Gartner Global Supply Chain 25 again drives home the importance of best practices

Some of the biggest brand names across several verticals again received accolades from research firm Gartner Inc., in being named to its annual Global Supply Chain 25, which, according to Gartner, identifies leading supply chains and highlights their best practices.

Gartner explained its methodology, for the Global Supply Chain 25, is based on the following: two main components, which are combined into a total composite score: business performance in the form of public financial and ESG (environmental, social, governance) data provides a view into how companies have performed in the past three years; and opinion, which offers an eye to future potential and reflects leadership in the supply chain community.

And it noted that the firm’s analysts derive a list of companies from a combination of the Fortune Global 500 and the Forbes Global 20000, adding that in an effort to maintain the list of companies evaluated at a manageable level, a general annual revenue threshold of $12 billion has been applied.

The top five companies in this year’s ranking were: Cisco Systems, for the third straight year, with a composite score of 6.71; Schneider Electric (6.03); Colgate-Palmolive (5.76); Johnson & Johnson (5.62); and PepsiCo (5.03). For a complete list, please click here.

“Nineteen companies achieved the highest possible environmental, social and governance (ESG) score this year, reflecting the growing importance supply chain leaders assign to these initiatives,” said Mike Griswold, vice president team manager with the Gartner Supply Chain practice, in a statement. “Cisco continues to adapt in various ways to the changing environment, and its supply chain moves in alignment. ESG is a big focus, with circular concepts incorporated in the design, operations and consumption aspect of the products and the supply chain.”

Along with the Global Supply Chain 25, Gartner again featured its “Masters” category, which was introduced in 2015 and is comprised of companies reaching top five composite scores over seven of the last 10 years, with brand name bellwethers Amazon, Apple, P&G, ands Unilever again making the cut.

Additional key components of the Global Supply Chain 25 and Masters focused on key macro trends identified by Gartner, including:

• the CSCO as Chief Ecosystems Officer, focusing on sustainability efforts and commercial innovation;
• self-stabilizing supply chains, focusing on supply chains have transforming their decision-making processes and funding, in an effort to become more agile in the face of disruption;
• progress on broader sustainability agenda, focusing on supply chain-focused net-zero goals, including Scope 3 emissions reductions with suppliers and customers; and
• human-centric digital automation, focusing on supply chain leaders focusing on balancing long-term investments in automation with immediate investments in technology that “reduce employee cognitive load and prioritize time and attention to areas where people learn better than machines, for things like relationship building and responding to new operating conditions

Not surprisingly, the Gartner Global Supply Chain 25 again drives home the importance of a fluid, effective, and efficient supply chain. That is especially true in these uncertain times, to be sure. These companies are all setting a very high bar, at a time when it is needed perhaps more than ever.

To read the complete Gartner “2022 Global Supply Chain 25” report, please click here.