The Gartner Supply Chain Podcast

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor is joined by Tim Payne and Frank Buytendijk to discuss Gartner Maverick research that defies prevailing wisdom by showing that a reliance on demand-driven forecasting can be not just dangerous — but deadly — to your supply chain.A fixation with the demand-driven principle and a myopic focus on the accuracy of forecasts lead to rigid and fragile supply chain plans that are unexecutable amid the uncertainty and volatility of the modern business environment. Instead, supply chain leaders should concentrate on plans driven by that very uncertainty and volatility so they can achieve the resilience they need to succeed within today’s disruptive landscape.In the podcast, Payne suggests supply chain professionals should not be obsessed with forecast accuracy. Rather, they should examine the best-case, likely-case and worst-case scenarios and apply the principles of “probabilistic” forecasting to take the uncertainty into account.

In this podcast, guest Heather Wheatley joins host Caroline Chumakov to discuss Supply Chain Adaptation Responses to a Changing Climate. As climate change shifts the rules of the game, supply chains are having to adapt to increasingly numerous and unfamiliar disruptions.Gartner is exploring the concept of supply chain adaptation by examining how chief supply chain officers are thinking about climate change and how they can respond to the risks as their severity and probability escalate. This podcast delves into the importance of using risk assessment and scenario planning activities hand in hand to make decisions on future planning.Heather Wheatley is a senior director for the Gartner Supply Chain Enablement Team. Heather provides insights and advisory support to chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) and heads of strategy on risk management and sustainability challenges affecting end-to-end supply chains. Her work aims to show how proactive supply chain risk management can increase stakeholder value, enhance agility and help deliver organizational goals.

In this podcast, guest Sarah Watt joins host Thomas O’Connor to discuss sustainability trends as we celebrate Earth Day. Some of the biggest environmental impacts are within the value chain, including in the sourcing of raw materials. CSCOs, as custodians of environmental impact, also face external pressures. For example, investors are paying much closer attention to environmental, social and governance performance. Climate change risks are also an important topic to employees, who expect companies to take action on sustainability. This conversation touches on three key trends — changing greenhouse gas emissions, long-term resource preservation, and the use of technology to drive sustainability.

In this podcast, host Caroline Chumakov is joined by Eric O’Daffer to discuss the winners of Gartner’s eighth annual Power of the Profession Supply Chain Awards. The awards honor inspiring innovations at organizations around the globe in the areas of process, technology, customer and patient care, human breakthroughs, and social impact.From the 84 submissions in four categories, this year’s four winners are:Pfizer, for Customer or Patient Innovation of the Year, as well as Supply Chain Breakthrough of the YearSchneider Electric, for Process or Technology Innovation of the YearShell, for People Breakthrough of the YearMicrosoft, for Social Impact of the YearThe stories of these winners — each of which has built an internal process to foster innovation — should inspire CSCOs to learn more about the Power of the Profession Supply Chain Awards. It should also interest them in examining where innovation is coming from at their own organizations.

In this podcast, host Caroline Chumakov is joined by Dana Stiffler to discuss the current state of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in supply chain, and what chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) can do to further their DEI ambitions in the context of the war on talent. This episode will explore findings that reinforce the necessity of DEI objectives and goal-setting and how crucial those can be in attracting, retaining, and engaging the largest possible pools of talent. It will unpack what actions CSCOs can take to create inclusive supply chain leaders.The discussion will also cover what initiatives CSCOs should implement to make diversity, equity and inclusion easier to achieve on a leadership level and in talent processes.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor is joined by guests Meghan O’Doherty and Thomas Pocock to discuss what chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) can do to avoid accepting the skill gap myth as fact. The guests discuss how the expectations that supply chain leaders now have of their staff members have grown exponentially during the years to include strategic skills that these workers may not have previously displayed. If your team isn’t consistently displaying the strategic skills you need, don’t subscribe to the skill gap myth, as it might be that there is something about your functional climate that doesn’t allow your team to apply those skills.Podcast based on Procurement’s Skill Gap Myth: Addressing Strategic Deficiencies Through Functional Climate

In this special podcast, host Thomas O’Connor is joined by guest, Koray Kose, to discuss the possible impacts that the Russian invasion of Ukraine could have on global supply chains.Organizations should expect to face significant supply chain issues — including key material shortages, material cost increases, production capacity impacts, demand volatility, capacity constraints and cybersecurity breaches. To mitigate these issues, organizations can immediately start creating first-tier visibility into existing supply networks. They can continue to commit and secure product supply volumes for the most fragile supply chains and increase resilience by deploying strategic redundancies.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor is joined by guests Suzie Petrusic and Joanne Joliet to discuss what chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) can do to combat supply chain gridlock.The discussion centers on how a series of constraints, policies and high-impact disruptions have led to a case of worldwide bottlenecks. This amounts to much more than mere traffic jams, port congestion and container shortages. Disruptions caused by climate change, health issues, natural disasters, trade policies and tariffs have led to a situation in which events that cause the supply chain to grind to a halt in one area have stalled supply chain activities in a host of other areas.We explore actions CSCOs can take in this environment — for example, prioritizing sourcing, taking fresh looks at planning approaches and innovating manufacturing processes. CSCOs must drive collaboration and empower their teams to make the right decisions during this challenging time.  

In this podcast, guest Dwight Klappich joins co-hosts Thomas O’Connor and Caroline Chumakov to discuss Predicts 2022: Supply Chain Technology. With things changing so quickly, Gartner is exploring the medium-term future in order to help CSCOs make calculated risks based on our research. Specifically, two predictions are explored during the podcast:By 2026, more than 75% of commercial supply chain management applications vendors will deliver embedded advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and data science.Through 2025, 25% of supply chain decisions will be made across intelligent edge ecosystems.Organizations are focused on investing in digital transformation and decision making, evaluating technology that can help them become more agile, adaptive and flexible. This decision making involves embedded intelligence and data science. Those with greater risk tolerance and resources are the earlier adopters. To make the transition from early adopter to mainstream, more packaged solutions need to be available — and vendors are responding.We discuss how enhanced decision making is a top funding priority for supply chains because quality, speedy decisions are increasingly important. Supply chains are getting more complex and the number of disruptive events is increasing. Supply chains have to be more responsive, which is causing companies to rethink their IT architectures. More decision making is being pushed to the edge, which requires the ability to make rapid decisions in near real time, as close to the point of need as possible. More investment will be needed to build this.

In this podcast, guest Simon Bailey joins co-hosts Thomas O’Connor and Caroline Chumakov to discuss Predicts 2022: Supply Chain Strategy. With things changing so quickly, Gartner is exploring the medium-term future in order to help CSCOs make calculated risks based on our research.A key topic discussed is how, when it comes to driving transformation and business impact, CSCOs are recognizing the critical role of collaborative digital ecosystems. How, to achieve competitive success, organizations are bringing together competitors, governments, non-governmental organizations, academia and startups such that they can compete as an ecosystem rather than discrete, individual firms. We also explore the “Say-Do Gap.” Many organizations have made public commitments in areas including sustainability and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). However, some have yet to put solid plans in place to deliver these goals. Those organizations that are reporting progress toward their objectives and actively driving to close gaps with action are the ones that are seeing the benefits. This is a key driver behind two of our predictions: that by 2024, 70% of global organizations will report supply chain performance against corporate DEI objectives, and that by 2025, 90% of public sustainable packaging commitments won’t be met due to reliance on plastics and single-use packaging.