[ad_1]
Brian Ulster is General Manager of Finance and Risk at Dun & Bradstreet, a multinational company that provides commercial data, analytics and insights to businesses. Alster was a guest at LinkedIn’s latest Supply Chain Digital Show. Below is an edited version of that interview.
How is Dun & Bradstreet helping clients?
Dun & Bradstreet helps companies turn data into actionable insights. We help you solve challenges like how to accelerate revenue, reduce costs, manage risk and drive holistic transformation. It does this by leveraging a data cloud containing information about his 500 million companies worldwide.
As GM of the Finance and Risk Solutions business, I assist clients in the lending space, whether they are extending credit or managing risk portfolios. We also help procurement and global sourcing organizations overcome supply chain disruption challenges and reduce costs.
It also helps businesses manage the burgeoning regulatory requirements facing the world.
What are the main risks facing your supply chain today?
The top is probably inflation. Rising prices make it very difficult for companies to manage cash flow, leading to lower profit margins.
The second is the unpredictable global economy. Businesses have adapted well to the disruptions that have occurred over the past three years, but many have begun overstocking inventories to ensure they can meet demand. Unfortunately, an impending recession can dampen demand, leaving companies with excess inventories that can again lead to lower profit margins.
A third risk is the increased regulatory burden on businesses. This is due to sanctions from rising geopolitical issues such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but also expanding regulatory requirements around supply chains.
ESG regulation is expected to tighten this year, but most companies have yet to incorporate ESG regulation into their supplier onboarding risk assessment process.
So companies are trying to move from reactive to proactive, which is very difficult in a global procurement environment where companies try to do more with the same or less resources.
How do you help companies with supply risk issues?
There are four elements to a successful supply chain program.
The first is to have a risk-based assessment process that helps companies proactively identify potential supplier risks during the onboarding process. That process should include financial and credit, health, cyber risks, ESG risks, sanctions, and beneficial owner reviews.
The second part of the process looks at Tier 1 suppliers. You need to understand where your key suppliers are. Even if it’s the lower tier of the supply chain (Tier 2 or 3). Supplier of your supplier.
Most customers struggle with visibility in that second and third tier.
Third, encourage clients to identify their most important suppliers. Companies should then implement continuous monitoring programs to ensure that the risk profile of those suppliers has not changed. If so, it will help inform our decisions regarding the volume of business we do with that company.
Finally, we help companies move from a reactive to a proactive environment. Being able to identify alternative suppliers among the most important supplier groups is very important.
If you have an alternative at hand, you can pivot more quickly. Supply chain disruptions cannot be eliminated, but the impact on profitability and operational sustainability can be proactively mitigated.
Do you have a takeout message for executives?
act urgently. Invest in processes so you can do more with the same or less resources. This usually means automating the data supply her chain, so finding new suppliers or managing existing ones.
Third parties like Dun & Bradstreet can help drive data automation so companies can make faster decisions based on accurate, verified data in real time.
[ad_2]
Source link
