Supply Chain Risk.. businesses biggest challenge?
The biggest external challenge faced by businesses is supply chain risk, according to this latest survey by Xchanging Procurement, and discussed in Supply Management.Xchanging plc, the business technology and services provider, today issues the second set of results from its 2015 Global Procurement Study, this time focused on external threats and challenges to the supply chain.
The study is a major international project that surveyed 830 procurement decision-makers across the UK, Europe and North America.
The research reveals the greatest external challenge for businesses’ operations is supply chain risk, with more than three quarters (77%) of respondents claiming this is a challenge, and 17% an ‘extreme challenge’.
Around two thirds of respondents claim to be challenged by regulation and audit (71%); lack of supplier innovation (63%); and fluctuations in currency (58%) in their business operations
More than a quarter of respondents (28%) see currency and exchange rate fluctuations as a significant external threat. This jumps to 35% in respondents from mainland Europe, with the Euro still under pressure against the Pound and other major currencies, and nervousness in the region over Greece's debt negotiations.
More than a quarter of respondents (26%) also cite oil prices as a major external threat to their businesses, with global oil prices having fallen sharply in recent months (by more than 40% since last summer), leading to significant revenue shortfalls in many energy exporting nations and concerns about oversupply in some markets.
One in five respondents feel their operations are threatened by purchasing power laws and regulation, tax and the Eurozone crisis. Unsurprisingly, the percentage citing the Eurozone crisis as a threat jumps to more than a third (34%) in respondents from mainland Europe. 81% of respondents also claim orgainsational spend cuts are a challenge, again most likely due to the Eurozone crisis and ongoing austerity in companies operating in the region.
Xchanging’s 2015 Global Procurement Study was conducted during Q1 2015 by Opinium Research.
Opinium conducted 830 telephone interviews with senior procurement professionals across five markets (France, Germany, Spain, UK and US). Interviews were conducted in native languages between January and March 2015.
The study achieved broadly equal numbers of responses from the US (36%), UK (31%) and Mainland Europe (33%).