Supply chains have gone global. No longer are they a point-to-chain of goods flowing from a source to a consumer, but a global network of interlinked businesses, processes and services. Supply chain risks have gone global, too, and one tiny incident somewhere in this vast network may result in devastating effects that can ripple across the entire supply chain. No wonder then that supply chain risk has become a major selling point for consultants  who are making a living from selling solutions that are “guaranteed” to capture  and manage the exact and full risk that a company is facing. We academics often frown at these consultants and their glossy whitepapers, but truth is that some of them are highly valuable and well-researched, and excellent food for thought. Take this whitepaper for instance, An Integrated View of Supplier Risk by a company called Hiperos. Here, supplier risk management is focused on four areas: the supplier’s viability, performance, compliance and corporate social performance. That is a perspective very much in line with my own ideas of holistic risk management.

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