Think Globally. Act Locally.

Davos, officially known as the World Economic Forum, just wrapped up.

The annual meeting is an event where a couple of thousand people getting together and try to solve the world’s problems.  Quoting directly from the legal charter, The World Economic Forum “is an independent organization committed to improving the state of the world.”  These people are not timid in their ambitions.

This year, their report is over a hundred pages long.  According to the report, the five most likely risks are: 

• extreme weather conditions
• failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation
• natural disasters
• data fraud or theft
• cyber-attacks.

The top five in terms of impact are:

• weapons of mass destruction
• failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation
• extreme weather events
• water crises
• natural disasters.

Together these items are a good list.  There is a very important point worth noting: only two of the ten are cyber threats.  Go poke around on the web, search for Supply Chain Risk, and odds are the references will lead to articles on cyber threats.  There is a disconnect in our discourse.

Logisticians need to figure out how to mitigate Supply Chain Risk in operations, not just cyber.  Our challenge is at the micro economic operational level.  The one of the world point of view belongs to Davos.  We can consider how to mitigate the impact of extreme weather, the implications of climate change on logistics, disaster response protocols, water, and natural disasters.  Every one of these operational risks cascades down to the tactical level.

Supply Chain Risk Management is about managing and mitigating these risks across the spectrum.  Supply Chain Risk Management is bigger than cyber.  Supply Chain Risk Management belongs to the operators, not the technical staff.