For decades, supply chain management plagued enterprises across Africa. Inventory costs ran high while customer satisfaction ran low. But in recent years, a revolution in precision logistics has transformed business outcomes across the continent.
The key? Aligning delivery capabilities with customer truth.
Supply chains fail for one reason: misalignment. Misalignment between transportation capacity and demand patterns. Misalignment between lead times and urgency of need. Misalignment between inventory levels and order variability.
In other words, misalignment between supply chain capabilities and customer reality.
Traditionally, African enterprises built supply chains from the inside-out. They optimized for cost or operational simplicity, not customer experience. The result? Disaster. Excess spending on safety stock. Lost sales from stockouts. Angry customers from late deliveries.
But today’s leaders have woken up. They’ve realized the power of outside-in thinking. Of building supply chains around deep customer insights, not internal assumptions.
This new breed of leaders wields five weapons:
1. Truth-Seeking
They relentlessly probe customer pain points through observation and inquiry. No assumption goes unquestioned.
2. Cause-Mapping
They trace problems back to their root, refusing to settle for surface-level explanations.
3. Future-Painting
They envision the customer’s desired future state and work backwards to the capabilities needed to enable it.
4. Metric-Setting
They define success in customer terms, not operational vanity metrics. On-time delivery means on-time for the customer’s needs.
5. Capability-Building
They invest in talent, technology and processes that align with customer reality. No matter how uncomfortable the changes required.
With these five disciplines, African enterprises are slashing logistics costs and delighting customers. They’re unlocking new strategies like direct-to-consumer and same-day delivery once thought impossible. And opening new markets across the continent and globe.
The supply chain revolution has only just begun. Will you lead it?
