Supply Chain Risk Keeps Many U.S. Companies Out of Emerging Markets, Says New Study

A vast majority of U.S. companies (82%) would like to expand into new markets and 36% percent are eyeing expansion opportunities in the BRICS and MINT counties, according to a new survey of U.S. business decision makers recently released by “connected planning” specialist Vuealta.

However, 55% of the U.S. business decision makers surveyed said political uncertainty and its impact on their supply chains is a key factor holding them back from moving in to new markets.

The findings also demonstrate that those surveyed don't believe that their business leadership understand how different factors could dramatically impact their supply chain. Nearly half (47%), said they did not believe their leadership understood the potential impacts of political and market uncertainty, 51% a cyber-attack and 49% a natural disaster.

As companies grow globally, there is inherently more risk as they manage more complex, global supply chains. Unfortunately, the majority of the US survey respondents indicated that they felt fairly unprepared to address unexpected challenges and almost one-fifth of respondents (18%) stated that their customer base was likely to feel the impact of a supply chain failure in less than one day. In reaction, over half (57%) of US companies are currently looking to re-shore a significant portion of their supply chain operations to the United States.

“Our research found that U.S. companies would like to expand into new markets, yet they're concerned about seeing critical supply chains and logistics disrupted by events outside of their control and 47% don't have the ability to rapidly model the impact of a potential failure on their supply chain,” said Ian Stone, CEO, Vuealta. “The good news is that this uncertainty can be addressed by businesses managing what they can control in real-time and planning for all eventualities. This level of preparation is achieved with a transparent, connected supply chain ecosystem which encourages collaboration between partners.”

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