13 Mar 2018 - Leadership Behaviours for Next Generation Supply Chains - Securing the success of strategic supply chain initiatives today and for tomorrow (interim research report).

“Change stalks the world. New business models and disruptive technologies (think Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, eBay etc.), which define a markedly different ‘normal', for instance.

A workforce—Generation X, Y, or Z – which has very different views of what constitutes leadership, and acceptable working practices. A competitive paradigm that forces business leaders to deliver results today, while simultaneously building a future-proof business for tomorrow. And a value-creation orientation which demands a supply chain that can do and deliver far more than simply low-cost logistics.

 The new disruptors don't just dominate, they define an agenda with which traditional businesses struggle to engage. The result: a significant proportion of strategic supply chain initiatives fail to deliver. According to research published by EFESO Management Consultants in association with Cranfield School of Management in 2012, just 2% of supply chain strategies are implemented smoothly, on time and on budget, with two-thirds being either abandoned or suffering significant implementation difficulties.

Why was the failure rate so high? Technical issues constituted just 20% of the identified barriers to success. Issues with leadership and human dynamics, on the other hand, made up the other 80%.

Five years on from this 2012 publication, EFESO and Cranfield School of Management agreed to once again collaborate to update this important research, probing in more depth the links between the human dynamics, leadership, and managerial characteristics surrounding the implementation of strategic supply chain initiatives, and the success of those initiatives’ subsequent implementations.                    

New kinds of leadership and behaviours are required to orchestrate and deliver successful change across the Next Generation of Supply Chains. This work highlights the changing role of supply chain leaders and suggests a revised set of skills and leadership behaviours that are required to secure success – today and for tomorrow.”

Read the full report here: