A message to all supply chain professionals:

TRANSFORMING SUPPLY CHAIN TO 'RESPONSIBLE CHAIN'

‘Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.’ These were the words of Winston Churchill during WWII. The present situation too calls for supply chain professionals for being resilient in order to sail through efficiently and with dedication, which will only show how robust it laid the foundations of the value chain.

So, what is that Farm-to-Fork Supply Chain Management in simple traditional terms, and why is it more critical post the covid era? Supply Chain Management is the management of the flow of goods & services and includes all the processes that converts raw materials into final products for reaching to the end consumer. Behind every manufacturing process, from medicines to steel or clothes to food, will involve a seamless supply chain.

Examples of supply chain activities include farming, refining, design, manufacturing, demand planning, sales and operations planning, packaging, transportation and customer service.

Behind the success of any developed or developing nation efficient supply-chain management is critical because it increases competitiveness, responsiveness, and thereby customer satisfaction by reaching goods and services with quality & affordability.

However, all this is only something which is ideal of a perfect supply chain system. If we have to excel globally and attract new businesses for Making more in India, then we need to go several steps further to bring Customer Delight and make it a Responsible chain. And time is the key to bring that change - sooner all the more now.

Managing for Stakeholders and the Purpose of Business

Modern and complex supply chains to be sustainable in this competitive world will have multiple stakeholders who will be experts within their own domain of the larger supply chain. Then there are other critical stakeholders like the waste management companies, the warehouse and infrastructure operators, recycling companies, outsourced integrators and the consultants. Generally considered as the father of ‘Stakeholder Theory’, R. Edward Freeman in 1984 details that a firm should create value for all stakeholders, and not just for shareholders. In a paper published in 2008 ‘Managing for Stakeholders’ R.E. Freeman in its abstract writes: ‘The basic idea is that businesses, and the executives who manage them, actually do and should create value for customers, suppliers, employees, communities, and financiers (or shareholders). And, that we need to pay careful attention to how these relationships are managed and how value gets created for these stakeholders’.

Going a bit further in a 2017 paper ‘Managing for Stakeholders and the Purpose of Business’, R.E. Freeman and B.L. Parmar, both from University of Virgina, Darden School of Business further elaborate in its abstract, ‘Value here is understood as things that stakeholders value, which includes financial value as well as other forms of value (e.g., upholding values, treating people fairly, and improving the world).

So as always in a business the stakeholders are the customers, employees, investors, suppliers and vendors, the communities it is serving, and the governments. However, it is important to distinguish the ambitions and expectations of a shareholder in a sustainable business in today’s times. Whilst it is true that the financers, or the shareholders, who will have an interest in the performance of the supply chain organization are always stakeholders in a corporation, but we need to remember that all stakeholders are not necessarily the shareholders.

The supply chain businesses even though may give all its focus on its shareholders (not necessarily), but primarily has to focus on the community stakeholders if it needs to excel in this new world order. Improving the world, improving our community so that the consumers demands are fulfilled, and with delight, should now be the only focus.

Sharing Economy of 'Doing more with less'

In this era of sharing economy of ‘doing more with less’, which is the new business model, Responsible Supply Chain becomes much more important and which consumers would look forward to. We need to rebuild the existing supply chain system as a Responsible Chain, and we need to work very hard for this in the coming months and years. It took Japan almost two decades to become amongst the top economic powers with a brand-new robust economy after WWII. It was only with a highly dedicated and disciplined behaviour in the logistics systems, and not just technological progression, to develop an impeccable Responsible Chain which was completely self-reliant and which re-defined new world-class standards. Today Japan focuses only on ‘Customer Delight’, and not just ‘Customer Satisfaction’, in its Responsible Chain, with their spirit of Omotenashi in every step of the supply chain – anticipating the needs in its service to the consumer, bringing delight in every step.

To catch up at the right time, India government’s recognition of a strong and robust supply chain as a pillar of the country’s growth engine is commendable. The government giving high importance to demand, as its fifth pillar, and on strengthening all stake holders in the supply chain to fulfil the demand of consumers by utilizing to its full capacity and caring for the local community is indeed the need of the hour.

For India to be in the global stage as an economic super power, we need to work hard with dedication towards our field of choice, in order to be part of the global supply chains delivering services with finesse in the coming years thereby attracting more businesses for our country. We can get strength remembering Swami Vivekananda’s words ‘All power is within you, you can do anything and everything. Believe in that, do not believe that you are weak…. You can do anything and everything, without even the guidance of anyone…… Arise, Awake, Sleep no more.’

Anshuman Neil Basu
Secretary General