Reuters Events | Supply Chain & Logistics Business Intelligence

Alain Vix, Client Services Director of Hughenden Consulting, will be chairing this year's European CSCO Forum "2020 Supply Chain Redesign: Preparing for the New Normal"

Dear European CSCO delegates,

I’m honoured to be chairing this year’s conference, themed “2020 Supply Chain Redesign: Preparing for the New Normal.” Our managing director Hugh Williams has handed me the mantle this year and you can count on me to be every bit as interactive, challenging and lively!

This year’s theme will undoubtedly lend itself to much debate over the new technologies companies are building into their supply chains. In my experience, however, people have the ultimate power to either make or break supply chain redesign. With so much senior talent in the room, I want to make sure we seize on the opportunity to weigh up some of the human forces associated with ‘disruptive’ change. 

One of the most basic of these human forces in the business world is competition. When we’re racing towards a fixed destination like ‘2020’ we naturally want to ‘benchmark’ or compare how we’re doing against our industry peers. Despite the best intentions, however, many benchmarking efforts are limiting because they only compare performance in like for like situations. 

In the ‘New Normal’ more organisations will be benchmarking against and taking inspiration from companies outside their industries and I’ll be inviting delegates’ views and experiences here. As you prepare to attend European CSCO, pack these questions into your virtual briefcase: Have I only ever compared myself to my peers? Am I pushing myself to think laterally? What other industries can I learn from? 

Finally, while many of you have hatched ambitious and exciting plans for 2020, this is not far away. The most visionary leaders will be thinking beyond this. Which emerging countries will be the most promising manufacturing hubs beyond 2020? What are the opportunities and constraints in these markets?

I look forward to debating these and many more topics with you at this year’s conference. See you in Amsterdam on the 18th!

Sincerely,

Alain Vix

Client Services Director

Hughenden Consulting