Gartner Announces Rankings of Its 2014 Supply Chain Top 25
Gartner, Inc. has released the findings from its 10th annual Supply Chain Top 25. A primary goal of the Supply Chain Top 25 research initiative is to raise awareness of the supply chain discipline and how it impacts the business.
The top five-ranked organizations in 2014 include four that topped the list last year — Apple, McDonald’s, Amazon and Unilever — plus another familiar leader, P&G. Two new companies joined the Top 25 this year with Seagate Technology (No. 20) appearing for the first time and Kimberly-Clark (No. 21) re-emerging after a year’s hiatus.
Apple took the No. 1 slot again, its seventh year running, continuing to outpace everyone else by a wide margin on the composite of financial and opinion measures used (see Table 1). McDonald’s landed at No. 2 for the second year in a row, followed by Amazon.com in the third spot.
Gartner analysts highlighted three standout trends for supply chain leaders in 2014:
1) Understanding and Supporting the Fully Contextualized Customer
An enduring trait of leading companies is that customer needs and behaviors serve as the starting point for go-to-market and operational support strategies. The best of them present simple, elegant solutions to their customers, driven by conscious supply chain orchestration behind the curtain. Their center-led cultures enable consistently high-quality customer experiences tailored, where important, to local tastes.
2) A Convergence of Digital and Physical Supply Chains Delivering Total Customer Solutions
Leading companies have moved past selling only discrete products or services to their customers and are now focused on delivering solutions. Regardless of industry, these companies want their customers to be loyal subscribers to their solutions.Several of the leading consumer product companies on this year’s list are offering e-commerce subscriptions for their products, in partnership with retailers, to create a seamless multichannel experience. This approach offers convenience and privacy to end customers that would normally buy these products in a physical store and might switch to another consumer brand during any given store shopping visit.
3) Supply Chain as Trusted and Integrated Partner
Growth is a top priority for the C-suite in 2014, with 63 percent of senior executives picking growth as a top imperative in Gartner’s 2014 CEO Survey. Leading supply chains are enabling this growth both organically and through successful M&A integration. At the same time, supply chain leaders are emerging as trusted and integrated partners to business groups. Their focus on profitable growth often leads to smarter, more conscious decision making, saving business groups from spiraling out of control in the drive to maximize revenue.
