Although market volatility and congestion have impacted supply chains on a narrow geographic basis over the last few decades — like the “meltdown” in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in 2015 — the only comparable global event that came close to the far-reaching, dramatic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic was the financial crisis of 2008–09, and even that pales in comparison to the current disruption.
Shippers and transportation providers don’t have a ready-to-go mitigation plan to cope with events like these sitting on the shelf waiting to be triggered on short notice. That said, there are some lessons learned regarding the importance of how to position your business to be more nimble to cope with these extraordinary circumstances, specifically diversity of one’s customer portfolio, staying close to your key customers, helping them navigate the challenges they will face, stratification of business deal terms, having multiple options for sourcing manufacturing capacity, and having a level of technology and IT capabilities that enables you to manage assets when demand so significantly outpaces supply.
Most important has been creating a way to drive the business when most of your people are working from home. Businesses must learn how to maintain their intensity and continue to build a culture of collaboration and innovation that enables them to differentiate in the market. That focus is even more critical in the challenging environment that we have operated in for the last 18 months.
The quality and commitment of supply chain workers has shown through in an extraordinary way during the pandemic, rising to the challenge of not just keeping business running but bringing performance to a higher level in spite of the barriers that COVID-19 has produced.