Learning is a continuous process throughout life. The quote goes, “You can’t pour from an empty cup.” Learning and developing oneself has become essential in the ever-growing context of the business world. Contributing to the supply chain industry with her immense knowledge, Maayan Nissan adds further value with her passionate approach to learning and development. As the current Director, Head of Global Supply Chain at Align Technology, Maayan has built her career and supported business growth for leading multi-national organizations by driving long-term strategy, innovation, sustainable expansion and change management efforts.
Exceeding Highest Standards for Quality
Maayan’s career in the supply chain industry started 17 years ago with an entry-level position; she held various roles of increasing responsibility, working her way up into management and leadership ranks. She has worked at global companies across multiple industries. Maayan gained valuable insights and experiences, building her resilience and adaptability, establishing her core values as a supply chain leader, including striving to meet and exceed the highest standards.
Her multidisciplinary academic background consists of Business, Social Science, and Law. She also completed recent programs in leadership and negotiation at Harvard and Yale universities, which were pivotal in her career path.
Cultivating the Brightest Team and Sharing Ideas with Experts
At Align Technology, Maayan has the amazing opportunity to be part of a leading medical device company, working in the iTero scanner and services business. Today, Align Technology has more than 60,000 iTero intraoral scanners in the global installed base. During Maayan’s tenure, she has used her expertise to support this growth via supply chain process improvement, system transformation, enhanced visibility through Business Intelligence, supply chain globalization, and large-scale projects.
Maayan believes one of the main differentiators in achieving success is assembling and cultivating the brightest team of people, soliciting feedback, and actively listening to them. Maayan feels fortunate to have a strong global supply chain leadership team and top-performing multi-functional global teams who are highly engaged and collaborative.
Maayan is also active in the global supply chain community delivering lectures and participating in panels and is a member of several supply chain networks. She serves as the Chairwoman of the Supply Chain Innovation Awards Committee, which affords her the exciting opportunity to meet and share ideas with outstanding industry experts.
Encouraging Diversity and Inclusion
First and foremost, Maayan would like to encourage more diversity within the supply chain industry. She believes that encouraging diversity and inclusion in teams can help accelerate innovation and agility. She calls on several examples from her own experience over the years in which bringing in different perspectives immediately resulted in positive outcomes, including “out of the box” thinking, improved team synergy, and a stronger organizational purpose.
Maayan holds herself accountable as a leader to create an environment where all team members can thrive and bring their best ideas and work forward. She considers that diversity of thought and experience is critical and open communication, collaboration, and respect.
Providing a Vibrant Employee Experience
Align Technology believes in the power of a smile, and that every smile is as unique as its employees. Align Technology provides a vibrant employee experience that encourages inclusion and diversity, supports health and wellness, and inspires and develops personal and professional growth.
Align Technology’s values of Agility, Customer, and Accountability guide the company and its employees. From developing solutions rapidly, evaluating alternative solutions that ultimately make things easier for Align Technology customers, to understanding customers’ expectations, treating their problems as its own, and tailoring its solutions to their needs, delighting customers is at the heart of what Align Technology does.
Accountability for delivering against its expectations, every time, is at the core of who Align Technology is. Align Technology holds itself to the highest standards concerning its work, professionalism, and outcomes.
Transforming Change into Opportunity
Maayan believes that the next big change will be the growing impact of artificial intelligence and automation. From her perspective, one of the main growth engines is technology scale-up. The past years have affected the global supply chain industry at unprecedented speed and magnitude. She feels these changes can be turned into opportunities: a more global footprint, increased automation and visibility through technology, and increased customer-centricity.
Building Knowledge through Networking
In addition to Maayan’s continued personal development as a supply chain expert and leader, she believes one of the best ways to build knowledge is through networking. There are numerous talented leaders with strong acumen across the industry, and she has gained great insights and new perspectives from her discussions with them.
As a lecturer and guest speaker, Maayan strives to bring the latest industry trends to the audience and engage in discussion to stimulate group development.
Maayan is most proud of the global supply chain learning center the iTero supply chain team established at Align Technology. Everyone shares knowledge within the organization and brings in external sources to expand their supply chain know-how.
Embracing Challenges and Pushing Boundaries
Maayan’s advice for any aspiring professional is, “Be passionate about your profession and bring your best every day. Embrace challenges, push your boundaries, and be open to learning and growing from your personal and professional networks. Don’t be worried about making mistakes. You will learn from it. Don’t be afraid of change, and it will make you stronger. Always be yourself and lean into your strengths.”
