Driving Growth With Your Supply Chain

Supply chain touches almost every aspect of operations within a company: from forecasting customer demand, to sourcing raw materials, to manufacturing, distribution and returns.

As a result, it can account for anywhere from 30% to 70% of a business' overall cost base. "It has to be on your radar screen from a cost perspective," says Lino Casalino, national leader, supply chain and procurement, PwC. "And it is for many private company leaders, but supply chain also represents an opportunity to propel top-line growth—and that's a perspective not widely shared. For example, if you are a retailer and don't have products on the shelf, you're out of stock and have missed a sale. A lot of companies think of supply chain as a cost centre. They don't always see it as helping to funnel top-line growth."