Thoughts from Gartner’s Supply Chain Conference

“Supply chain led the decade.” So declared Debra Hofman and Noha Tohamy to kick off Gartner’s Supply Chain Executive Conference in Phoenix on Monday. Hofman and Tohamy are both vice presidents of research at the analyst firm. The annual event here in the desert brings together supply chain leaders from around the globe – so far this year, I’ve heard presentations from supply chain executives from Schneider Electric, Colgate Palmolive, GlaxoSmithKline, and 3M, to name just four.

While Hofman and Tohamy presented a number of impressive bullets to illustrate their contention, at the bottom what they were really talking about is that supply chain has evolved from a logistics-focused cost of doing business – although it still includes logistics – to an enabler of business strategy. In fact, at the end of her remarks, Tohamy encouraged attendees to “Be bold and go beyond the focus on cost to be enablers of new processes and businesses.”

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