When she entered college 20 years ago, Cheryl Dalsin didn't have a clue as to what supply-chain management was all about. It's likely that she had never heard the term. Now, she's determined to make sure that today's students aren't similarly ignorant about a promising career opportunity.

The W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University is offering a new online certificate program on the subject of supply-chain management.

Eight years into a career in supply chain, Susie Conley, program specialist with Caterpillar Inc., talks about her experience, the opportunities that exist for new entrants into the job marketplace, and the attributes that make a modern-day supply-chain professional successful.

You'd like to think that the people who manage a global supply chain are as diverse as the pieces that make it up. But that's not always the case.

Why are companies doing such a poor job of retaining and attracting top talent in supply-chain management?

Supply-chain professionals have been sounding the warning bell about the coming talent shortfall for several years now. But who's listening? At a time when the economy at large is coping with high unemployment and sluggish job growth, the notion of a sector that can't attract enough qualified bodies is tough to grasp. Still, that's the reality in the supply-chain world today, and it's only going to get worse.