Maintaining a company’s competitive advantage depends on managing and controlling a global supply chain that is perhaps never static, and one major supply chain risk is that supply networks are constantly changing. Supply chains, once established,  have become increasingly unpredictable in today’s global and highly dynamic business environment. No sooner have you mapped your supply chain end-to-end and devised  a strategy for how to manage it, the chain changes on you – new and better suppliers emerge and new relationship configurations pop up. Perhaps not controlling, but letting things happen and letting supply networks emerge is the best management strategy? According to Supply networks and complex adaptive systems: control versus emergence by Thomas Choi, Kevin Dooley and Manus Rungtusanatham supply chain managers must appropriately balance how much to control and how much to let emerge.

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