Supply Chain Revolution: How Blockchain Technology Is Transforming the Global Flow of Assets

The COVID-19 crisis has taken precious lives and devastated the global economy. It has also revealed chinks in our supply chains. Not only did manufacturers find themselves scrambling unsuccessfully to find new suppliers when their Asian sources shut down, but the Western world experienced across- the-board shortages of essential consumer packaged goods for the first time in decades. The Blockchain has the potential to minimize these kinds of pandemic disruptions. In this book, the contributors show how the Blockchain can fix longstanding problems that make the business of getting goods to the customer so slow and expensive, especially in a crisis. Today’s supply chains are complex, as they move things through trucks, planes, boats, and trains. Too many parties rely on a hodgepodge of documents and intermediaries to do business, which makes it slow and expensive to get goods to the customer. That’s why, in a pandemic, an uninformed consumer might reasonably believe that toilet paper won’t be available for many months. Enter blockchain—the Internet of Value. For the first time in human history, individuals and organizations can manage and trade their assets digitally peer to peer. In doing so, they will reinvent global commerce and how we exchange value. This will transform the best practices of operations, logistics, procurement and purchasing, transportation, customs and border control, trade finance and insurance, manufacturing, and inventory management. Supply Chain Revolution identifies what leaders should be doing now to prepare their organizations for the inevitable decentralized future. With contributions from some of the world’s top experts, this book provides a view of the fast- approaching future of global supply chains, ripe for disruption at every level and in every role. Enterprise executives and entrepreneurs alike will find ideas and opportunities to learn, discuss with all their stakeholders, and decide how best to participate in the blockchain revolution.