In this podcast, guest Noha Tohamy joins host Caroline Chumakov to discuss how chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) can use Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Supply Chain Strategy, 2022 to make purposeful, informed investment decisions. 

We look into our recommended approach to choosing the right key capabilities to invest in, which is to balance risk and upside against the organization’s long-term goals and desired outcomes. Per Gartner’s Hype Cycle research, business capabilities follow a left-to-right progression based on their marketplace maturity: new and relatively unproven capabilities promise large potential benefits but rarely live up to the sky-high expectations. Known but underutilized capabilities may have untapped potential, or may simply fade into obscurity. Proven capabilities typically merit expanded scaling and adoption.

In this podcast, host Caroline Chumakov is joined by Suzie Petrusic to examine how supply chain performance can drive customer loyalty in a disruptive environment.

Supply chain leaders have traditionally focused on providing customer satisfaction. They rightly presume that customers want high-quality products delivered on time in a convenient way. When problems do arise customers want the supply chain to correct them thoroughly. But there is another, more effective, way of ensuring customer loyalty: through supply chain-driven customer enablement. When customers reported that they took fewer steps to be able to use the products and services they purchased, and when they reported that the packaging, delivery and customization made their jobs much easier, they were more willing to repurchase from that same organization.

Customers who were satisfied said they were 30% to 40% more likely to repurchase from the same organization. But customers who felt enabled said they were 62% for B2B and 80% for B2C more likely to buy again from that organization.

Suzie Petrusic, Ph.D., is the Research Director serving chief supply chain officers in all the areas of supply chain related to strategy leadership and execution. She has authored and co-authored research and case studies on topics such as risk, supply chain maturity, the future of the supply chain, customer enablement, inflation and recession, and supply chain constraints. She also leads Gartner’s research agenda for chief supply chain officers. Upcoming research topics from her team include supply chain sustainability and digital technology.

Help shape Gartner’s research: Take part in the 2022 Gartner Future of Supply Chain Survey to get a first look at this year’s key trends and we’ll send you a high-level summary of the key findings as soon as it is available. The survey will be open until October 15th.

In this podcast, guest Liz O’Neill, the Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of apparel leader Levi Strauss & Co. joins host Thomas O’Connor to discuss the current disrupted supply chain operating environment.

The podcast explores three key areas:

• Why during periods of rapid change supply chain leaders need to prioritize hiring head office staff based on personality profile, not just subject matter expertise.
• How progress is often slow and nonlinear, and why this makes communication of wins and progress so critical to the success of change management initiatives.
• The reality that there is often a tug of war between the needs of innovation and governance within organizations broadly and supply chains specifically.

As executive vice president and chief operations officer for Levi Strauss & Co., Liz O’Neill is responsible for all supply chain operations, including sourcing, end-to-end planning, distribution, logistics and sustainability. Liz also leads companywide innovation, managing LS&Co.’s internal startup capabilities and off-site design lab while simultaneously working closely with the company’s vendor partners to execute its latest product creations. Liz reports to the president and CEO, Chip Bergh, and is a member of the company’s executive leadership team, which guides the strategic direction for LS&Co. 

Prior to joining LS&Co., Liz spent 13 years at Gap, where she held leadership roles with the Gap brand and Old Navy and oversaw sourcing and production management for Gap’s global brands. Liz was named one of the “Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company in 2019 and currently serves on the board of the American Apparel and Footwear Association. Originally from West Point, N.Y., she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Tulane.

Help shape Gartner’s research: Take part in the 2022 Gartner Future of Supply Chain Survey to get a first look at this year’s key trends and we’ll send you a high-level summary of the key findings as soon as it is available. The survey will be open until October 15th.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor is joined by guest Mark Atwood to discuss the cybersecurity risks faced by supply chains and what CSCOs can do to protect both their enterprise and their ecosystems from such attacks.

Supply chain leaders and CSCOs need to be at the forefront of protecting their supply chains from the increasing threat of cyberattack. Why? Because they are typically in charge of the assets, systems, networks, partners and products that make up the supply chain and therefore the ultimate responsibility for its protection rests with them. 

Currently, some organizations have successfully protected their supply chains through the use of audits and assessments across the ecosystem. But there is an effort to bring more automation and tools to bear on the issue as CSCOs strive to get more verification and visibility into both their systems and partners. In the future, there will be high demand to secure employees from a small pool of talent who intimately understand both supply chains and cybersecurity.

In this podcast, guest Alexander Bant joins host Thomas O’Connor to discuss how CFOs are responding to three key factors impacting their organizations and what this means for supply chain leaders. 

The podcast explores how gaining approval for new investments has recently become more challenging, the latest costs that companies are cutting, and where businesses are continuing to invest despite the challenging conditions. 

The episode then drills into nine specific actions related to resource allocation, securing talent and driving digital acceleration that supply chain leaders can take today as they position their organization for success during and after the current market headwinds.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor is joined by Joel Knox and Brian Whitlock to discuss the current state of labor, logistics and materials conditions for supply chain leaders around the world.

Looking at the broad trends over the last two years through the lens of the Monthly Supply Chain Alert: July 2022, the metrics show that — simply put — it’s been a rough time for supply chains. For supply chains to thrive, materials, logistics and labor have to come together and move in the right direction. Not only was that not happening, but the metrics show that the polar opposite was occurring. Materials, logistics, and labor were all moving in the wrong direction in terms of availability and price across all major manufacturing regions. Conditions in key commodities began to slowly improve in 1Q22 until the Russian invasion of Ukraine and lockdowns in China because of COVID-19 reversed those nascent trends.

These metrics are also beginning to show the barest hints of an overall improvement in logistics, labor and materials, but far from a return to pre-COVID-19 conditions.

In this podcast, host Caroline Chumakov is joined by Mike Griswold to discuss trends and insights that have emerged from this year’s Top 25. They include the four following macro trends from the world’s leading supply chain organizations:

• Chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) have begun to evolve into executives who have to navigate and orchestrate across ecosystems.
• Organizations are recognizing that supply chains must become more self-stabilizing and able to deal with disruption.
• Substantial progress is being made on broader sustainability agendas.
• As supply chains engage in digital transformation, human-centric digital automation has started to become more prevalent. Organizations are beginning to consider the convergence of people and technology.

Mike Griswold is a research vice president and team manager covering supply chain talent and sustainability. He and his team are responsible for assisting supply chain leaders in understanding and implementing demand-driven supply chain principles that improve the performance of their supply chain.

In this podcast, guest Pierfrancesco (Pier) Manenti joins host Thomas O’Connor to explore why chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) should care about accelerating demand from intelligent machines, algorithms and bots. This acceleration can be seen in our 2020 Gartner CEO and Senior Executive Survey, which found 61% of CEOs believe that by 2030, demand from machine customers will be significant in their industry, driving a mean of 21% of revenue.

This is the topic for the June Supply Chain Executive Report: Designing a Digital Supply Chain to Respond to Autonomous Machine Customers.

Key ingredients for CSCO success in preparation for accelerating demand from intelligent machines are integrating the partner ecosystem, leveraging data through the end-to-end supply chain, and automating processes and decisions.

In this podcast, guest Ken Chadwick joins host Caroline Chumakov to discuss two highlights from the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium keynote address, which was presented 6 June 2022 in Orlando, Florida.

The key theme: using an offset strategy to manage disruption. An offset strategy involves a three-step process: sense, shift and steer. Supply chain leaders must sense the issue or opportunity, shift their thinking to get ahead, then steer resources to the biggest priorities.

The podcast touches on two offset areas.

• Cognitive overload: Employees feel the need to do too many things. Use automation to reduce cognitive burden and focus employee energy on decisions that matter most. Use decision modeling to clarify what good decisions look like. 

Energy instability: The demand for energy is growing, but energy resources and power grids are becoming less dependable, leaving supply chains vulnerable. Evaluate energy vulnerabilities within your supply chain ecosystem, and seek to diversify your energy portfolio with renewable energy.

Ken Chadwick is a research vice president covering global supply chain organization design, governance, talent development, change management and organization behavior. Using in-depth cross-industry research and insight into trends, he provides advice to supply chain leaders on how best to engage people and organizations to address the growing complexity of 21st century supply chains.

In this podcast, guest Christian Titze joins host Thomas O’Connor to discuss The 2022 Strategic Supply Chain Technology Themes, with a focus on digital supply chain twin, analytics everywhere and sustainability tools.

Awareness of these themes is critical, as chief supply chain officers and other supply chain leaders continue to face gridlock brought about by disruptions. As leaders build understanding of these key themes, they can crystalize a clear digital supply chain vision, strategy and plan.

Supply chain leaders undertaking this work need a clear, defined roadmap to be able to separate hype from reality. For example, they can use Gartner Hype Cycles to look at maturity and adoption rates, along with the speed of evolution and use cases. Leaders can then build their roadmap to their desired level of digitalization and transformation.