Ready for Anything? Turbulence and the Resilience Imperative

The risks facing supply chains have intensified over several years, with companies today facing the impacts of geopolitical shifts, cyberattacks, climate change, and pandemics. Yet “the greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence,” as Peter Drucker once said. “It is to act with yesterday’s logic.” Historically, supply chain managers have focused on preparing for short-term predictable shocks and recovering back to business-as-usual. But to withstand today’s dynamic and complex risk matrix, companies should build their operational capabilities to bounce back and recover from disruptions in the near-term, as well as their strategic capabilities to bounce forward and adapt to changed environments over an extended time horizon. A balance between operational and strategic resilience underlies The Resilient Supply Chain Benchmark, which was developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit with the support of the Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM). 

The Resilient Supply Chain Benchmark assesses the prevalence of modern supply chain resilience-building capabilities in more than 300 publicly-listed US companies. Combining a survey of corporate executives, data drawn from corporate disclosures, and an expert interview program, the benchmark covers companies of varying size in three sectors: consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, and retail. By providing evidence-based, sector-specific analysis into best practices and areas for improvement, the benchmark builds the case to invest in modern supply chain resilience and can serve as a first step for companies to assess themselves against their industry peers.

As explored more fully in the accompanying report, “Ready for Anything? Turbulence and the Resilience Imperative,” the benchmark reveals that companies lack end-to-end visibility into their supply chains, leaving them vulnerable to dynamic or unexpected risks. This is due in part to an absence of reliable data. Over 50% of benchmarked companies report that visibility into their supply chain is based on internal data. 37% of benchmarked companies report that their visibility is hampered by internal siloes or is not data-driven at all. In addition to improving visibility, making timely data from across the supply chain available can unlock a number of higher-level resilience-building capabilities, such as stress testing and prescriptive analytics.

The Resilient Supply Chain Benchmark has revealed a number of gaps and opportunities for improvement that, if addressed, could position companies to better withstand the dangers of our turbulent times. These include improving business continuity plans and playbooks, proactive collaboration to improve the credibility of sustainability and emissions initiatives, building long-term relationships with supply chain partners, and stronger engagement between supply chain managers and executive leadership.

Download our report “Ready for Anything? Turbulence and the Resilience Imperative” to find out more.