Global Supply Chain: Risk and Resilience

On the 21st of September PIT partnered with BDO, University of South Australia and the ACCI to host a Global Supply Chain discussion and presented a webinar discussion about Australia’s Global Supply Chains. This even was an amazing event where our PIT community was able to hear from a number of industry leaders and network with like minded individuals.

The webinar began with a presentation by Catherine de Fontenay and Jonathan Coppel discussing their findings from the Productivity Commission’s report.

The Commission was asked to identify vulnerabilities in essential supply chains for Australia. While many have raised the alarm about supply chain risks, the Commission found that only one-in-five imports were vulnerable, in the sense of having few alternative sources. Of those vulnerable imports, only a subset are used in essential industries such as health, or key export industries. And not all of these imports are critical to the essential industry’s functioning. The Commission also looked at vulnerabilities in Australia’s export supply chains; aside from iron ore, 1.5% of exports are vulnerable, in the sense of having few alternative markets.

The Commission looked at what the government’s role should be in shoring up supply chains. How government should facilitate an international rules-based trading system, and consider how regulation may be preventing firms from managing their risk and responding to shocks. Government may need to intervene if there is market-level risk (rather than firm-level risk) in essential industries, and if firms’ appetite for risk differs from society’s.

The presentation was then followed by a panel discussion led by Susan Freeman, Professor of International Business, Centre for Enterprise Dynamics in Global Economies at the University of South Australia, as she explored industry experts experiences with supply chain issues arising from COVID-19 disruptions.

Bryan Clark, the Director at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry concluded the panel discussion and gave his final remarks. As the formal discussion concluded, webinar attendees were put into breakout rooms.

These breakout rooms were led by a number of industry leaders that provided everyone a chance to have their say, meet other participants and continue the discussion about their supply chain challenges and seek advice from other participants.

This event was an amazing success thanks to everyone who organised, contributed and participated to the discussions. Check out the full presentation on our Youtube here.

Final thanks…

A final thank you to Catherine de Fontenay and Jonathan Coppel for an insightful presentation of their findings from the Productivity Commission’s Report, and to Professor Susan Freeman for leading and Bryan Clark for closing out the panel discussion.

As well as all of our panellists for their valuable questions & contribution to our discussion:

Annette Kaitinis | Director | Scoot Boots Pty Ltd
David Gahnah | CEO | RxMx
Liz Hollingdale | CEO | Pool Controls
Richard Doland | Managing Director | Bec Hardy Wines
Bill Cole | Partner at BDO and Head of International Policy at PIT
Binh Rey | Events Lead | PIT

We would also like to thank our co-organisers: The University of South Australia, the ACCI, BDO and our dedicated PIT team members who did a fantastic job of orchestrating this successful online event.