Let’s discuss how we want to see supply chain transformation in the next few years

A longer self-questioning article to clear my toughts and to discuss real life companies already working on this for years.

Being one of the passionate followers of the crypto world, I feel amazed at the hundreds of new ideas popping up, daily. Amazed at the creativity blockchain unlocked. Like at the turn of the century they say, with the .com companies.

Keywords: creativity, reality check, survivors, average person, needs, transparency, short term gains, reach, the list, real life, use cases, Eurosender, MarkIT, Izvor, Origin Trail, internal, external, payment transparency, future.

Maximum 10% will survive

One must feel threathened at the idea only about 10% of the ideas, companies, will survive the next 2–5 years, if the »bubble« does not pop before. They say. Let’s take this as a reality check and let’s look at this from the positive point of view and rather find those few, several ideas, that will make it. Let’s find survivors.

What does the world need

In order to do that, we need to first understand what does the world need, what does a normal, average person need. How can an average person benefit from blockchain? Ones might say it is the individual investors making profits on crypto hype. For sure. But what about an average person, not computer skilled, not highly educated? What’s in it for them?

Transparency

I think the greatest benefit they will receive is the transparency. The most crucial thing that builds trust and makes us relax and not to be under stress all the time. As majority of writers online agree, transparency is the biggest pain current establishment is avoiding. Transparency in business and personal relations forces you to actually adhere to values that in short term objective do not bring large profits, only in long term one.

Why short term gains?

But everybody is looking at the short term gains, which is not the way to go, if you ask my opinion. Is it more difficult to go long term way? Yes. Why? You need to have a sincere interest to do the best possible for people buying from you. Individual or company buyers, it is the same, they are people as you are.

If you are not doing it this way, how can you expect they will be loyal? You can’t.

How to reach transparency

One of the transparencies I am most interested in, is the supply chain transparency. I find it most impactfull in every day life of an average person. We trust our judgement and feeling about the person doing business with us. But what about web shops, there is no person talking to us, right? Well, it’s hard.

How can we know somebody is not ripping us off selling certain item at a certain price? Currently, in 99% of cases, we can’t know that. We just demand the most discount we can get. Well, to me, discount is a reap-off. Why not a fair price from the start?

What about bio, eko, vege ingredients transparency? Can we trust 100% we are getting what we are paying for? Do we know where the food on my table is coming from, really?

What about food quality transparency? There is a great article about it from Mr. Artur Safaryan, called »Food You Trust: How Blockchain Will Reinvent the Supply Chain«. Find it here.

The list goes on and on.

Cases from my local environment

The best I can do is to present some cases of companies already involved with this for years, so you can get to know them. Mostly they are hidden amongst the loud marketing screams of conventional way of doing business.

As a Slovenia based, I have more insight in slovenian and EU market and will therefore use these kind of cases, to explain my point of view. They are based on my personal experience, so might be a bit biassed, but I honestly believe in them.

Eurosender, established about 5 years ago, they run leading digital platform for booking logistics services in Europe. At the core of their service you find the belief that logistics should be simple and transparent. Once again, transparent. Great, that’s the way to go. Check them out.

MarkIT, established about 13 years ago, providing the best total cost of IT purchasing for companies large or small. Using online purchasing platform they cover all EU countries and expanding worldwide as we speak. Simple, useful and transparent. Once again, transparent. Taking the chasing out of IT purchasing. Check them out.

Izvor by Origin Trail, established about 5 years ago, providing consumers with the information about the ingradients used in food they buy every day. They are partnering with companies which share the value of transparency about the ingredients origin and find this as an important differentiator of their brand toewards other brand on the market. They show what they sell. Local ingredients. Once again, transparency. Check them out.

BTW: Origin trail is preparing for ICO, accepting the whitelist applications right now. Check it out.

Possible future development

So what’s the future of supply chain transparency, which of the three options below you think will happen? I wote for the last one, I see it as the only long term successful. Loyalty is king.

· Internal transparency — companies already working in supply chain will build their own internal blockchains to optimuize the processes and make integrations easier.

· External transparency — combination of internal process optimizations integrated to public blockchains which show ietms path through supply chain, it’s origin, ingradients used, ingradients origin, etc.

· Complete transparency — upgraded external transparency with additional information layer about the distribution of the payments in the supply chain. For example, what is the price of the item at producer, distributor, reseller and end customer. The way to go for Fairtrade, in my opinion. A tipping point for them to get more consumers on their side, avoiding doubts of overpaying for something that is not as it seems and is promissed. I am sure Fairtrade is doing their job correctyl, but this is another evidence of their obligations.

So, any idea where the future will take us? Let me know.

Miha