Nine retailers named to Gartner top global supply chain ranking
A notable direct-to-consumer newcomer joins the annual Gartner Global Supply Chain Top 25 list.
The new 2023 edition of the annual listing of global companies Gartner identifies as having leading supply chains includes nine companies that are retailers or have strong direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels. This is the same number of retailers (though not every company repeated) than was included in the 2022 ranking.
Microsoft was the highest-ranked retailer/DTC company at #7, followed by Walmart (#9), L’Oreal (#10), The Coca-Cola Company (#11), Tesla (#14), Dell Technologies (#19), McDonald’s (#20), HP Inc. (#21), and Alibaba Group (#23). Tesla, the DTC electric auto manufacturer owned by multi-billionaire Elon Musk, is debuting on the list.
Schneider Electric topped the list, with Cisco Systems coming in second after taking the top spot for the previous three years. Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo rounded out the top five.
For 2023, Gartner says the Top 25 supply chain companies are embracing three trends:
Identifying and capturing new opportunities
According to Gartner, the best supply chain organizations are positioning themselves as a partner for growth, while also seeking to master supply chain risks. This means investing in a strategy that supports rapid mitigation and recovery from existing disruptions, as well as the ability to anticipate and avoid future supply risks while taking advantage of opportunities for growth.
Driving individual and collective progress
Gartner analysis indicates leading supply chain organizations are shifting from one-to-many networks to many-to-many ecosystems. These ecosystems provide the scale to support efforts such as net-zero emissions, regenerative agriculture, and supporting living wages throughout an organization’s global supply chain network. Gartner advises that meeting standards for nationwide charging grids for electric vehicles will pose a significant challenge.
Transforming the way their organizations work
Supply chain leaders are altering the ways employees approach their jobs by leveraging various automated and robotic technology solutions, says Gartner. Significant investments have been made in developing and automating sensors on factory and warehouse floors over the past few years. Several are using automation, digitalization and analytics to drive higher efficiency and product quality in these environments.
"The leading companies on our list are notable for pursuing new avenues of growth at a time when disruptions remain a near constant threat," said Mike Griswold, VP team manager with the Gartner Supply Chain practice. “The best supply chain organizations are embracing the moment by both pursuing growth, while also evolving more sophisticated risk management approaches.”
Methodology
The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 ranking comprises two main components: business performance and opinion. Business performance in the form of public financial and ESG (environmental, social, governance) data provides a view into how companies have performed in the past three years, while the opinion component offers an eye to future potential and reflects leadership in the supply chain community. These two components are combined into a total composite score.
Gartner experts derive a list of companies from a combination of the Fortune Global 500 and the Forbes Global 2000. In an effort to maintain the list of companies evaluated at a manageable level, a general annual revenue threshold of $12 billion has been applied and companies without physical supply chains are excluded.