Welcome to Supply-Chain360, your all-in-one source for actual insights into the world of SCM!

About Welcome to Supply-Chain360, your all-in-one source for actual insights into the world of SCM!

Here, we explore the latest innovations, technologies, and strategies transforming the global supply chain landscape. From BANI to generative AI and automation to sustainability and risk management, our content covers everything you need to stay ahead in the dynamic world of SCM & Logistics. Whether you're a professional, a student, or just curious about supply chains, tune in for in-depth discussions, expert interviews, and actionable tips to optimize your operations - or just learn something new.

Publisher

Ralph Leyendecker

Category

business · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

13 Oct 2025

Latest episode

15 Mar 2026

Latest episodes

21 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   15 Mar 2026

   Chokepoints After Davos: What Great-Power Politics Now Means for Real Supply Chains

   In this episode, I follow up on Davos 2026 by shifting from speeches and symbolism to the physical realities of global supply chains. The focus is on chokepoints: the Red Sea, Suez, Hormuz, and Taiwan, and on what happens when great-power politics starts to narrow the corridors, systems, and dependencies that modern industries rely on. I look at how recent developments have moved from rhetoric into operating conditions: fragile reopenings, renewed disruptions, and rising uncertainty around routes, energy, shipping, and trade policy. From a pharma and healthcare perspective, the key point is that even when medicines are not shipped directly through a disrupted chokepoint, the upstream systems they depend on still are, whether through energy-intensive inputs, chemical feedstocks, freight capacity, or supplier stability. This episode is about how leaders should think about chokepoints not as distant geopolitical stories, but as very real constraints on cost, replenishment reliability, and network resilience. If you work in supply chain, risk, or executive decision-making, this is an invitation to identify where your system narrows, and what levers you still control before the next disruption hits.

2. 

   23 Jan 2026

   After Davos: Great-Power Theater, Middle-Power Strategy, and Pharma Supply Chains

   In this episode, I look at Davos 2026 not as a media show, but as a live stress test of the global order. From Merz’ “age of great powers” narrative to Trump’s tariff threats, Greenland remarks, and pressure over U.S. bonds, Davos made one thing clear: the world is being run more openly as a great-power game again, and middle powers, especially in Europe, are caught in the squeeze. I translate this into the language of pharma and healthcare supply chains. We explore how tariffs, sanctions, export controls, dollar dependence, and critical infrastructure decisions (plants, APIs, IT, banks) create structural exposure for your network. Using examples from pharma, automotive, and banking, I show how the same pattern repeats across industries: highly regulated, high-stakes systems built on a few geopolitical chokepoints. Finally, I outline what a “middle-power supply chain strategy” could look like in practice: rethinking your exposure map, identifying a few structural dependencies you can actually change, and giving geopolitical risk a real home in your governance. If you’re responsible for supply chain, risk, or corporate strategy in a BANI world, this episode is an invitation to move beyond headline reactions and start managing a deliberate great-power risk portfolio. Connect with me on LinkedIn: Ralph Leyendecker | LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralphleyendecker/)

3. 

   19 Jan 2026

   From Country Crisis to Risk Portfolio – How Pharma Supply Chains should think about Geopolitics

   In this episode, I move beyond “one crisis at a time” and look at geopolitics through the lens of a risk portfolio for pharma and med-tech supply chains. Starting from recent events like Venezuela, the Red Sea, Taiwan, and Europe’s energy debate, I sketch a simple way to map exposure versus geopolitical fragility – not as a theoretical exercise, but as a practical tool for network and governance decisions. I talk about what leaders can actually control: where buffers sit, how contracts handle sanctions and export controls, how decision rights are set, and which trade lanes are treated as “single points of failure.” Using a concrete Latin America scenario, I walk through how a portfolio mindset changes the way you react to shocks, design options, and explain trade-offs to boards and regulators. If you’re responsible for supply chain, risk, or governance in a BANI world, this episode is an invitation to make your geopolitical exposure visible, link it to real levers you can set, and move from reactive crisis management to deliberate portfolio thinking.