In this episode Tony Hines talks about business success. Here is the link to the full text of the talk  Fashioning Business Success | LinkedIn
I hesitate to write or talk about business success. It is like writing about the Holy Grail. There are so many opinions and little evidence to determine what business success looks like. Nevertheless, given this caveat write about business success, I will. In particular, I want to illustrate the central role that supply chains occupy in any successful strategy. Supply chains consist of flows of goods, services, data and cash. People and technology determine the organization of those flows. The simple diagrammatic representation of a retail supply chain on this page (follow link to full text) shows how demand triggers actions within supply chains. It is not comprehensive, simply illustrative. There are design, sourcing and procurement stages that come before where this diagram begins. This part of the chain incurs cost and investment to deliver the rest of it. Without the prerequisites of design, sourcing and procurement there is no business supply chain. Without customers too there is no supply chain. Without people and technologies to produce goods, services, manage data and transport logistics to store, distribute and fulfil orders there would be no supply chain. Success relies on all of these factors to be co-ordinated effectively.

Success is also the name of the game in the Covid 19 vaccine supply chain. The fastest development of vaccines in history are now saving lives. This is when time in supply chains is critical. An article in Nature told the story through eight powerful charts which you can read for yourself by following the link here.

Inflation in the UK is now 5.1% (CPI) which is more than double the Bank of England Target. There is more to come with Factory Gate prices standing at 8%. Fuel and Energy costs are driving it upwards along with rising retail costs in the supply chain.  Labour shortages including HGV driver shortages remain.

Fuel prices for Gasoline and Diesel have risen by 33% or more this year even though in recent weeks the oil barrel price has fallen and supply is up. It is time prices at the pump reflected this reality.  Wholesale Gas Prices have risen by 70% and this will feed into business and consumer costs in 2022.

The Brexit secretary David Frost has resigned from the British Government and Liz Truss has taken this role. There is still much to do on this front with the Northern Ireland  Protocol still problematic.

There is a tech battle going on with NVIDIA trying to takeover ARM a UK company that designs microchips for $80 billion. This is reported in this episode. The FRC in th US is concerned and both British and EU regulators are not happy either.

Covid 19 with the new Omicron variant is causing more closures. The only way to keep supply chains moving is to get everyone working in those global suppl chains vaccinated.

A further look at the cost of getting container boxes to move goods reveals price rises in 2021 have hit 500% more than a year ago.

Don't forget to listen to the Christmas Special Editions on the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.

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About Tony Hines and the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage
I have been researching and writing about supply chains for over 25 years. I wrote my first book on supply chain strategies in the early 2000s. The latest edition is published in 2024 available from Routledge, Amazon and all good book stores. Each week we have special episodes on particular topics relating to supply chains. We have a weekly news round up every Saturday at 12 noon. ...