Supply Chain Blog
From Athletic Powerhouse to Strategic Restructuring Under Armour‘s journey from a garage startup to a $5 billion athletic apparel giant is well-documented. However, the company’s recent struggles offer a sobering lesson in how supply chain vulnerabilities can amplify during periods of organizational decline and restructuring. As the Baltimore based company faces its most challenging period…
In the competitive landscape of supply chain technology, vendors frequently dangle the carrot of “free pilot programs” to entice potential customers. These seemingly generous offers promise risk-free trials of cutting-edge solutions, from AI-powered demand forecasting to blockchain-enabled traceability platforms. But as seasoned supply chain professionals know, nothing in business truly comes without a price tag,…
For decades, supply chains were viewed as necessary evils, back-office operations focused purely on cost reduction and efficiency. But visionary companies like Walmart, Amazon, Apple, and Zara changed that narrative, proving that supply chain excellence could become a powerful competitive differentiator. Today, few companies exemplify this transformation better than Procter & Gamble, whose “One Supply…
In the competitive world of sporting goods retail, inventory management and operational efficiency can make or break a business. Decathlon, the French multinational sporting goods retailer with over 1,500 stores worldwide, recognized this challenge early and embarked on an ambitious digital transformation journey that would position them as a global leader in retail technology adoption….
As global trade enters the next chapter of digitization, a silent yet powerful legal instrument is reshaping the way we exchange, finance, and secure goods across borders: the UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) has created the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR). While not as publicly celebrated as blockchain or AI,…
A supply chain leader’s perspective on Eric Kimberling’s “Final Countdown: Strategies to Reach the Third Stage of Digital Transformation“ The supply chain world is drowning in digital transformation promises. Every vendor claims their solution will revolutionize your operations. Every conference speaker talks about AI-powered forecasting, blockchain transparency, and IoT-enabled visibility. Yet despite billions invested in…
Last year, I was sitting in yet another vendor demo for a process mining platform. The price tag? 6-figure$ for the first year, plus implementation costs. The sales rep was enthusiastic about their revolutionary(!) capabilities, but I couldn’t help thinking: “I could build something more tailored for a fraction of this cost.“ That’s when it…
“A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world,” wrote master storyteller John le Carré, and nowhere does this observation ring truer than in modern supply chain management. In an era where global supply networks span continents and encompass thousands of touchpoints, the supply chain executive who remains tethered to their office…
In ancient Greece, historian Thucydides observed that “the growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.” This phenomenon, now known as the Thucydides Trap, describes the dangerous dynamic when a rising power threatens to displace an established hegemon. While Harvard’s Thucydides Trap Project found that 12…
Introduction Information-feedback control systems are the backbone of all life and human activity, from biological evolution to advanced technological systems. As Jay W. Forrester, the pioneer of system dynamics, once said: “Everything we do as individuals, as an industry, or as a society is done in the context of an information-feedback system.” This principle is…