Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Lessons from top Supply Chain leaders in 2021

For many Supply Chain leaders, 2021 and the ongoing pandemic have signified a struggle with the health crisis and the unavailability of workers, raw material, severe weather incidents, facility fires, transportation disruption, and lack of finish off goods.

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According to Gartner recent Supply Chain (SC) event, they chose 25 top leaders and their corporations

as global influencers who share their insights pinpointing significant practical trends applied in the day-to-day procedures to accelerate their capabilities.

 Lessons to be learned

–       The purpose-driven organisation – SC keeps the world moving forwards throughout the pandemic and is placed to get to the bottom of the social and environmental challenges in the sustainability field.

–       We are observing more largescale sustainability goals aligned with science-based objectives.

–       There will be changes in the workplace that will be a long-lasting measure of the scenery from now on.

–       Customer-driven business transformation – The pandemic caused an unexpected modification in customers’ buying patterns; it demands SCs to be highly adaptive, so companies made abrupt shifts to deliver better goods rather than customers buying directly at store locations.

–       The digital-first SC mindset affords much more smooth customer experiences, accelerated by and the pandemic.

–       Data-driven change management is granting organisations to survive along with the accelerated changes organisations are experiencing. Talent, visibility, Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning are vital to digital transformation.

Luckily, the plans to achieve these goals look to make investments and benefit both businesses and the world.   Even beyond sustainability, several corporations are focusing on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

plans, not only on the inside but by carrying out the supplier’s various courses.

The SCs must adapt to shifting business conditions to succeed in the marketplace for the future, as market disruptions now feel more like climate than the weather.

Besides these lessons, Gartner focuses on building up partnerships with other organisations to collaborate to solve internal and external issues.

Hereafter, two examples of those Top 25 organisations insights:

Cisco Systems, the number 1 this year for the second consecutive year in this list, make it thanks to robust income growth, strong policies in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and acknowledgement of leadership in the arena:

–       Cisco agility ranks first in video conferencing and essential infrastructure skills for vaccine research and hospitals through the health crisis.

–       The company sustainability prerequisites are set in its SC procedures business to warrant constant advancement that impacts changes. To implement the ESG

–       After accomplishing some assertive targets for greenhouse gas emissions (GH G) one year ahead of schedule, Cisco included two new targets: A 30% reduction of GHG emissions for the SC, and 80% of Cisco’s manufacturing and logistics suppliers and components and a public GHG emissions reduction target by 2025.

Holding its No. 2 place, Colgate-Palmolive keeps driving transformation in its SC, including factory automation, spreading out outdoors manufacturing potentials and cutting-edge network modelling, enhanced customised capabilities to drive growth, for example, through E-commerce.

–       It continues compelled to downgrade its effect on the environment by achieving true Zero Waste in its manufacturing sites, obtaining certification by Green Building Council.

–       The enterprise was also appointed as The World’s Most Innovative Company to manufacture and share a first-of-its-kind recyclable plastic tube.

The Gartner Top 25 takeaways: 

–       It recognises superior SCs capable of:

–       Invest in demand management as a differentiating capability.

–       Understand customer value.

–       Promote innovation (not just compliance) against ESG factors.

Ready to take advantage of these valuable insights from Top Supply Chain leaders?

Dave Food

M: +44 7775 861863


Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash