Your business is likely to have been based not just upon the products or services you sell to your customers, but also upon some business or personal values. This may be your expectation for high response times to customers orders, your enviable reputation for accuracy or brand recognition for reliability.

However, if you scrutinise your business carefully there will be supply chains involved – internally and externally.

From the order and receipt of your manufacturing machines or your own production line or your back office operations or your sales and marketing functions or your office stationery or even your HR processes for new employees to retiring employees.

From the point where you are dependent upon another organisation (or another department) for a service or product that has an potential impact to the final service or product your customer (or another internal department) expects – there is a supply chain. 

Thus if your business is founded on service, innovation or leadership, you should ensure that the supply chains involved work towards achieving your business vision and values. This does not imply spending copious amounts of hard-earned money on new technologies or major organisational change. It does require an understanding and dissemination of your business strategy to your suppliers and internal stakeholders. It does require the ability to openly welcome process improvements, especially where there are hand-offs to other stakeholders. 

So set aside some time in the New Year to review your supply chain and how this could be used to achieve your business vision and values.