Global supply chains: digital transformation or optimisation? Munich

Together with our German consulting partner h&z, it was our great pleasure to co-host the third annual Sourcing Roundtable in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and, for the first time, Munich.

Last year, we discussed “The Future of the Buying Office” in China’s New Normal – click here to find out our conclusion.

This year, our topic was “Global supply chains: digital transformation or optimisation? Impact on sourcing strategies”. Selected experts, industry representatives, and senior sourcing managers met at the three locations to discuss how the following will influence sourcing strategies in China:

• Changes in today’s Chinese consumer
• China’s transformation to a customer market
• Digitisation of everything – from processes to operations
• Made-in-China 2025: China’s answer to Industry 4.0?
• Strategy and organisational adaptation for your sourcing purpose

Below is a summary of the most interesting soundbites from the evening:

• “Digitisation forces you to think about what you are really good at”
• Group-thinking and legacy systems: challenging for large purchasing organisations; startups can start fresh and adapt easily
• Data: industrialise and create a new success model for existing data
• Demand for all purchasing functions: how to be 10x faster, how to source 10x cheaper, how to add 10x more value to the process
• Opportunity to use new service offers: from established eCom players, e.g. outsource all indirect purchasing to Amazon Services USA
• 3 out of 20 participants have a data scientist: “You must hire a ‘data scientist’ and give them a senior position”
• Past vs. Present: we used to focus on commercial issues; now we have higher volatility in finance, technology, geopolitics, and society; 30% of our revenue comes from innovative products that did not exist 3 years ago
• “Activity trigger”: new competitor, new technologies, or even younger, more demanding employees will create pressure
• Be attractive to new hires: 1. Agility, 2. Digital competence, 3. CSR (value for greater good)
• Decision making: customers are moving faster; the risk lies with suppliers not upgrading
• Undefined buzzword: “gamification in sourcing”
• Future of China: will China still be one of the biggest supplier markets (for FMCG) 20 years from now?
• Risk and volatility: high on the agenda; “Are we prepared for cyber crime?”; “How can we deal with climate disruption, earthquakes, political risk and terrorism, and how does this impact our productivity?”