Gartner’s Top 25 Contains a Few Surprises

Gartner, Inc. has released the findings from its ninth annual Supply Chain Top 25. The goal of the Supply Chain Top 25 research initiative is to raise awareness of the supply chain discipline and how it impacts the business.

Analysts announced the findings from this year’s research at the recently-concluded Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference.

“At the heart of the Supply Chain Top 25 is the notion of demand-driven leadership,” said Debra Hofman, managing vice president at Gartner.
“We’ve been researching and writing about demand-driven practices since 2003, highlighting the journey companies are taking: from the old ‘push’ model of supply chain to one that integrates demand, supply and product into a value network that orchestrates a profitable response to ever-shifting changes in demand.”

Alongside some perennial leaders with new lessons to share, Gartner’s 2013 Supply Chain Top 25 offers three new companies, a growing group of industrials from which to learn, and two newcomers to the Top 5. The Top 5 includes three from last year —  Apple, McDonald’s and Amazon — and two that are new to the Top 5 but have been rising steadily — Intel and Unilever — while the three new companies joining the top 25 this year are Ford, Lenovo and Qualcomm.

Apple tops Gartner’s ranking for a record-breaking sixth year in a row, continuing to outpace everyone else by a wide margin on all five measures used. Apple was ranked No. 1 again by the peer voters, capturing 75 percent of the highest possible points a company can get across the voting pool. Nos. 2 and 3 switched places this year, with McDonald’s capturing the No. 2 slot and Amazon coming in at No. 3.

This, however, was not reflected in the peer voters’ opinion. Amazon ranked a very close second behind Apple in the peer vote, almost completely closing the opinion gap from previous years and fast gaining on Apple’s voting position.

In his keynote address, John Phillips, SVP of Customer Supply Chain and Logistics for PepsiCo, indicated that next year’s list might be disrupted by the social media strategies of outliers in the Top 25.

Tracking social trends in the supply chain is aiding the “demand sensing” connection currently employed by Pepsi, he added.

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