts!
JHC: What is the best piece of wisdom/advice you’ve received in your career?
Corry: One of the best nuggets I received goes something like this quote from Kristi Hedges, Leadership Coach, “In chaos, there is opportunity. Most major career accelerations happen when someone steps into a mess and makes a difference.”
I find this to be really true. If you can walk into any situation and make it clearer, more organized, less stressful, etc., you don’t need a title or an award to be noticed or recognized. Seize the opportunity to make something/anything incrementally better because you can.
JHC: What advice would you give to other women who are pursuing careers in supply chain?
Corry: We (women in supply chain) are becoming less rare and that’s exciting! If you need inspiration, look to other industries where there are quickly growing numbers of women leading global supply chains for Fortune 500 organizations. Leverage the professional networks available through your organization or via industry groups and remember that not all of these need to be specifically aligned to your work. For example, through my career I’ve engaged with academic alumni boards, healthcare or supply chain related industry groups, women in leadership associations, etc. They all help provide a support network so you don’t forget the most important piece; just keep going!
JHC: What are your current professional goals?
Corry: Currently I’m focused on leading the team through the major transitions we are juggling while staying focused on our core function in supply chain. In addition to pandemic-related ongoing impacts, Intermountain has a vacant CSCO leader (among others) position, is actively ramping up the Vizient partnership, is preparing for operational integration of the team and volume of M&A acquisitions, and implementing a very thoughtful, function-specific 3-5 year roadmap of improvement for each of our areas. My current goals are to in/formally lead the teams through these changes in a way that motivates and fulfills the team so we continue to bring the greatest value to our organization and indirectly to the communities we serve. If we can get through this magnitude of change together, I’m confident we can lead together through anything!
JHC: What one thing makes you most proud?
Corry: I couldn’t be prouder of the team and the growth and tenacity they’ve shown over the 2.5 years I’ve been at Intermountain. I’ve found the leaders and team to be proud, highly capable, and entrepreneurial in spirit in a way that has driven results. The team has been tremendous at recognizing that there can be better and easier ways to do things if we step back and reassess what we should be doing as a function. In short, the team was highly successful before my arrival and has taken our new charted direction in stride and shown tremendous growth as we work to have an industry-leading procurement function.