VOLUME 41 • NUMBER

We have to ask not only whether our customer will be here tomorrow but how robust are our suppliers and are they able to weather the storm? The growth in globalisation has been fuelled by an insatiable need for greater growth, which has led to a continuous drive for cost reduction, to the point where fewer businesses have the wherewithal to weather the sort of ‘storms’ we’re seeing.

A supply chain is just that, a chain of individual links, only as strong as its weakest part. What responsibility are we each taking for ensuring that the other parts of the chain are strong? Many of us have corporate values stating our commitment to valuing and treating suppliers fairly, but what is the reality on the ground?

If the hypothesis in some small way proves to be true, where does this leave us? They say the biggest fish are found in muddy waters. If we have based and run our companies on solid fundamentals and have nurtured a culture of adaptability, opportunities will be found. There is a reasonable expectation that we could see higher inflation in the future. For those with the reserves, now might be the time to invest.

THE RIGHT PRICE John Ruskin, the prominent 19th century social thinker, said: “It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that’s all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

Is now the time to invest in the integrity of the supply chain? This will cost short-term profits but will ensure those links with the right commitment to the rest of the chain are strong and dependable.

It may also become more important than ever to proactively decide which partners, both customers and suppliers, you link yourselves to and whether they have the financial fitness to, at the very least, ride out any storms ahead. In choppy waters none of us needs the weight of others who can’t carry their own commitments. www.mslogisticsltd.com