The analyst firm Gartner has in the last decade become a powerful marketing machine, not only in supply chain but many other topic areas as well.
In the supply chain sector, Gartner’s size and influence continues to grow at an impressive pace, as evidenced by the success of its annual Supply Chain Symposium every May or June, which keeps getting larger each year.
Gartner operates on a subscription model, which means in general you have to be a paying client to get access to the company’s Magic Quadrants, Hype Cycles and scads of other supply chain research.
Gilmore Says.... |
 |
Gartner says that to attract and retain top talent, supply chain leaders should focus on enhancing their employee value proposition (EVP) drivers - the benefits and value employees gain from working with an organization.
|
 |
What do you say? |
|
| Click here to send us your comments |
| |
|
|
|
However, few years ago Gartner started to occasionally make select research available to all, first using a press release model but more recently using blog posts to deliver the content.
And that content is usually a summary of a longer version full “research note” on a given topic.
This approach has gone from an occasional blog post/press release to now a much more common, almost weekly exercise that gives non-clients a taste of Gartner content.
In turn, SCDigest often summarizes those blog posts if the topic is a good one, which it is most of the time.
So I thought it might be fun to even further summarize these posts by covering here three recent of these supply chain blogs.
Let’s start with a recent post on getting supply chain reorganizations right.
To me, the most interesting news here was the incredible number of supply chain reorgs there apparently are. In the post, Gartner analyst Alan O’Keefe says a recent Gartner survey found that 90% of supply chains are currently reorganizing, or plan to, in the near future.
Can that be right? It seems incredible. Especially as Gartner further says most supply chain reorgs aren’t delivering the expected results.
To improve those outcomes, O’Keefe says companies should “stop focusing organization design on one extreme end of a spectrum — such as centralization or decentralization. Instead, they should start from the position that some supply chain activities benefit from being integrated under one leader, and some should be dispersed under multiple leaders across the organization.”
Gartner adds that - perhaps stating the obvious - you want your organization to be stronger after a redesign than before.
“So don’t just move existing boxes around an organization chart,” O’Keefe recommends
In early September, Gartner analysts Samuel Kim and Veena Variyam wrote in another Gartner blog post that “For the first time in three years, chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) are not citing supply chain talent recruitment and retention as one of their top three near-term priorities.”
As I asked in my summary of that piece, “Is the bloom coming off the talent management rose in supply chain?”
Gartner says that for most companies, that would be a big mistake. Why?
Gartner says to consider this: in the past two years, supply chain organizations have witnessed a significant decline in their net promoter score (NPS), a key metric that gauges employees' willingness to recommend their workplaces to others.
“This downward trend suggests a growing reluctance among supply chain employees to endorse their organizations. NPS has been steadily declining among supply chain employees from a high of 32% in 3Q22 to a low of 26% in 1Q24,” Gartner notes.
 The data “highlights a deepening dissatisfaction among supply chain employees,” Gartner further observed – and means supply chain executives must still prioritize work place satisfaction if they want to avoid losing workers.
What’s more, Gartner says that to attract and retain top talent, supply chain leaders should focus on enhancing their employee value proposition (EVP) drivers - the benefits and value employees gain from working with an organization.
The blog cites a recent Gartner survey that found supply chain employees were most attracted to roles offering competitive compensation, favorable location, work-life balance, vacation benefits and, importantly, respect.
Finally, let’s look at a Gartner blog from April on “The Four Pillars of Supply Chain AI Success,” certainly a timely topic.
AI of course is seeing rapid uptake. Gartner research found that by 2025, 95% of data-driven decisions are expected to be at least partially automated through use of AI and its cousin machine learning.
However, Gartner says, only 10% of CEOs say that their business uses artificial intelligence strategically.
To change that dynamic, companies should focus on four pillars:
AI Vision: Companies must first establish their vision for supply chain AI. That includes clearly stating how supply chain AI advances the overall supply chain strategy.
AI Value: Companies also need to Identify the organizational barriers that could hinder supply chain AI from succeeding, and leverage change management approaches to remove those hurdles. Those moves include rightsizing the supply chain AI portfolio and/or pilot supply chain AI projects; establishing accountability for AI strategy development and execution; collaborating with IT and data and analytics leaders.
AI Risks: Gartner says companies also should identify the regulatory, reputational, competency, technology and other supply chain risks that should be mitigated.
AI Adoption: Companies should prioritize their supply chain AI initiatives based on their value and their feasibility, Gartner says, as agreed to by both supply chain leaders and other stakeholders in the business.
So there you go.
I think this was fun and worth the effort. Hope you think it was valuable too.
Any reaction to this column on Gartner from Gilmore? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button (email) or section below.
Your Comments/Feedback.
|
