SUPPLY CHAIN: THE CLASSIC TALE OF PUTTING ALL YOUR EGGS

Pandemic, war in Ukraine, shortage of raw materials... Several major events have changed the way our societies and their companies obtain the products they need. Is the globalisation of trade reaching its limits? Should we diversify our supply methods to secure them? Two specialists in logistics and the supply chain, Verena Ehrler and Ronald McGarvey, professors at IÉSEG, provide some answers.

IS THERE A SUPPLY CRISIS?

While the disruption of the major circuits that feed the economy is not new in itself, the last few months have been marked by powerful disruptions, explains Verena Ehrler: «the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have shown the need to improve the sustainability, efficiency and resilience of supply chains, acting as an accelerator.» Especially as these disruptions are not about to end, says Ronald McGarvey: «The risks inherent in globalised supply chains have long been known. But these disruptions have been confined to a specific geographical region or sector. Covid has had an impact on all regions and sectors,» explains the researcher, who warns that «climate change will have similar effects, albeit distributed in time and space. New supply chain strategies are needed in order to avoid similar supply shortages in the future.»

WHICH SECTORS ARE THE MOST AFFECTED?

While the supply challenge affects all sectors, the food industry is particularly affected, explains Verena Ehrler: «Soil erosion and extreme weather conditions will impact on agriculture. Current inflation is already leading to higher food costs, and the trend will be even more pronounced if we don’t take adequate measures. As another example of the domino effect, the shortage of semiconductors is having a major impact on a huge number of

FIND MORE ANALYSIS, INSIGHTS AND RESEARCH FROM THESE EXPERTS ON IESEG INSIGHTS: industries, observes Ronald McGarvey: «Car manufacturers have had to cut back production by seventeen million vehicles in 2021 and 2022. The highly complex nature of the semiconductor supply chain and the global reliance on manufacturers concentrated in a limited geographical area makes it a textbook case of the risks inherent in a modern, large-scale supply chain.»

DOES DIVERSIFYING ITS SUPPLY CHAINS ENABLE IT TO RESPOND TO UNCERTAINTY?

Faced with these present or future disruptions, how do we react? Three interrelated strategies can ensure the resilience of a company’s supply chain,» says Ronald McGarvey, «optimal visibility across the supply chain, maintaining a buffer stock of scarce or slow-to-supply products, and improved agility in order to quickly switch to other products or processes. As for the need to turn to new suppliers, it all depends on the specific situation of each company, stresses Verena Ehrler: «There is no single solution but waiting is not an option. Diversifying your sources of supply avoids putting all your eggs in one basket, while at the same time ensuring the quality of your supplier relationships and focusing on a limited number of solid relationships. McGarvey warns that «given the growing expectations of consumers for environmental sustainability, companies need to look after their reputation and therefore monitor the practices of their suppliers. Any expansion of supply sources mechanically increases this burden.»

Updating The Dragons

40 million players worldwide, hundreds of thousands of hours of streaming on Twitch, incessant references to pop culture... Has D&D become mainstream?

A subsidiary of the American group Hasbro, the publisher Wizards of the Coast can boast of having succeeded in a delicate gamble: diversifying its range and its audience. To dust off the image of a hobby long associated only with geeks, the publisher first bet on enriching a universe initially inspired by fantasy classics, Lord of the Rings in particular. How did they do this? By expanding the playing field to offer other universes: vampire or gothic worlds, London in the time of Sherlock Holmes, mysteries of the Orient inspired by the Thousand and One Nights... Enough to attract new fans, seduced by the freedom of a game that allows everyone to create their own scenarios. It remains to be seen whether it can reconcile the expectations of three generations of fans - the first of which saw the arrival of new players, but also new female players. The slightly stereotyped, very European and very male world of the first years has been replaced by a game that is more respectful of differences, freed from the simplistic approach of the early years, and thus gaining in depth and diversity. A positioning that Wizards of the Coast asserts by accepting to break with certain easy or hurtful stereotypes - even if it means revisiting its own classics by erasing clichés that no longer hold, as in Curse of Strahd, a classic, that is set in the equivalent of the Carpathians in Dracula’s era. The original work involved the Vistani, a fictional people directly inspired by gypsy culture - alas to the point of caricature. The latest edition has just been translated into French and has been edited in order to remove certain elements that are considered unacceptable today.