Connecting Decision-Making to Resilience: The Importance of Decentralization and Supply Chain Orientation in a Post-COVID World

ABSTRACT

Global supply chains are increasingly moving toward being more prone to high-impact disruptions, which has been fairly evident with the COVID-19 pandemic. The capacity to address disruptions is essential for the survival of any organization. Coping with increasing complexity and uncertainties requires a systemic view of supply chains and rapid decision-making. This study outlines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chains as well as provides two strategies for forming resilient supply chains in the post-pandemic environment. COVID-19 unraveled the weaknesses in decades-long JIT approaches and extended global supply chains. Moving forward, these weaknesses calls for a systemic understanding of the supply chains. Fixing and focusing on only part of a supply chain will only create other bottlenecks, therefore, necessitating a supply chain orientation approach. Furthermore, the need for urgent action in disruptions like COVID-19 calls for rapid decision-making and removing silos among firms and business functions. When crises are moving fast, so should decision-making. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.