Digitization Plays a Key Role, Gartner’s Chris Poole Says

Supply Chain Digest Says...   The digitization strategies referenced about need to be extended to support collaboration and integration with trading partners, Gartner says. What do you say? Click here to send us your comments   Click here to see reader feedback

It continues to be a crazy world out there, with war, significant geo-political tensions, rampant inflation globally, what appears to be a slowing economy, cyber risks, continued supply chain disruptions and more.

What’s a chief supply chain officer to do in the face of such challenges and unknowns?

The analysts at Gartner have some thoughts on that, announcing at their recent Supply Chain Symposium three actions CSCOs need to take to be prepared for upcoming macro and micro risk events.

Those three are:

Understand the Organization’s Risk Appetite and Areas of Exposure: Every company’s culture has its own appetite for risk taking.

Gartner references use of a “risk appetite statement” that defines the types and numbers of risks that are acceptable to a company and which provides performance boundaries for achieving strategic objectives.

A 2022 Gartner survey of 273 board members found that 57% are increasing their risk appetite, even during these disruptive times.

“It’s crucial for CSCOs to understand where their company is deliberately increasing risk, so they can manage those additional risks in line with other disruptions. Risk management has never been more important,” said Chris Poole, a VP with the Gartner Supply Chain practice, as quoted from comments at the conference in press release on this topic.

Accelerate Digital Transformation Efforts: Gartner says that new technologies can improve the agility of the supply chain, providing the ability to sense and respond quickly to unanticipated changes in demand and supply, which can reduce the impact of changes and disruptions.

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“CSCOs should evaluate which frameworks, capabilities and technologies are best suited to progress their supply chain maturity so that risks can be prioritized, planned for, and controlled more effectively,” Gartner said.

Extend the Partner Ecosystem: The digitization strategies referenced about need to be extended to support collaboration and integration with trading partners, Gartner says.

That digitization should connect an organization’s supply chain with its partners, customers, factories, vehicles, equipment and other nodes to extend visibility to sense disruption.

The greater the ecosystem, the greater the reach to sense changes and increase options for a path forward,” Poole noted at the conference.

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