Supply Chain Risk Management and Financing for Executives

Overview

Generally, a single company hardly controls the whole supply chain for a product or service. Going back to history, Ford Motors in the 1920s attained the vertical integration of a company that would do everything it needed by itself. However, in the end, General Motors would end up surpassing Ford as the largest company in the auto industry by promoting a model based on supply chains that included a myriad of companies located in different places with different functionalities. This model still prevails today but has become more complex due to changing customer requirements, competition, and the pressure brought about by adaptations to modern and integrated technology solutions designed to take the burden off the shoulders of the focus companies and their supply chain partners.

Supply chain studies and practice suggest that there are vast digital capability gaps in most supply chains, so training and developing understanding is a crucial first step. Then, being able to align digital transformation with business needs, involving all key departments in the planning and execution is essentially the next vital step. Technology can generate internal value by streamlining processes, functions, and activities, yet it can also, boost external value creation and delivery by developing a seamless environment across the firm’s supply network to ensure effective management of risks especially in financing supply chain activities during this period of uncertainty, high exchange rate fluctuation and inflation. Therefore, this workshop is designed to strengthen the ability to manage risk as it impacts using financing platforms to close gaps in working capital requirements among others.