Max Henry argues the 30-year playbook of consolidation and offshoring no longer works. Geopolitical disruptions and fragmentation make concentrated supply chains too risky. He pushes for diversified sources and built-in headroom to absorb shocks.
I think you need to radically reframe and rethink the way you're setting up your supply network. And what I mean by supply network is both procurement, which is where do you source your materials and services? It's not just materials, it's also services from where do you manufacture your products and where do you distribute from? You know, for, I would say for 30 years since I started working, it was all about consolidation, driving leverage in scale, moving to low-cost countries or lower-cost countries, maximizing capacity utilization. And all that is fine as long as you're in a global open market with limited disruptions. It doesn't work anymore because, you know, we're less and less global. Unfortunately, global trade keeps going backtrack. And more and more, as you were rightly saying, there's more and more disruption. So you cannot have all your eggs in the same basket and that basket completely full without any headspace.
