In a Fragmented World, It’s Technology That Brings Us Together
By Christian Klein Chief Executive Officer, SAP SE
Originally published by World Economic Forum
Globalisation has made our supply chains more complex and, as a result, also more vulnerable. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 94% of Fortune 1,000 companies were struggling with supply chain issues. Climate change, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and geopolitical tensions worldwide have shown the limits of our current economic models, with the impact of this hitting the agricultural, energy and hi-tech industries particularly hard.
Resilient supply chains have, therefore, become a priority, and technology the enabler: where linear one-to-one connections are prone to disruptions, networks of many-to-many connections allow companies to collaborate with partners along their value chain and exchange data in real-time. The 360-degree transparency across the entire value chain provides businesses with the flexibility and resilience to navigate even in the most dynamic environments. They can anticipate risks and manage sourcing, trading and distribution all the way to the consumer. They can optimise inventories, match supply and demand, and identify bottlenecks before they even occur. In case of supply chain disruptions, companies can quickly select alternative or more sustainable suppliers.
