photo by cambodia4kidsorg

Why do operations professionals need to enhance collaboration skills within supply chains? Because transactions will continue to become increasingly complex. We have always dealt with supply and demand challenges, but the pace of innovation creates more liability for obsolescence, and as the drive to enhance the customer experience becomes greater, products and services become more varied and complex. We see an increased flow of goods and services between regional trading groups, and as the standard of living increases, customers become more sophisticated and demanding.

How do we best reap the benefits of global supply chain collaboration? Of course, we need to meet demand and contain costs, but we also need to be able to respond very rapidly to change. We need to be agile,

adaptable, and aligned.

We get everything done through people, and there is plenty of evidence that teams that work in different locations have significantly more challenges than co-located teams. We have lots of cool technology, with many synchronous communication tools, but we often overlook the human element of collaboration.

The foundation of all human connections depends on trust. We can deliberately build trust better and faster. And it is not rocket science.