30 Years of Supply Chain in 30 Minutes

Last week I connected with an old high school friend who I haven’t spoken to since English class. That was some 30 years ago.?

After pivoting her career toward the supply chain industry, she reached out for a business call. Of course, I was more than happy to share some of my knowledge and experience. In the 30-minute call we had, it became my mission to summarise the supply chain industry and what my 30-year career within it, has taught me.

30 years, in 30 minutes. Now there’s a challenge, right?

Once I got going, it became pretty obvious that all my explanations were centered around four pillars that have coloured how supply chains operate in today’s world. Four pillars that are CRITICAL to their success. Four pillars that I speak about on my podcast (Transform Talks) every single day. It's these four things that our focus as supply chain leaders and business execs, needs to be on. So here they are…

Accountability

At the heart of every successful business is accountability. It’s no different for supply chains. This requires a real commitment to take into account social and environmental considerations when managing our operations, relationships and activities.?

Diversity. It’s one critical area we have to be accountable for. Diverse supply chains benefit from a richness of ideas, backgrounds and perspectives. It’s about more than just representing a range of ethnicities, genders and sexualities. Different suppliers, staff and stakeholders have different experiences. And it’s those experiences that bring a freshness to supply chains that ensure they represent the interests of the diverse communities they are built to serve. The more diverse a supply chain is, the more resilient and better equipped it is, to support those who depend on it.?

It’s not just diversity in people that we have to hold ourselves accountable for. Sustainability within supply chains is also a key responsibility for us. Failure to install systems and procedures that are socially and environmentally sustainable can have a big impact on your profitability. For example, Unilever estimates that natural disasters, directly associated with climate change, have created annual losses of €300m. The importance of sustainability in a supply chain extends beyond going green. It showcases to the world that you practice eco-awareness in every aspect of your business. Improving your reputation tenfold whilst creating more opportunities for partnerships and further legitimising your organization. It’s a responsibility we all have.

In business, all roads lead back to accountability. Accountability to clients, employees, stakeholders and to the environment. If there’s one thing that will make a supply chain crumble, it's a lack of accountability.

Leadership?

Leadership is the ultimate determinant of success within supply chains. The scale, breadth and volatility of supply chains in 2022 make having great leaders across your supply chain critical. It directly influences the productivity of your teams, how generation gaps are bridged and what sort of culture is fostered within your organisation.

A new addition to that list in recent years is leadership over diverse working practices. Is the future of work in an office? Or is remote working the optimal solution? How do you coordinate hundreds of thousands of employees, all living in different areas of the world, and ensure everyone is strategically and structurally aligned??

The answers supply chain leaders would have given to these questions (and others) 30 years ago, are VERY different from the answers they’d give today. Organisational culture has transformed. And thank goodness it has!?

We used to tolerate a lot of bullsh*t back then. I saw it in boardrooms myself. I witnessed the toxic cultures that stemmed from bad leadership, a lack of diversity and no accountability at senior levels. But leadership today is a completely different being. A being that drives growth and innovation in a way that is socially progressive and puts empathy, vision and integrity first.?

It’s also amazing to see more women and people of colour getting to answer those questions (although we still have a long way to go). After all, leadership is a journey of knowledge and introspection. I, myself, am constantly learning from my own experiences and mistakes.

Technology

Back when I first broke into the industry, technology was something we leaders leaned on for support and assistance where we needed it. It was nice to have. But that is no longer the case. Tech isn’t just a fundamental part of the running of supply chains, in most cases, it’s the fuel, vehicle AND driver.

It’s exciting to think that we are only in the preliminary phase of this technological evolution within supply chains. Over the next 5 years, I expect to see machine learning, AI, cloud computing, and robotics all continue to be integrated into supply chains at much bigger scales. So much so that technology will dominate supply chain restructuring. It’ll open up new, improved and more efficient ways of doing things. We can expect to benefit from increased resilience, reduced risk, better forecasting and planning, improved data access, optimised productivity, less space for human error, reduced wastage and more. The possibilities are endless when you think about it, especially when you consider how this technology could help to augment the work of the human workforce.?

Take a look at the results below (from a survey assessing the adoption of technology within supply chains). You can see just how much of a transformation we can expect over the next 5 years.?

Technology is an essential piece of the supply chain puzzle and at the heart of digital transformation of Supply Chains. You can’t afford to ignore it.

?Disruption

Last but not least, supply chains are built on disruption. 30 years ago, when I first started out, the business landscape was relatively stable. Today, the business landscape is anything BUT stable. We’re facing disruption upon disruption, volatility upon volatility.

When the Suez Canal crisis happened the world froze. The crisis was costing the economy an estimated $400 million an hour. Yet, it took a whole 6 days to solve. And that’s dare I say it… a ‘tame’ example of the disruption we’ve seen this year!

It’s been a bumpy road and that isn’t stopping anytime soon. In fact, the number of disruptions within supply chains is actually on the rise.?

The future consists of businesses and supply chains that are run in a world on fire. How you handle that disruption is now a defining factor of your business's success.?

This doesn’t mean the world is ending for supply chain leaders. Knowing we face this volatility opens up new opportunities. It gives us the kick up the backside, letting us know we need to evolve and we need to do it quickly. It’s critical that we start installing the systems to help build resilience against these crises. How can we forecast accurately in a world on fire? How can we use tech to predict shortages? How can we diversify supply in case of geopolitical disruption or sanctions? What contingency plans are in place?

We need to be more proactive and less reactive. This is now the world we live in and adaptability and agility in supply chains are going to be critical to their success.

Those are my 4 foundational pillars of supply chains. The things that I see patterning supply chain operations today and that I predict will do so in the future.

But I’m interested to hear your thoughts!

Is there anything you think I missed? Are there any other elements that you think colour the business landscape today? How is your organisation responding?

Let me know in the comments!