For a couple of decades, supply chains were optimised in one direction: thinner, cheaper, just-in-time. Inventory was a curse word and a second-sourced supplier was inefficiency. Then came the pandemic, the container shortage, the component shortage and Europe’s changed security situation — and suddenly the most old-fashioned lesson is current again: reliability of supply is a feature worth paying for.

I don’t write about geopolitics as an analyst but as a practical person who has seen what one missing component does to a delivery project. No grand theory of the world is needed — it is enough to look at your own supply chain with honest eyes.

The cheapest supplier is expensive if it is the only one.

An exercise you can do today

Name five suppliers whose disappearance would stop your operation. Ask three questions about each. One: is there an alternative, and how quickly could it genuinely be brought into use — audits, approvals, tooling and all? Two: where do my supplier’s own critical inputs come from — that is, what are the second and third links of the chain, whose existence I know nothing about? Three: what should be in stock for us to survive three months without this supplier?

Writing down the answers takes an afternoon. That afternoon is probably the most productive risk management investment you will make this year — and as a by-product you get a document your major customers and insurers will value, because they are already asking their own suppliers these very questions.

Preparedness shows in the sales pitch

Here is the side that often gets forgotten: security of supply is not just a cost, it is a sales argument. When a customer compares suppliers in an uncertain world, the ability to say “we have thought this through — documented it — tested it” separates your offer from the pile where only the lowest price is promised and the best is hoped for. Reliability is a product. It is worth building, and worth talking about.

Next Wednesday I return closer to my core: why an audit is not an inspection but a mirror — and why the best findings are gifts.

As a service: business continuity and preparedness.