Our World View
Supply chain management is a journey. And continued progress along the journey comes from recognizing that landscapes evolve and change over time – and adapting supply chain strategies accordingly.
We believe it is time for a fresh perspective. That does not mean everything you learned up to this point is irrelevant. It simply means that sometimes you’ve got to step outside to see what’s happening inside and around you. We call this a “parallax view.”
The key elements of our World View can be summarized as follows:
Supply Chains are strategic— and the best CEOs completely get it.
- Michael Dell got it. Sam Walton got it. That supply chains are not only about controlling costs. It is about building an unassailable competitive advantage. It is about agility and a sustainable differentiation. It is about gaining market share and shareholder value. Supply chain is the key.
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The enterprise-centric view of supply chains and technology is obsolete.
- A business strategy without an end-to-end perspective on the supply chain is myopic. As the enterprise “dis-integrates” due to outsourcing, processes must be skillfully linked together across enterprises to function as a virtual, integrated ecosystem.
- This brings about the advent of new software architectures and networked applications to support the scalability, security, and dynamism required for this many-to-many world.
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Cross-functional, end-to-end, multi-disciplinary thinking is the way to go.
- We have broken down the silos and barriers between functional departments, but need to go further. The next frontier needs to break the barriers between enterprises, professions, industries, and countries.
- New ideas are more likely to come from outside your sphere of influence. Industry leaders seldom look within to find ways to raise the ante.
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Hands-on “in-the-trenches” experience beats “ivory tower” theory.
- Not only do we do a great deal of primary research via direct, extensive interviews with end-users who are actually making things work, but we also roll up our sleeves and get involved in supply chain projects.
- ChainLink pursues and attracts supply chain leaders who have spent decades creating and working out the kinks in the world’s best run supply chain’s to be a part of our team.
- And we keep our “ear to the ground” through deep partnerships with the leading industry organizations where supply chain practitioners meet with peers to discuss and solve problems.
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Supply chain practitioners are as smart as supply chain analysts (often smarter!)
- There is a lot of knowledge already out there. But sometimes it requires new views and vocabulary to re-frame the existing dialog and lay the groundwork for the next generation of supply chain successes.
- ChainLink’s job is to synthesize the best from across the world, and facilitate a DIALOG – instead of lecturing you. We don’t claim to have all the answers. Even if we did, that would be the easy part.
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Inspiration and encouragement are vital to progress.
- Most of the easy problems in supply chain have been fixed. There isn’t much low-hanging fruit left. Getting to the next level of value creation requires vision and courage.
- If we invest in People as much as we have invested in Supply Chain Technology to date, we will discover that we have yet to fully leverage our most valuable assets to managing complexity.
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Small businesses are as important as large ones.
- They have their strengths too. Small businesses can be nimble, and are often the drivers of Innovation and next wave of progress.
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