Radharaman (Rad) Jha is a dynamic business leader whose career reflects a deep passion for transformation, innovation, and purposeful impact. With a foundation in engineering and a broad commercial track record across merchandising, pricing, omnichannel, and supply chain, Rad brings a uniquely integrated view of how businesses create and capture value.
What sets Rad apart is his belief that supply chain isn’t just a support function — it’s a strategic engine of growth, resilience, and innovation. He has led large-scale transformations across multiple industries, turning underperforming operations into agile, high-impact ecosystems that thrive in uncertainty. Beyond his executive roles, Rad serves as a mentor, investor, and advisor to startups globally, championing new thinking and next-generation talent.
In our recent discussion, Rad shares his unconventional path into supply chain, his evolving perspective on the function’s role in business, and his vision for how the discipline can—and must—redefine itself to attract the next generation of leaders.
Rad how did you get into Supply Chain? Was your perception of supply chain different from the reality?
Honestly, it wasn’t a straight-line journey for me! Coming from a Computer Engineering background, I didn’t initially see myself in supply chain — my view of how businesses worked was probably a bit too narrow back then. But during my MBA, that changed. I started to understand how different functions, especially supply chain, create real value — not just for the business, but across the broader economic landscape.
As I got into my early roles and began to see first-hand the impact supply chain has on day-to-day operations and customer outcomes, I found myself genuinely drawn to it. It felt like the perfect place to bring together my analytical mindset with the satisfaction of making things run better, faster, and smarter.
At first, I probably viewed supply chain mostly through a logistical or planning lens — moving goods efficiently from point A to B. But as I stepped into larger transformation roles and started overseeing full value chains, especially in fast-moving sectors like retail and beauty, I quickly realized how strategic it truly is. Supply chain doesn’t just support the business — it drives the business. It influences everything from customer experience to profitability, and that’s what makes it so exciting.
How has supply chain and the expectations placed upon it changed over time?
It has changed massively. Supply chain used to sit quietly in the background — an operational function focused on keeping costs down and ensuring things got delivered on time. But today, it’s front and center in shaping business strategy.
The expectations have evolved well beyond just efficiency. Now, we’re expected to be drivers of innovation, architects of resilience (especially in a post-pandemic world), champions of sustainability, and leaders of digital transformation. The role demands agility, comfort with data and technology, and the foresight to navigate global complexities and emerging disruptions.
In many ways, supply chain has shifted from being reactive to deeply proactive — anticipating challenges, designing for flexibility, and unlocking competitive advantage.
Supply chain is not perceived as the most glamorous of careers… attracting a new generation of professionals is a challenge. What should supply chain do about this?
That’s absolutely true — and something we, as a community, need to actively work on. I believe a big part of the problem is that we haven’t told our own story well enough. Supply chain often operates behind the scenes, quietly delivering enormous value, but we sometimes hesitate to talk about it openly, maybe out of humility or fear of sounding self-congratulatory.
Because of that, the outside perception tends to get stuck on logistics, trucks, and warehouses. But the reality is so much broader and more dynamic. Supply chain is one of the few functions that connects almost every part of a business — from product development and procurement to marketing, sales, and customer experience.
We need to reframe the narrative. Supply chain is tech-driven, innovation-focused, and strategically vital. Sharing real, impactful success stories — whether it’s about leading complex transformations, embedding automation, or making supply chains more sustainable — helps bring that to life.
Do you need to be a qualified supply chain practitioner to be a successful member of a supply chain team?
While having some supply chain basics definitely helps I don’t believe formal qualifications are essential in this space. In my experience, what matters more is mindset — curiosity, critical thinking, adaptability, and a willingness to learn (and sometimes unlearn).
My own path started in Computer Engineering and general management, not traditional supply chain. And I’ve worked with some incredible people from all kinds of backgrounds — data science, finance, IT, design thinking — who’ve brought fresh ideas and challenged the status quo in ways that really moved the needle.
In fact, having non-supply chain specialists on the team often unlocks creativity and innovation. They ask the “why not” questions. They bring new lenses to problem-solving, which is exactly what we need to tackle the complex, cross-functional challenges that modern supply chains face.
So no — it’s not about ticking qualification boxes. It’s about bringing the right mix of skills, curiosity, and energy to the table.