Over the last few years, a continual stream of geopolitical shocks has
shaken the world to its core. Disruptive events that were previously
unimaginable have happened with alarming regularity.
Collectively, these developments have slowed, stopped, and in some cases reversed
efforts to increase globalization and cross-border connectedness. To help ensure
business continuity in this volatile environment, business leaders must embrace new
enterprise resource planning (ERP) strategies that position their organizations to thrive
across a wider range of unpleasant, foreseeable, geopolitical possibilities.
Crisis and uncertainty call for precise planning, fast
reflexes, and better decision-making. And a business’s
ERP structure influences how quickly it can react.
But a large portion of leaders indicate their system
falls short of what’s needed to succeed.
To learn more about how business leaders expect the future to unfold, the IBM
Institute for Business Value (IBV) surveyed 100 ERP-knowledgeable executives
across a wide range of industries in August 2022. We asked them to gauge the
likelihood of various disruptive events and predict the impact each potential crisis
could have on their businesses over the next three years.
Our survey found that leaders broadly agree that a few long-term strategic
adjustments would help them prepare for future shocks, including diversifying
their supplier base (53%), increasing business flexibility (52%), and improving
supply chain buffers (53%) such as inventory, capacity, and lead time.
However, only 55% of leaders say their organization’s ERP solution is configured
in a way that will allow them to act quickly in the face of change. What’s more,
31% indicate their ERP solution makes it significantly or slightly harder to respond
effectively to disruption.
The message is clear: Crisis and uncertainty call for precision planning, fast reflexes,
and better decision-making. And a business’s ERP structure influences how quickly it
can react. But a large portion of leaders indicate their system falls short of what’s
needed to succeed in a time of conflict, crisis, and change. Organizations that see and
understand the disconnect between the urgent need for more responsive and resilient
ERP structures and the status quo paths their organizations are committed to should
course-correct quickly. The writing on the wall appears so clear that this time history
may judge the inaction of executives far more harshly that it has in the past.
