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ORLANDO, Fla., June 7, 2022

Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo Americas: Day 2 Highlights

We are bringing you news and highlights from the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo, taking place in Orlando through Wednesday. Below is a collection of the key announcements and insights coming out of the conference. You can read the highlights from Day 1 here.

On Day 2 from the conference, we are showcasing how customer centric supply chains contribute to growth, supply chain strategies to manage energy cost, security and decarbonization, results from our annual Top 25 North American University Programs and traits of leaders on our Supply Chain Top 25. Be sure to check this page throughout the day for updates.

 

Key Announcements

Put Your Supply Chain in the Driver’s Seat for Growth

Presented by Beth Coppinger, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner

Chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) feel pressure for growth from their CEOs, and pressure from customers to meet expanding expectations. To win competitive advantage, CSCOs must innovate supply chain solutions and services. In this session, Beth Coppinger, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, explored how a customer-centric supply chain contributes to customer loyalty and enterprise growth.

Key Takeaways

  • “The widespread nature of current risk events and their relentless disruption to supply chains has ushered in an unfamiliar market dynamic where the limits to enterprise growth are no longer defined by innovation, but instead by the sheer unavailability of supply. This is resulting in the supply chain occupying a more visible, prominent role in driving the enterprise’s top line.”
  • “Job #1 is to ensure customer satisfaction to mitigate disloyalty. When supply chains deliver high-quality products on time in a convenient way, and resolve issues thoroughly, customers are 30% more likely to repurchase than when the supply chain fails to satisfy.”
  • “Creating competitive advantage requires supply chains to invest in customer enablement. Job #2 for the supply chain is to move beyond satisfaction to understand and empathize with customer needs, and then design services and offerings around enabling customers to achieve their goals.”
  • “The prominence of the supply chain's influence on customer purchase decisions can no longer be ignored.”
  • “The key to driving growth is to combine the capabilities for delivering customer satisfaction with the capabilities to enable the customer. This represents a massive opportunity since most customers today are not enabled, and the range for innovation to gain competitive advantage is extremely wide.”

Supply Chain Strategies to Manage Energy Cost, Security and Decarbonization

Presented by Sarah Watt, VP Analyst, Gartner 

Supply Chain leaders are faced with the challenge of balancing a dynamic equation of increasing energy cost, energy security threats, and meeting ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. In this session, Sarah Watt, VP Analyst at Gartner, explored how CSCOs and their teams can put in place an energy offset strategy for their operations and value chains.

Key Takeaways

  • “Energy costs drive inflation across supply chains. Tracking energy costs for strategic materials can give early indication of price increases, improving decision making.” 
  • “Both cyber and physical security pose a threat to energy availability for supply chains. Supply chain leaders are not managing these risks holistically - 59% of leaders do not have plans to converge their physical and cyber risk approaches in operations.” 
  • “CSCOs need to proactively ensure their own operational energy security by implementing self-generation projects. They cannot expect to solely rely on the grid as they have done in previous years."
  • “The energy system itself is transforming to become more digitalized, decentralized, democratized and decarbonized.” 
  • “Companies are increasingly setting more ambitious emissions reduction goals, and committing to net zero. For example, over 90% of the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 companies and masters have set science based targets.”
  • “Shift from emissions data reporting to forecasting and budgeting. Supply chain leaders need to know today their capability of achieving emissions reduction goals in the future and where the gaps are.” 

Gartner’s 2022 Top 25 North American Programs Revealed

Presented by Dana Stiffler, Distinguished VP Analyst, Gartner, and Caroline Chumakov, Senior Principal Analyst, Gartner

In this session, Gartner analyst Dana Stiffler and Caroline Chumakov revealed the Top 25 North American supply chain university programs, two years into their own reinvention that has cemented the importance of hybrid and virtual education.

Key Takeaways

  • “The education landscape went through a massive transformation during the pandemic - students and faculty went home overnight. This has affected the ranking methodology as well. While our 2020 project covered on-campus and hybrid programs, we now evaluated 100% online programs as well.”
  • The university programs reveal three big trends:
    • Improvements in diversity, equity and inclusion
    • Increasing compensation
    • Bigger focus on sustainability and risk management
  • “Use objective criteria to pick the best program for your organization. Pick your top priorities - such as diversity of applicant pool and historical offer acceptance rate - and rate the schools based on those criteria.” 
  • “To make the most out of their university partnerships, supply chain leaders should own and drive the program.”
  • “The landscape is always changing. Make sure to look at programs beyond the Top 25 and reach out to new programs on a regular basis.”

Keynote: Unlocking the Potential of the Supply Chain: Lessons from Top 25 Leaders

Presented by Pia Orup Lund, Director Analyst, Gartner, and Chris Poole, Practice VP, Gartner

As supply chains take center stage in organizations, expectations around the value they deliver are accelerating. Pia Orup Lund, Director Analyst at Gartner, and Chris Poole, Practice VP at Gartner, discussed the traits of leaders and which macro trends will unlock the potential of the supply chain.

Key Takeaways

  • “CFOs are requiring supply chains to balance strategic cost optimization and digital business acceleration.”
  • “Seventy-four percent of supply chain leaders expect to support new business models by the end of 2022.”
  • The DNA of Supply Chain leaders is changing:
    • 42% of CSCOs are under pressure to maintain current margins and profitability and achieve targets for sustainability, speed, innovation.
    • 60% of CSCOs are expected to make faster, more accurate decisions, in real time.
    • 67% of organizations have defined environmental and social sustainability KPIs they expect SC leaders to be accountable for.
  • Four macro trends influencing supply chain leaders:
    • CSCO as Chief Ecosystem Officer: By 2026 more than 50% of organizations will compete as collaborative digital ecosystems.
    • Self-stabilizing Supply Chains: modular supply chain solutions will enable CSCOs to make faster, more accurate decisions in real time. 
    • Authentic Achievements in ESG: Sixty-three percent of Gartner Supply Chain  Top 25 companies and masters score 10/10 on ESG.
    • Human-centric digital automation: Leaders focus on reducing cognitive overload and make the development of a new employee value proposition a top priority. 
View coverage from Day 1
View coverage from Day 2

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective insight to executives and their teams. Our expert guidance and tools enable faster, smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organization’s mission-critical priorities. To learn more, visit gartner.com.

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