Competency Profile of Managers in the Singapore Logistics Industry

In this paper, we aim to explore what competencies are essential for logistics managers to be successful in the future by developing a conceptual framework of competency profile of logistics managers based on the existing BLM model and some newly proposed competencies, taking into account changes in the business environment. A survey was conducted in Singapore with logistics managers from 350 firms. A total of 52 returned questionnaires were received, representing a response rate of 14.8%. We found that the proposed framework of 103 business-, logistics- and management-related competencies are essential for logistics managers to be successful, although management-related competencies were perceived as more important than the others. Although being based on the existing BLM framework, this research also proposed and validated new competencies into the existing BLM framework to reflect the necessary response to changes in the business environment. This research also contributes to management practice and serves as another effort to map out the critical competency profile for logistics managers of the future.