The six months of biblical flooding in Thailand that followed during that same year would seem to make 2011 an annus miserabilis best forgotten—but instead, those events continue to inform more nuanced thinking around, and response to, disruptions that have followed in their wake, such as last year’s massive flooding in the U.K. and Germany.
Prior to 2011, catastrophic events and supply chain disruptions typically brought all hands to the pump in their aftermath, but once things returned to something approaching normalcy, business as usual resumed, with risk issues retreating beneath cost savings and other day-to-day considerations with more readily understood bottom-line implications.
Redefining Supply Chain
The buzz in the business world on the heels of the 2011 CATs (as catastrophic events are referred to by risk experts) was all about the immediate supply chain disruption. But as the headlines faded from view, a more holistic and nuanced approach to managing and mitigating supply chain risk emerged. For starters, experts began to refer not to supply chain, but rather to “value chain networks.” This wasn’t just a case of business lingo gone wild, as is so often the case, but rather an acknowledgement that companies needed to strategically address risk issues far beyond not being able to get widgets from Point A to Point B.
In short, it wasn’t just the castle that was coming under attack. It was the entire kingdom.
“The Japanese tsunami and Thai floods were game-changers,” says Nick Wildgoose, Global Supply Chain Product Leader at Zurich Insurance Group and Chairman of the Supply Chain Risk Leadership Council.
“The 2011 issues continue to have a colossal impact on industry.”http://www.bloomberg.com/native/article/?mvi=8d74023956614e23900266a441530879#!/
