When we draw supply chain maps - we need to know what the lines between the blobs mean

It felt like there was more discussion of product transparency (the ability to know the 'who', 'where' and 'how' of a product's manufacture) in 2019 than in any previous year. The common phrase seemed to be 'trust and transparency' - as if they were similar concepts, intertwined. If my plea for 2019 was that we stop referring to the complex and dynamic relationships between organisations as 'chains' (and start using the term 'networks') - then my hope for 2020 is for more cla

I believe trust and transparency are very different concepts - but both influence our behaviour towards others (people and brands). The Evolution of Trust by Nicky Case uses game theory to illustrate how trust works in transactions. It's fabulous; simple, clear and fun - well worth a few minutes. Spoiler alert: there are three big lessons; (i) how you behave matters (to you and them), (ii) we need to protect against zero-sum games and (iii) depth of relationship changes every

Global supply networks are complex systems - so their behaviour is unpredictable when operating conditions change. That's just how it is. We didn't set out to make them complex, but improvements in communications and transport created the right conditions for complexity to emerge over time. We started simple and then evolution happened. COVID-19 has surely changed the operating conditions. Businesses the world over are trying to work out what happened, how they should react n