by Dan Rossi ’16

Supply chain management and big data have been hot topics on the Adelphi campus, not to mention growing fields permeating business in the New York metropolitan region in recent years.

The Robert B. Willumstad School of Business launched its newest degree program in January 2016, an M.S. in Supply Chain Management. Grzegorz Sokolowski, however, was one step ahead. The production planner at NBTY managed to begin specializing in the subject through the School’s M.B.A. program via a series of faculty-supervised independent studies.

Sokolowski noted that supply chain management is one of the growing and changing branches of modern business. “As consumers purchase more products through the Internet,” he explained, “the need for companies to have a structured supply chain to handle that influx of orders has grown.”

As an example, he used NBTY, a vitamin and nutritional supplement manufacturer that distributes products to retail giants like Walmart, Target and Vitamin World. “There’s a certain amount of demand, and you need at least three months’ worth of that amount of excess in case there’s any fluctuation in demand from these stores,” he said of his role ensuring retailers keep just the right amount of product in stock, a position he was able to attain by implementing knowledge he learned from his supply chain courses.

“It allowed me to go into the interview with confidence and speak about certain terminologies that somebody who may not have had any experience or education could communicate accurately,” Sokolowski said. “It was a big factor.”

Sokolowski noted that he’d always had his eye on Adelphi University, but it was several professors and other students at an open house that finally made his mind up.

He described that “there were students who had received their M.B.A., and I had a conversation with one of them who said that the education that the professors provide is indescribable.”

Adelphi had also worked with Sokolowski to make sure his transfer credits rolled over from his undergraduate school, effectively eliminating the prerequisites he would have to take, thus saving him time and money. “That’s another big factor in the choice of a college—for it to be affordable,” he explained.

Balancing a demanding job and school is never easy, and Sokolowski described some of the difficulties he faces in this. “It is stressful,” he explained, “but it’s the good type of stress. It’s the stress that’s going to make you in the future. It’s not going to break you.”

Sokolowski attributes his success to two professors—Allan Ashley, Ph.D., and Sebastian Sora, Ph.D.—for ensuring the possibility of his specialization in supply chain management and providing the type of strong education that is shaping his career.