Never break the chain

The mental (as in thought process inside the brain, not insane) starting point for my homework interview was to be based around the imaginary headline: “Top MSc lecturer is also Reiki practioner”. Maybe I’d have added an exclamation mark in case you didn’t know that that was an surprising and unexpected juxtaposition. I thought I had my twist, my “hook”. And that was going to be it, really.

I’ve known my interviewee, Catherine, since our children were small. So I know, without having to interview her, that she has two teenage children and has been married to Richard for 25 years, having met him during their first week at Birmingham University. I know she trained as an accountant and went into management consultancy. I know that she now specialises in educating business graduates at Warwick University (though I had to ask her her title – Teaching Fellow). Her subject is supply chain management. She also began training as a Reiki practitioner a few years ago.

"Catherine” I said “ I need to do an interview with someone with an interesting hobby, and you’re the only person I know who’s got one. Do you mind if I interview you about your Reiki?”

I guess I had a strong preconception of the form the interview would take. “Businesswoman seeks alternative dimension to her life”. I’ve spoken to her a few times over the years about the Reiki training, but never about the whole supply chain management thing.

So before I began the interview, I googled a definition of her subject.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the management of a portfolio of assets (human, equipment, components, etc.) and relationships (customers, suppliers, staff, etc.) to transform a customer’s product from raw material to finished product as efficiently as possible.

This interview was taking place in the foyer of a hotel. We were about to go in to a charity ball. Paying heed to my writing class, I began by checking my facts.

“First of all though, Cath, you’d better tell me exactly what supply chain management is ”.

I could entirely see how someone who had earned her professional spurs in the West Midlands of the 1980s and 1990s would have developed expertise in a seemingly dull topic. I needed to get this out of the way and onto the interesting stuff.


I offered my own summary: “It’s about procuring the right amount of sheet metal, skilled workers and components, putting them all together in Cowley or Longbridge (back in the day) and turning them into cars, right?” I put to her.

What she said, and more importantly, the passion and feeling with which she said it surprised me.

“Supply chain management” she said, champagne glass in hand, “is a philosophy.”

“It’s about a whole system pulling together with one goal, one end in sight. It’s the opposite of optimising self-gain.”


I was surprised.

“It is about interconnectivity, and inter-dependence. It’s a model for effective communities and relationships. Good supply chain management is like a finely tuned eco-system. At its best, it can be a beautiful thing”

“And the Reiki?” (pre interview reseach defined Reiki as a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by "laying on hands" and is based on the idea that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one's "life force energy" is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy)

“Reiki” she said, “in its purest form is a system to achieve personal perfection. It is a philosophy and a spiritual practice promoting physical and emotional healing to self and others.”

But the spark and the passion had gone. She enjoys being a Reiki practitioner and believes in its efficacy. But, for Catherine, it’s not a patch on supply change management.


Let’s change that headline….”Reiki Practitioner will change your life by application of principles of supply chain management”.

Now there’s a twist