Ensuring supply chain risk management (SCRM) methods are robust enough to keep threats at bay and help organizations stay secure is a critical need today. But a succession of major supply chain disruptions—including the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple high-profile cyber breaches, and ongoing international trade disputes—have exposed deep supply chain vulnerabilities and revealed shortcomings in SCRM and third-party risk management (TPRM).
Surprisingly, when shocks do occur, little is known about the true extent of the disruption, the wider organizational costs, or damage extending beyond that of a financial nature. Our new whitepaper, “Supply Chain Disruptions and the High Cost of the Status Quo,” based on a survey of 900 enterprise decision-makers about their risk management practices, and fills in many of those knowledge gaps:
Our survey found that supply chain events impact geographies and industries in unique ways.
The average revenue loss rises to $228 million for U.S. organizations, compared to UK and DACH where it costs $146 million and $145 million, respectively. There is also a large difference between sectors, with disruptions costing those in IT and technology ($194 million) and aerospace and defense ($193 million) more than financial services, where the average cost to revenue drops to $164 million. However, no matter the location of the organization or the sector they operate within, these costs are an unsustainable and debilitating expenditure.
The cost of supply chain disruptions extends beyond an organization’s revenue, as brand, reputation, and customer perception are also negatively impacted. It’s therefore no surprise that more than four in five (83%) of those surveyed say their organization has suffered reputational damage as a result of supply chain disruption. Again, those in the U.S. see the most severe impact in this regard, where 87% have suffered, compared to organizations in the Nordic countries where 77% say the same.
The number of supply chain shocks has grown in recent years. Each disruption proves troublesome for organizations that are likely still reeling from the effects of the previous one. In fact, fewer than 1 in 10 enterprise organizations (6%) say they have not been impacted by supply chain disruptions over the past two years. We can attribute these disruptions across a variety of supply chain threats, with risk spread fairly evenly across all factors. To illustrate this, over the past two years, decision-makers report that supply chain distruption has been spread across cyber risk and breaches (52%), financial risks (50%), and environmental/social/governance (ESG) risks (41%), regulation risks (40%), geographic and geopolitical risks (38%), and operations risks (37%).
Decision-makers understand the critical need to use SCRM and TPRM to protect themselves against all types of supply chain risk. More than 80% believe it is important to guard against all of the six risk types listed above. This demonstrates that even if they are not directly impacted by every threat, decision-makers understand that there aree many kinds of supply chain disruption.
Our paper goes into more detail on the importance of visibility and supply chain risk management needs. It also includes current practices that are helping organizations mitigate risk. Download the white paper here, or learn more at interos.ai.
