“How many slaves do you have in your supply chain?” isn’t the usual conversation opener that CEOs expect to have, but it’s one that Justin Dillon, Founder of Made in a Free World makes a point of asking. “It tends to make them sit up and focus,” he said, during our conversation during last week’s SAP AribaLive event. Founded in 2011, Justin set up the company after hearing harrowing stories about the modern day slavery that lies hidden deep within some of our supply chains.
Q: Forging a career out of Accounts Payable is not necessarily an obvious career path – what’s your journey been like?
A: Well, I’m lucky in that it’s been a journey that’s taken me down several different paths, each one connected to the last, but providing me with a pretty unique insight into lots of related functions such as supply chain, procurement, sales, credit control and fraud. It actually all started aged 17 on a YTS scheme where a position as an Accounts Office Junior exposed me to just about everything, but most of it was AP. Luckily for me, when the FD left – he took me with him. But it wasn’t until my job with Orange that I realised to be effective, you need to think of AP as a customer service and networking role within the business.
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