Supply Chain
Article

Digital Transformation Is Changing Supply Chain Relationships

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Harvard Business Review
July 29, 2022
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Summary

Digital transformation is creating new products, processes, and services around the globe. But to provide these new offerings, companies are having to share information and assets with each other in ways that were previously off limits. This article by Harvard Business Review explains why companies will need to change the way they forge and manage relationships with other entities in the supply chain to truly leverage Industry 4.0.

The digital transformation of businesses is creating new products, processes, and services. But to provide these new offerings, companies must share information and assets with each other in ways that were previously off-limits. For example, digitized services may require competitors to share physical assets such as warehouse space.

This, in turn, means that companies will need to change the way they forge and manage relationships with other entities in the supply chain to facilitate new types of alliances and agreements. It will require managers responsible for developing supply chain relationships, such as account managers or supply managers, to adopt a boundary-spanning mindset in order to facilitate collaboration, experimentation, and trust across organizational boundaries.

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Harvard Business Review
Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business Publishing (HBP) was founded in 1994 as a not-for-profit, wholly-owned subsidiary of Harvard University, reporting into Harvard Business School. Our mission is to improve the practice of management in a changing world. This mission influences how we approach what we do here and what we believe is important.

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