Know the ultimate goal in supply chain

To influence operations transformation, supply chain leaders need to move past what they identify as one of their biggest hurdles to progress—lack of a cohesive strategy. This is especially problematic in key areas for operating model maturity such as data, stakeholder experiences and leading practices.

Strategy is a challenge because of the siloed nature of most supply chain functions. The pandemic exposed what a liability these silos are. For example, the lack of an integrated planning capability made it difficult for many companies to meet new demand patterns as well as having the funds available to support supply chain disruptions.

Supply chain leaders can put some muscle behind this shift by investing holistically in these strategic objectives. In practical terms, this means they need to view every area of supply chain operations as a part of a greater whole dedicated to providing value beyond cost savings. It’s value that benefits all stakeholders—the business, partners, customers and even society.

Business and technology collaboration is an important step to realizing the value of strategy within the operating model. In fact, innovative companies make it a priority to break down silos between these departments. Most future-ready organizations (86%) expect business and technology to collaborate fully by 2023.

While supply chain leaders believe that their organizations are best equipped to scale business and technology collaboration compared to all the other characteristics of future-readiness, this is an ambitious jump. To make the leap, supply chain leaders need to improve their own technology quotient (TQ) and develop their CIO relationships. The more they make the business case for technology investments that address issues in real-time and improve the organization’s ability to meet customer expectations, the more that business and technology interests can align around a shared agenda.