We are bringing you news and announcements from the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo in Barcelona, Spain. Below is a collection of key announcements and insights coming out of the conference.
On Day 1 of the conference we are highlighting the Opening Keynote on solutions for supply chain's labor productivity declines, the critical areas where the supply chain function must reinvent itself to maintain relevancy and strategies for logistics leaders to achieve their net-zero ambitions.
Presented by Thomas Pocock, Senior Director, Advisory, Gartner
Chief Supply Chain Officers have an ever-growing list of objectives and career legacies they wish to leave behind, both of which are threatened by historically low (and stalling) labor productivity. In this session, Thomas Pocock, Senior Director, Advisory at Gartner, suggested a radical rethink of three key areas in order to reverse this productivity trend and unlock the supply chain’s potential.
“Supply chain leaders must reevaluate how they look at the individual, community and technological potential available to them in order to achieve a new peak of productivity to enable their objectives and break out of a pattern of low and stalling labor productivity.”
“It’s time to enable individual employees to achieve their full potential at work and in life by investing in radical flexibility.”
“In practice, organizations have embraced radical flexibility by breaking down projects into component skills, or even breaking down previous single roles into component parts for multiple people to fill.”
“Supply chain leaders must mobilize their people via micro or macro communities that meet the scale of the disruption of opportunity they’re facing with empowered decision-making.”
“To combat change anxiety and overload, supply chain leaders must design opportunities for humans and machines to learn from one another in a safe environment.”
Presented by Miguel Cossio, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner
The supply chain is losing its strategic importance among business partners after being thrown into the spotlight during the era of COVID-related disruptions. CSCOs must reinvent their function to secure a position of influence going forward. In this session, Miguel Cossio, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, highlighted four key areas of reinvention.
Key Takeaways
“Gartner research identified four areas where at least 80% of supply chain teams plan to have capabilities in place over the next five years including commercial innovation, human-centric work design, sustainability and real-time decision execution.”
“To reinvent for commercial innovation, supply chain organizations must move beyond focusing on customer satisfaction to focus instead on customer enablement. Enabled customers are twice as likely to send repurchase orders, yet only 23% of supply chain teams are focused on customer enablement today.”
“To reinvent for human-centric work design, supply chain organizations must offer an employee value proposition (EVP) centered on a “human deal” and one that offers individual flexibility at the employee level.”
“Reinventing the approach to sustainability outcomes means building supplier capabilities, especially in the pursuit of reducing emissions.”
“To reinvent for real-time decision execution, organizations can’t rely on technology alone. They must overcome cultural barriers and define a framework that allows for driving speed, especially on lower risk decisions.”
Presented by Laura Rainier, Senior Research Director, Gartner
While the desire to achieve net-zero goals has grown markedly among companies, realistic and tangible plans to achieve these goals have not kept pace with those ambitions. In this session, Laura Rainier, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, outlined a simple process for organizations to diagnose, respond and shape their net-zero plans into realities.
Key Takeaways
“By 2026, 80% of global enterprises with net-zero goals will restate interim milestones under stakeholder scrutiny of lack of progress and underinvestment.”
“Four uncertainties compound upon one another to complicate the achievement of net-zero goals: energy market decarbonization, technology innovation, finance strategies and partner capabilities.”
“87% of companies intend to increase investments in sustainability over the next two years, but they need a strategy to apply these investments effectively in such an uncertain environment.”
“Focus on a few big bets that have potential for major impact, but require investment and partnership. Balance the big bets with tactical choices that can produce short-term wins.”
“To accomplish their ambitions, leaders should seek to shape their operating context by shifting from a focus on maximizing value only for their organizations. Instead, leverage their ecosystems by building productive partnerships to create value for all parties.”
Tune back in tomorrow for more updates from the conference
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Justin Lavelle
Gartner
justin.lavelle@gartner.com
