3 Takeaways From Gartner’s Supply Chain Symposium

The supply chain is the circulatory system of global commerce and is foundational to the manufacturing industry. Every year Gartner hosts its Supply Chain Symposium to gather supply chain and business leaders together to provide strategic insights into the supply chain of today and tomorrow. I was excited to attend the show last week to talk to experts from both Gartner and the industry at large — and what I learned matches up with the insights gleaned from our 2022 State of Manufacturing Report.

Here are my top 3 takeaways from Gartner’s Xpo:

Coping With The Current Environment Is Out, Deploying Offset Strategies Is In

Ken Chadwick, Research VP at Gartner gave the Symposium keynote, spoke about the urgent challenges facing supply chain professionals, and provided sage advice for overcoming them. Chadwick said that supply chain teams must adjust to an evolving global environment by developing and deploying offset strategies to gain a competitive advantage. How? By sensing what’s going on around you, shifting your approach, and steering the business in the right direction to navigate effectively moving forward.

Designing For Flexibility Is How You Win

Microsoft’s keynote was all about digitally transforming supply chains to make them more resilient and sustainable. The company presented a case study that showed how its suite of supply chain technologies utilizes a composite architecture to enable companies to design systems and build teams that adapted and thrived over the last three years.

Technology Will Forge Supply Chains Of The Future

The overall tenor of the event was that the global supply chain still faces many challenges, but there are solutions, for leaders with the vision and will to implement them. It’s clear that the need for technology has never been higher — it’s how we build a more resilient and agile global supply chain, and in turn more innovative, sustainable, and successful businesses.