Celebrating Our 2026 Power of the Profession Award Winners

Gartner recently announced the winners of the 2026 Supply Chain Power of the Profession Awards. Our annual innovation case study competition continues to highlight how leading supply chains are pushing the boundaries of what is possible through the application of new processes and technologies, and in support of customers, patients, employees and society at large.

Four distinct themes emerged from the community of innovators this year: the rapid adoption of AI-driven platforms and agentic systems, a heavy investment in cultural and people transformation, a shift toward making customer experience the central focus of operational design, and a redefinition of resource management through fully circular supply chains.

Let’s celebrate the four category winners who best exemplified these themes and set new standards for the profession.

This award recognizes initiatives that create a more valuable customer or patient experience with quantifiable positive outcomes.

• The Challenge: BMS faced a critical supply/demand imbalance in Japan for its cancer gene therapies. Demand grew faster than local manufacturing capacity and traditional pharmaceutical supply chains were not equipped to handle the rapid, cross-continental transport of fresh, patient-specific biological material required for these treatments.
• The Solution: In just eight weeks, the supply chain team pioneered a trans-Pacific capability to close the gap between patient needs in Japan and manufacturing sites in the U.S. They engineered a "bridge" to route patient apheresis material to sites in New Jersey and Washington, ensuring uninterrupted production.
• The Benefits: This innovation expanded patient access to life-saving therapies and created a new operational capability for the company. The initiative resulted in zero failures in delivery and improved supply chain resilience, serving as a model for future global expansion.

This category celebrates talent initiatives that shape the future supply chain workforce by fostering diversity and developing capabilities.

• The Challenge: As the industry shifts toward AI-augmented organizations, Unilever needed to prepare its workforce for a future where humans and digital agents collaborate daily. They recognized the need to move beyond traditional roles and build balanced expertise in digital, domain and business skills.
• The Solution: Unilever launched "DigiOps," a comprehensive upskilling program inclusive of all organizational levels. The curriculum covers 12 essential skills, ranging from GenAI and Python to systems thinking, empowering employees to build custom agents and streamline processes.
• The Benefits: The program has been a massive success, graduating over 480 employees and resulting in more than 3,000 new skill advancements. Financially, DigiOps delivered €6.2 million in value from a €3.4 million investment, while boosting employee engagement to 93%.

The most competitive category of the year, this award honors breakthrough innovations in process engineering or technology application.

• The Challenge: Diageo manages over 15 million barrels of maturing spirits globally. Historically, the company relied on disconnected systems and experience-based processes that struggled to keep up with fast-moving markets, leading to inefficiencies in managing this massive inventory.
• The Solution: Diageo introduced the Spirits Intelligence Platform (SIP), a smart ecosystem leveraging advanced analytics and AI. SIP predicts maturation losses and optimizes where premium-aged spirits are allocated, turning a centuries-old craft into a data-driven growth engine.
• The Benefits: The platform unlocked double-digit yield improvements and boosted revenue per bottle by 13%. Additionally, it reduced manual work by 50% for over 1,000 employees, allowing artisans to blend traditional expertise with modern intelligence.

This award highlights initiatives that achieve a positive, quantifiable impact on society, local communities, or the environment.

• The Challenge: Rare earth elements are vital for data center technology, but their rising demand creates risks regarding market volatility and geopolitical tension. Further, traditional mining for these materials causes significant environmental and social harm.
• The Solution: Microsoft launched a circular economy initiative to recover rare earth oxides (REOs) from retired data center hard disk drives. Instead of allowing these materials to go to waste, Microsoft scaled a process to recover and recycle them across North America.
• The Benefits: The program recovers more than 90% of REOs from retired drives and reduces associated carbon emissions by 80%. It also lowers health and labor risks while strengthening the domestic supply chain for recycled magnets.

These winners demonstrate that whether through AI, sustainability, or talent development, the power of the supply chain profession lies in its ability to innovate for a better future.

Congratulations to Karin Shanahan (BMS), Willem Uijen (Unilever), Ewan Andrew (Diageo), Cliff Henson (Microsoft) and their talented teams for winning this year’s Power of the Profession Awards!

Stan Aronow
VP Distinguished Advisor
Gartner Supply Chain
Stan.Aronow@gartner.com