Conversations from Gartner’s Supply Chain Symposiums

Gartner just concluded its North American and EMEA Supply Chain Symposiums. Over 5,000 supply chain professionals from dozens of industries and thousands of companies attended.

As you might have guessed, trade tensions, costs and resulting demand volatility were top of mind, but they didn’t dominate discussions. While you might expect a stressed out and frantic CSCO cohort to arrive at Symposium, this was not the case.

Instead, people were excited to meet with their peers and colleagues, and no single topic dominated the conversation. In other words, it was business as usual in unusual times.

We’ve been talking about the generational shift in supply chain for a few years now. Gen Z moving in, Boomers moving out, and it looks like the shift has happened. We don’t have hard data on this, but a simple scan of the room tells the story.

This shift was accompanied by a change in tone. The group was stress-tested during the pandemic, and this experience has resulted in a calm and collected mood. They are approaching the current environment from a data-driven analytical method that wasn’t nearly as prominent five years ago.

The majority of CEOs don’t think their enterprise is ready to face the challenge of an increasingly GenAI-driven world. Supply chain leaders echo this sentiment, and they are probably right: only 17% of supply chain organizations say they have a large-scale formal deployment.

GenAI has not turned out to be the big productivity driver that many in the supply chain had hoped for. While it does improve individual productivity, that productivity isn’t adding up at the department or group level.

However, it’s not about solving the problems of today; it’s about solving the problems of tomorrow. So what should we be looking forward to? Agentic AI is the next promise on the horizon. While the technology is only just starting to emerge, we’re already hearing of new applications where AI Agents are beginning to act autonomously in supply chains.

When cost reductions were discussed, the conversation took on a subdued tone:

Question: Are you changing your approach to cost reductions in this environment of trade policy uncertainty?
Answer: Not really. We are exercising strategic patience and generally planning on staying the course with our plans for the supply and manufacturing network. Tariffs aren’t causing us to make drastic moves, but they are a catalyst for moving quicker.

My first thought was “OK, yes, but what about cost reductions?” Was this more of an isolated response?

Bottom line: no. For the most part, CSCOs are still working on the continuous process of short-term efficiencies and productivity gains, but they are more focused on building networks that are more flexible, resilient, and less susceptible to supply shocks. Over the longer haul, this is less costly, supports the enterprise and unsurprisingly resonates well with the C suite.

The talk track is generally more muted, but most of the CSCOs I talked to are not making significant changes to their sustainability goals.

There was a notable difference between the North American and EMEA regions.

EMEA: We are focusing most of our efforts on compliance, including our operations and those of our suppliers.
NA: In the shorter term, it's a bonus if we can make some headway on our sustainability goals while achieving some supply chain improvements.

There was notable common ground as well.

EMEA & NA: New processes, networks and manufacturing capabilities are being designed with sustainability in mind. Most agree that geopolitical shifts will affect these goals in the short term but, in the longer run, they agree that sustainability needs to be baked into all of their operations for the enterprise to be resilient and profitable.

If you have the opportunity, you should attend a Supply Chain Symposium. I know this sounds like a sales pitch, but please allow me a bit of leeway. It truly is a unique chance to hear from and interact with such a wide range of supply chain professionals.

Admittedly, I’ve heard the phrase “I didn’t learn anything new from that session, but it’s good to know I’m on track” many times. If you’ve attended a Supply Chain Symposium, you know what I mean.

But more importantly, I also heard from the same people saying, “Wow, that took me by surprise, and I’m going to dive into that”.


Wade L. McDaniel
VP Distinguished Advisor
Gartner Supply Chain
wade.mcdaniel@gartner.com

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