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By Supply Chain 247
Tech companies need to reevaluate their supply chain operations in order to capture their slice of the $30 trillion emerging market growth opportunity.
Technology is a risky business – inherently unpredictable. Increasingly compressed lifecycles for many products is challenging in any market, allowing little room for error.But the relentless pace of change in the tech sector makes emerging markets even more of an uncertain bet.
This new white paper, Path to Growth: Shaping Tech Sector Supply Chains in Emerging Markets makes it clear that a ‘regionalized global supply chain’ model is emerging as the new paradigm to meet global shifts in demand. Regionalized supply chains, shortened product lifecycles and shifting demographics characterize the challenges and opportunities for the technology sector in emerging markets. The white paper identifies three supply chain practices the sector must adopt to capitalize on the emerging markets growth opportunity.
Private Consumption Growth
According to the white paper, three significant items are affecting the technology sector’s supply chain operations:
- The New Regionalized Global Supply Chain. To meet global demand and changing market dynamics, long-distance supply chains are transitioning to regionally based supply chains. The technology sector, already facing short product life-cycles, is an ideal candidate for near-shoring – moving manufacturing closer to the end consumer – according to the report.
- Compliance and Quality as a Top Priority. In addition to tax laws, safety regulations and standard market compliances, emerging markets are at a higher risk for corruption and other hurdles. The report argues that these concerns place added importance to selecting a trustworthy and reliable logistics partner.
- Emerging Market Strategies are not One-Size-Fits-All. Every emerging market is at a different stage in its evolution and has different consumer demands, challenges and opportunities. As a result, it is important for technology companies to tailor their operations and logistics strategies to each market.
Even as tech companies evaluate growth strategies in emerging markets, they do so recognizing that they are entering uncharted waters. Combine varying levels of infrastructure and unpredictable demand growth with the pressures of the tech sector – including expectations for near-instant service, product innovation, competitive price and personalization – and you have the definition of uncertainty.
Capitalizing on growing demand for technology products in rapid-growth markets, therefore, requires a supply chain designed specifically to meet the challenges posed by this constellation of risks.
