A Thanksgiving wish from America

Hello, World. I’m writing to you from Massachusetts, where the first Thanksgiving is supposed to have happened almost 400 years ago. I’ll assume there are very few readers in the United States today since they should all be asleep, catching up with family, or shopping.

So this is for everyone else: we are not crazy.

The US presidential election surprised a lot of people. Just like Brexit before and who knows what next, it’s part of the wrenching human process of dealing with change. Americans want to keep going, growing and giving their children a better future just like everyone else. The election was not as simple as you may think and we in the United States still believe in pretty much the same things we always have.

My wish this Thanksgiving is that we all give optimism a chance because, from a supply chain perspective at least, we’re already on the right track.

Environment

Climate change is real, and yet Donald Trump’s presidency promises a Federal government that won’t lead in this area. No matter; we in supply chain are going this way regardless of what the government says. In fact, 47% of the nearly 500 US-based respondents to our recent Future of Supply Chain survey say that they’re investing in renewable energy because it has financial payback.

An even larger share say they see payback from environmental waste reduction efforts (73%) and plenty see ROI in sustainable water management (43%) and carbon emission reductions (40%). Overall in fact, Americans are the most optimistic people in the world with respect to supply chain management’s ability to ensure long-term environmental sustainability.

A new president won’t radically change the winning economics of sustainability in supply chain.

Economy

Global trade is in decline and now with Trump in Washington, it looks likely to get worse. And yet, supply chain leaders have been on this path for at least the last five years. Local-for-local sourcing and production was emerging as early as 2012. Powerful trends in manufacturing technology, IP and data security risk and the cost of sourcing from China have steadily driven US manufacturers back home for some time now.

New data from our 2016 Future of Supply Chain survey shows that supply chain executives plan far more hiring than firing in the US over the next three years. Local-for-local supply chains are already being built and the economic growth that comes with them is likely to ease the pain of transition for people left out when manufacturing originally moved offshore.

The cure is already happening.

Plus, this story is not limited to the US. Even in high-cost Europe, where supply chain jobs are still disappearing, the rate of loss is starting to slow down, which suggests we could soon see a surge in local-for-local economic growth in place of the “Made in China” boom that defined the ‘90s and ‘00s.

Society

Anger, fear and resentment featured large in both the US presidential election and the Brexit campaign. And yet, in the grand sweep of history, we’re somehow missing the reality of human progress already in the bank. Nicholas Kristof’s September 22 editorial in The New York Times hailed the “stunning decline in human suffering… in the early 21^st century”.

• Until 1981, 44% of the world lived in extreme poverty. Now it’s less than 10%.
• Illiteracy worldwide was over 50% until the 1960s. Now it’s under 15%.
• Inequality is in global decline because of gains by the poor in China and India.

These gains happened in a world defined by the upheaval of two Great Wars. Brits outside of London and Americans off the coasts see a rising tide all around, but feel left out of the good times. They want respect for laying the original foundations of this post-1945 world.

The mechanics are already in place for a wonderful future. Let’s be thankful for that.