For most companies, growth has slowed. Profits are sluggish. Complexity reigns and cycles are longer. The challenges and opportunities of business are greater. Supply chain excellence helps a company to better balance demand and supply. It also helps companies to be more resilient: weathering demand and supply volatility while maximizing opportunities and mitigating risks.

Supply chain overlays the sales and marketing organizations and the procurement function - which have defined their roles too narrowly. Too few are focused on the role of the organization in driving value networks to improve value-based outcomes. Most lack the understanding, and they are just not incented to build value networks. The focus has to be market to market. The supply chain team can make a difference, but it requires reschooling. It is about much more than trucks and sheds. Or pumps and valves. Or contracts and negotiations. It is the end-to-end process: from the customer's customer to the supplier's supplier.