LEADING CHANGE IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN
Insights from Jorn Fokkens, Change Leader at Wipro
Jorn Fokkens, Change Leader at Wipro, brings a wealth of expertise in driving large-scale transformations within the supply chain sector. With a career that spans over a decade, Jorn has become a key figure in implementing innovative solutions that help businesses adapt to the rapidly changing landscape of global supply chains. In this interview, Jorn discusses how WiproFalcon is leveraging blockchain, AI, and digital product passports to enhance supply chain efficiency, resilience, and sustainability. He also shares his approach to navigating industry-wide challenges, building cross-industry collaborations, and guiding clients through complex digital transformations.
Professional Journey
Can you share your career path and what led you to your current role as Change Leader at Wipro?
My challenge has always been that I have a broad range of interests and a desire to understand the mechanics behind systems—whether it’s an institution, company, historical event, or industry. I’ve always been fascinated by how systems work and what makes them thrive or fail. This curiosity made starting my career challenging because I was more of a generalist than a specialist. I also resisted being ‘cloned’ into one of the established leaders because I saw leadership as putting the mechanics of the system in place.
At the time, there wasn’t a formal field of change management. I essentially watched that discipline grow from its inception, evolving to the point where we began saying, “change is the only constant.” Initially, I was involved in technology change and implementations, but over time the focus shifted to adoption challenges as technology became commoditised. Getting people to adopt new ways of working, including new technologies, became the typical assignments I got involved with.
As problems grew more complex, so did change leadership. My fascination with complexity expanded as I saw the systemic challenges shift from individual issues to company-level challenges, and eventually to global, interconnected systems. We could no longer solve all pain points at the company level because companies are now part of a larger, global economic ecosystem. Seeing the mechanisms in action is one thing, but they’re often beyond your direct influence.
In the fall of 2022, I was asked to take on what seemed like an impossible task. I was asked if I could build a solution to address existing pain points across an entire industry, where the technical solution hadn’t even been defined, and to do so in just six months as an innovation play. Naturally, the challenge was immense, but it aligned with my vision of understanding the interdependencies of systems. This marked the beginning of my expanded role in leading ecosystem change.
Supply Chain Leadership
As Change Leader for Supply Chain Innovation at Wipro, how do you define the objectives of this change, and what are its primary focus areas?
Supply chain is a discipline that naturally spans across companies. Organisations with complex supply chain processes constantly work to optimise these systems for greater efficiency, but they do so within their own company’s reach and boundaries. Whether it involves technology, inventory, automation, procurement, contracting, or ways of working, leaner supply chain processes help companies become more cost-effective. However, the scope of these improvements typically stops at the company’s limits, with solutions focused on internal processes and users.
End-to-end supply chain mechanisms, however, concern many companies. This interdependent operation operates on a broader level. In our economic and enterprise thinking, we are often trained not to focus on addressing pain points for other companies. This means that solutions tend to be isolated to ‘your’ company, without considering the “weakest link” in the entire chain. The objective our team was given was to think beyond a single enterprise and create a technology solution that would serve multiple roles across companies, each playing a part in the broader supply chain ecosystem. The goal was to design a solution that would benefit four key players in the supply chain ecosystem with a single platform. This approach to change was a significant shift, mainly because it involved aligning stakeholders across different organisations.
A primary focus has been to define the most common pain points for all these roles in a way that a technology solution could address them and provide value to all parties involved. In tackling an ecosystem, it takes time to identify the right stakeholders, build relationships, understand their challenges, foster cross-company collaboration, and define use cases that would address the most widespread issues. Unfortunately, time was not on our side. Our team was assigned a company-level task with tight deadlines, which meant we had to be incredibly creative in exploring the best possible journey to involve ecosystem players and define the most critical use cases quickly. Our goal was to show the world a working product, not just a theory.
Digital Transformation in Supply Chain
How is WiproFalcon leveraging digital technologies to enhance efficiency and innovation within the supply chain process?
Supply chain is a discipline that naturally spans across companies. Organisations with complex supply chain processes constantly work to optimise these systems for greater efficiency, but they do so within their own company’s reach and boundaries. Whether it involves technology, inventory, automation, procurement, contracting, or ways of working, leaner supply chain processes help companies become more cost-effective. However, the scope of these improvements typically stops at the company’s limits, with solutions focused on internal processes and users.
End-to-end supply chain mechanisms, however, concern many companies. This interdependent operation operates on a broader level. In our economic and enterprise thinking, we are often trained not to focus on addressing pain points for other companies. This means that solutions tend to be isolated to ‘your’ company, without considering the “weakest link” in the entire chain.
The objective our team was given was to think beyond a single enterprise and create a technology solution that would serve multiple roles across companies, each playing a part in the broader supply chain ecosystem. The goal was to design a solution that would benefit four key players in the supply chain ecosystem with a single platform. This approach to change was a significant shift, mainly because it involved aligning stakeholders across different organisations.
A primary focus has been to define the most common pain points for all these roles in a way that a technology solution could address them and provide value to all parties involved. In tackling an ecosystem, it takes time to identify the right stakeholders, build relationships, understand their challenges, foster cross-company collaboration, and define use cases that would address the most widespread issues. Unfortunately, time was not on our side. Our team was assigned a company-level task with tight deadlines, which meant we had to be incredibly creative in exploring the best possible journey to involve ecosystem players and define the most critical use cases quickly. Our goal was to show the world a working product, not just a theory.
Sustainability Initiatives:
In what ways is WiproFalcon assisting clients in integrating sustainable practices into their industrial operations?
The Falcon solution for supply chains addresses several aspects of sustainability. One of the immediate benefits of digitisation is the reduction of paper usage. With manual and paperbased approval and authorisation processes eliminated, we save significant amounts of paper as documents no longer need to be physically moved between companies. This shift directly contributes to sustainability efforts.
More specifically, focusing on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals, we see that both companies and regulators are increasingly targeting CO2 footprint reduction, especially in manufacturing processes, transportation, and the reuse of components beyond the product lifecycle. Our Falcon Digital Product Passports enable the tracking, tracing, and monitoring of every step in the process, including the justification of ESG targets and requirements.
Furthermore, thanks to our blockchain technology, this process is fully auditable, with an immutable history recorded on the blockchain. This ensures no greenwashing and provides actual proof of compliance with legislator requirements. Sustainability is now more than just a goal—it is an accountable, traceable process that holds supply chain partners to account in adhering to ESG sustainability targets. At WiproFalcon, we support companies in achieving this, overseeing the endto-end process at the product lifecycle level and bringing transparency to sustainability at an industry-wide scale.
Client Collaboration Strategies
What approaches does WiproFalcon employ to ensure successful collaboration with clients during large-scale digital transformation projects?
WiproFalcon’s approach is to position an innovative SaaS-based platform at the heart of a company’s supply chain operations, enabling collaboration across their supply chain partners. My guiding principle from the outset of this journey has been to innovate WITH the industry and FOR the industry.
Our clients increasingly request consultancy services in the form of partnerships. They seek long-term relationships, shared risk-taking, and shared revenue models. This shift towards long-term thinking aligns perfectly with my vision of co-creating sustainable technology solutions at the ecosystem level to achieve economies of scale. Only by working at this level can we create meaningful impact for both clients—improving profitability, efficiencies, and reputation—and for the planet—promoting sustainability, responsible sourcing, and transparent manufacturing.
With a heightened consciousness across the supply chain and accessible contributions to common goals, large-scale transformations are better embraced, and people are more willing to contribute by adopting new ways of working. Additionally, once core platform functionality is adopted by our clients, facilitating improved cross-company collaboration, the willingness to continue co-innovating grows. For me, this approach uncovers new opportunities for change management. We are transforming ourselves into champions of change leadership at the industry or ecosystem level. This involves full 360-degree stakeholder engagement across supply chain partners, collaborating to co-develop next-level use cases and functionality that benefit all parties, including consumers and the planet.
Navigating Economic Challenges
Given the current economic climate, how is WiproFalcon adapting its strategies to continue delivering value to clients?
As Einstein famously stated, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” I believe that the current economic climate demands a shift in how we approach solutions. Siloed, company-only strategies simply won’t cut it anymore. When one company finds a solution that works, others tend to follow suit. It is much more effective to understand the economic problems at an interdependency level and address them collectively beyond the boundaries of any single company.
One of the approaches I advocate for is innovating the way we ask questions. By utilising smart AI to construct industry-level questions, we can identify both the pain points and ambitions of various players, as well as their capabilities. This allows us to define common ground and adopt solutions that benefit the largest possible audience. Once we’ve identified this, we build.
This shift in thinking—towards a more interconnected and collective approach—helps us bring value to clients by also creating value for their partners, all within the same ecosystem. By adopting this mindset, we create solutions that are not only effective but have a broader impact, benefiting everyone in the network.
Future Trends in Supply Chain Innovation
Looking ahead, what emerging trends do you anticipate will significantly impact supply chain innovation, and how is Wipro preparing to address these developments?
Supply chains are, by definition, global. Today, we not only face a global economy, but also global and geographical challenges. Recent history has taught us that we must contend with wars, unrest, scarcity, blocked canals, shifting policies, unpredictable trade wars, and embargoes, to name just a few. Despite these challenges, as consumers, we still expect products to be available in stores; as enterprises, we still need to offer products; and as suppliers, we still need to deliver goods on time, at the best possible price.
An emerging trend in the supply chain is to think in terms of ‘adaptive’ or ‘resilient’ supply chains. Once a solid, functioning industry platform is in place with base functionality, the question becomes: can we enhance it with AI to predict the most efficient manufacturing sites, the best production technologies, and the smartest transportation routes across the globe? Additionally, how can we course-correct in real-time based on algorithms that track geopolitical trends?
Technologies like smart warehousing, spare part solutions, predictive maintenance, Digital Twin, programmable payments, and multi-token networks are all contributing to minimising operational downtime, ensuring on-time delivery at reasonable prices, and aligning with sustainability goals. To make this work, it requires collective brainpower and smart, coordinated solution development across industry players.
Wipro is preparing for these developments by focusing on building adaptable solutions that integrate AI and advanced technologies to support predictive, resilient, and sustainable supply chains. By leveraging this collective intelligence, we can create a more agile and efficient supply chain ecosystem that can better withstand global challenges while continuing to deliver value to businesses and customers.
Advice for Aspiring Leaders
Drawing from your experience, what guidance would you offer to individuals aspiring to leadership roles in the consulting industry?
The consulting industry is constantly evolving, and to stay relevant, we must adapt and innovate. We have more data and technology at our disposal than ever before, and we face more complex challenges and customer demands than in the past. Yet, consulting is often hindered by conservatism and outdated business models. If you aspire to a leadership role in consulting, it’s essential to be someone who can change the game. You can no longer advise clients on adopting new strategies or operational models without doing the same within your own organisation. The rise of AI is forcing the consulting industry to adopt these technologies, but it’s important to note that this is not simply about incorporating a new tool. As a leader in consulting, you must be able to foresee the long-term consequences of adopting AI, for example, and understand what unique value you can bring to your clients that they haven’t already considered.
In my view, the consultancy of the future will thrive on innovation, strategic partnerships, long-term engagements, shared risk/revenue models, and large-scale problem-solving with cross-stakeholder collaboration at its core. This is where consulting still holds relevance and meaning for our clients. However, one of the biggest challenges in consultancy leadership is driving change within your own company. It’s difficult to challenge the status quo in your own organisation, to rethink and eliminate non-value-adding internal processes. Standing firm for a new paradigm when support is lacking can be tough. But this, I believe, is what defines true leadership and innovation. My advice to aspiring leaders is to surround yourself with like-minded pioneers, regardless of their level, company, region, or discipline. We owe it to our talent, our clients, and to a world in desperate need of change.
Supply Chain Transformation Strategies
WiproFalcon emphasises building resilient, efficient, and intelligent supply chains. How do you approach designing and implementing these transformation strategies for clients?
At WiproFalcon, we begin by building strong relationships within the industry, starting with a firstmover enterprise to develop initial use cases. We needed to show the industry a working product first—what we consider a beta version. This initial phase involved orchestrating sounding board mechanisms to better understand the broader community’s pain points related to supply chains. By engaging with a variety of stakeholders across different companies, we gained valuable insights and requirements that were consistently added to our development backlog. The art of advancing new functionalities or use cases lies in identifying the biggest common denominators that serve supply chain stakeholders across industries. It’s essential to ensure that every voice is heard in our design process. This approach allowed us to create a solution that addresses a wide range of needs and is adaptable to various industries.
As we continued our efforts, we started to see patterns emerge at the ecosystem level. Over time, by building trust through strong relationships, solid delivery, a proven product, and diversified stakeholder engagement, our team gained access to more strategic-level conversations. These insights were often more visionary and longer-term in nature. It was at this point in our journey that discussions around resilient and intelligent supply chains started to take shape. This is powerful because it takes a robust foundation and proven track record to reach this level of dialogue. We realised that many supply chain partners were seeking similar solutions, but were only discussing them in isolation. I believe that a neutral body like our Falcon Team is well-positioned to sit at the overarching level, connect the dots, and design the ecosystem strategy for a more integrated and collaborative approach.
Blockchain Implementation in Supply Chains
You’ve been involved in developing blockchain-based digital passports for the energy sector. Can you discuss the benefits and challenges of implementing blockchain solutions in supply chains?
Blockchain technology has various applications, from financial transactions to smart contracts, but one of the most impactful uses in supply chains is the development of blockchain-based Digital Product Passports. These digital passports track the lifecycle of assets or components, providing companies with a detailed, immutable record of each item’s history from production to end-of-life. This ensures total lifecycle traceability and transparency, which is especially valuable in industries like medical device manufacturing, where verifying the authenticity and history of components is critical for safety and compliance.
For example, when a purchase order is placed, any components can be assigned a digital passport. As these components move from the buyer to suppliers, manufacturers, and eventually to energy providers as completed devices, each transfer or inspection is recorded as a new transaction on the blockchain. This creates a comprehensive, tamper-proof history of each component’s journey, enhancing the overall transparency and accountability of the supply chain.
This level of detail is crucial for quality assurance and control. It enables device manufacturers to quickly identify and resolve issues with specific batches of components, should they arise. In the event of a recall, the blockchain ledger can be used to trace the affected components’ paths back through the supply chain, allowing for a more targeted and efficient response that improves patient safety and ensures regulatory compliance.
While the implementation of blockchain itself is not particularly challenging, as we run a SaaS platform that facilitates onboarding parties, the adoption of this new way of working presents the real challenge. Blockchain brings transparency and traceability, which are generally positive attributes for most parties, but for some, it may also imply exposure. Overcoming this resistance to change and ensuring that all stakeholders embrace this new technology is essential to its successful implementation.
Cross-Industry Innovation
How does WiproFalcon facilitate cross-industry innovation in supply chain management, and what advantages does this approach offer to clients?
At WiproFalcon, we’ve gained valuable experience in supply chain management from both a technology solution standpoint and an ecosystem perspective. This experience has allowed us to quickly learn what it takes to promote and support the adoption of new solutions. It’s unique knowledge that we can leverage to make our offerings more efficient and to streamline the adoption process for our clients.One key advantage of our approach is our push towards standardisation. When each supply chain partner has its own processes and data definitions for the same product or process, it can create unnecessary complications, inefficiencies, and delays. By encouraging all parties to adopt a shared standard, each participant may initially put in extra effort to align their processes, but the long-term benefits are clear. Once adopted, this standardisation significantly improves operational efficiency, elevating the entire supply chain to a higher level of performance.
With this foundation in place, we can continue to grow and mature supply chains to become smarter, more intelligent, and resilient. This, in turn, drives improved sustainability, helps clients achieve their ESG targets, enhances their reputation, and ensures clear accountability in relation to regulatory compliance.
Another interesting insight is that, despite initial perceptions, supply chains across industries do not differ as much as we once thought. This has allowed us to create a fairly robust ‘global template’ for ecosystem supply chains. Customising this template for other industries is now a far quicker process than starting from scratch, and we no longer need to reinvent the wheel. The same goes for our evolving adoption strategy, which is designed to be adaptable and scalable across industries. This cross-industry approach accelerates the adoption of smarter, more efficient, and resilient supply chain practices for all our clients.
Digital Product Passports
In your work on digital product passports, how do these tools enhance traceability and compliance in supply chains, particularly in regulated industries like medical devices?
Digital Product Passports (DPP) are transforming the way we trace and track products, equipment, and even components throughout their entire lifecycle. With a DPP attached, any item is trackable from cradle to grave, providing unparalleled visibility into its history and status. The successful adoption of blockchain technology in the medical device industry, primarily through digital product passports, relies heavily on collaboration among industry leaders to establish standardised protocols for data sharing, passport structures, and security measures. This standardisation is essential for securing and streamlining the supply chain, ensuring that medical devices are delivered safely and reliably.
While component-level tracking is not yet mandatory, it is likely to become a regulatory requirement in the near future. Consumers and regulators—such as those behind the EU’s DPP regulation—are increasingly demanding greater transparency and traceability. Furthermore, advancements in IoT and data analytics are enhancing device monitoring, driving greater accountability. By proactively adopting blockchain-based digital product passports, medical device companies can stay ahead of external pressures, demonstrating their commitment to quality, patient safety, and regulatory compliance. This not only improves transparency but also helps companies prepare for future regulatory changes, giving them a competitive edge in an increasingly compliance-driven market.
Connected Supply Chain Solutions
WiproFalcon’s Connected Supply Chain solution aims to provide end-to-end visibility. Can you elaborate on how this solution improves decision-making and operational efficiency for businesses?
The concept of Connected Supply Chain essentially speaks to the heart of what the solution offers. The advantage of WiproFalcon’s digital product passport (DPP) system is its flexibility, allowing clients or buyers to specify which product or equipment components they wish to track. This control enables them to start by applying digital passports to the most critical parts of a product, device, or component—those that are vital for operations, safety, performance, or compliance.
For example, a hospital might request DPPs for the high-risk components of an MRI scanner, ensuring that any issues with these parts can be swiftly identified and traced back to their origin. This capability enables proactive maintenance and compliance checks on products, equipment, or devices. With detailed visibility into the lifecycle of each critical component, industry providers in sectors like healthcare, energy, automotive, and pharmaceuticals can better plan maintenance schedules, manage inventory, and ensure that all parts meet the latest health and safety standards.
Incorporating blockchain into supply chain management opens the door to many valuable use cases across industries such as manufacturing, medical devices, and spare parts management. When meticulous coordination is required, blockchain’s real-time tracking ensures that each component or device reaches the user at the right time, much like the precision seen in advanced logistics. By leveraging AI alongside blockchain, businesses can ensure a single source of truth across supply chains, enhancing compliance and operational excellence with real-time data and predictive analytics.
The Connected Supply Chain solution enhances decision-making by providing not just real-time data, but validated data, thanks to the blockchain element. This verification process ensures that users, companies, and transactions are recorded with an immutable history on the ledger. This is critical in building trust in the data, enabling businesses to make faster, more accurate decisions and adjust operations in real-time, regardless of location or time.
Supply Chain Resilience Post-Pandemic
In the wake of recent global disruptions, what measures has WiproFalcon implemented to enhance supply chain resilience for its clients?
Traditional supply chain management solutions have typically been designed to address companyspecific challenges, leading to the development of various siloed systems within industries, even when the devices and components being tracked are similar. This fragmentation increases costs and complicates training and operations, potentially causing inconsistencies in how data is handled. Such discrepancies can directly impact compliance with safety standards.
WiproFalcon’s adoption of blockchain-based digital passports shifts the focus from these isolated systems to an ecosystem approach, benefiting all parties involved. By using a shared ledger managed by a trusted third-party vendor like WiproFalcon, all stakeholders—component suppliers, device manufacturers, and industry providers—are connected within a collaborative network. This network allows stakeholders to verify the integrity and status of components at any point in the supply chain, fostering accountability and promoting collaboration.
This ecosystem approach eliminates redundant processes and reduces the administrative burden associated with maintaining multiple systems. It cuts costs and enhances efficiency, addressing the challenges posed by global disruptions. WiproFalcon’s solution enables companies to stay economically viable, adapt swiftly to geographical disruptions, and navigate with real-time data insights. Furthermore, it enhances integrity with auditable trails that support responsible sourcing and enable transparent, accountable operations.
Wipro Limited, established in 1945, is a leading global information technology, consulting, and business process services company. Headquartered in Bengaluru, India, Wipro operates in over 60 countries, providing services such as cloud computing, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation across various industries. The company is committed to delivering innovative solutions to help clients navigate their digital journeys.
Jorn Fokkens Change Leader