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The challenges ahead for supply chains: McKinsey Global Survey results

Senior executives say their companies manage key trade-offs well, yet see barriers to better performance: rising risk, lack of collaboration, and low CEO involvement.

global supply chain survey article, manaing supply chains, Operations

In This Article

As economies around the world step back from the financial brink and begin adjusting to a new normal, companies face a different set of supply chain challenges than they did at the height of the downturn—among them are rising pressure from global competition, consumer expectations, and increasingly complex patterns of customer demand. Executives in this McKinsey survey1 are divided on their companies’ preparedness to meet those challenges, and fully two-thirds expect supply chain risk to increase. What’s more, the survey highlights troubling signs of struggle associated with key, underlying supply chain processes and capabilities, including the ability of different functions to collaborate, the role of CEOs in supply chain planning, and the extent to which companies gather and use information.

Notes

1 The online survey was in the field from October 12 to October 22, 2010, and received responses from 639 executives representing the full range of regions, industries, and tenures. At the C-level, the range of functional specialties is also represented.

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