Supply Chain Leadership For Change

The retail marketplace supply chain is in a perfect position to help retailers and the related service providers to sense and respond to the changing marketplace because of the supply chain experience with change.  The supply chain is uniquely prepared to lead their retail partners in their efforts to change in reaction to the market through the guidance and the implementation of programs that have allowed the supply chain to successfully navigate the changes that have buffeted the supply chain for years now.  These same programs and practices that allowed the supply chain to sense and respond to changes can be swiftly implemented in the the retail collaborative network to allow the retail network partners to sense and respond to the changes impacting the retail market and most importantly help the retail partners to successfully react to the velocity of change as well.

There are two key strengths in the the supply chain network that can lead the retail change;

1. The breadth and depth of the supply chain collaborative network and especially the strength of the collaborative and inclusive practices that allow the supply chain collaborative network to quickly and efficiently react changing demands.
2. The technology that has been integrated in the supply chain collaborative network and especially the execution across the the supply chain that supports integration, communication and transparency in the practices and activities both supporting and interacting with the supply chain.

Retailers would be well served to fully engage with the supply chain network and most importantly to ask for the help of the supply chain partners in building the retail market collaborative network as an extension of the supply chain collaborative network.  

It is frankly a little silly for retailers to build a network from scratch when there is a robust model of a collaborative network that retailers can engage to extend.  Supply chain leaders would be foolish not to push for the extension of the supply chain network in support of retail market demands and more importantly, retailers would be foolish if they do not also partner with the supply chain leaders to extend the network. The genius of the supply chain network is the framework that focuses on and supports collaborative connectivity that is inclusive and open based on an open technology that can be supported and ‘owned’ collaboratively.  The supply chain network focuses on a concept of collaboration and is therefore built on a framework of open technology based on Internet standards that supports speed and ease of integration and communication.

Retailers cannot afford now to stay with the ‘not invented here’ practices when developing the retail network and would be well served to follow the leadership of the supply chain leaders and extend the framework of the supply chain collaborative network to support the retail market change demands.  This requires changing the retailer viewpoint to understand the importance of the supply chain network in supporting the retail market demands. The same technology and especially Internet of Things that has been harnessed by the supply chain can easily and quickly be harnessed by retailers with the help and guidance of the supply chain partners and supply chain collaborative network.