Supply chain disruption poses global threat – here’s how
A worldwide supply chain shock would leave many businesses seriously exposed.
Slightly more than half (51%) of surveyed global CEOs say their businesses could not maintain their day-to-day operations for over three weeks without experiencing some form of disruption if a major supply chain shock occurred tomorrow. The new “Global Supply Chain Resilience Outlook” from Proxima, part of Bain & Company, also reveals 45% of respondents have experienced disruption from a cyber incident in the last two years, but only 35% have real-time visibility on cyber risk.
A majority (56%) of respondents say that if their top three suppliers were disrupted for two weeks, 11-20% of their revenue would be at risk. Almost one-quarter (24%) put the risk at 21-40% of revenue.
Fifty-one percent of respondents also said artificial intelligence is delivering measurable value in supplier risk monitoring. However, they identified barriers in further scaling AI use in the supply chain including data quality (38%), lack of skills (30%) and clarity around ROI (29%).
Almost eight-in-10 (78%) said internal tensions can arise from adopting and implementing fast-moving technologies such as AI while also staying adherent to business compliance practices.
CEOs will pay for resilience
The survey also asked respondents if they would be willing to accept an uplift on their current third-party supplier costs to guarantee supply chain resilience. Findings included:
- More than seven-in-10 (72%) say they would accept an uplift of more than 10%.
- When asked how they might fund such an uplift, 38% said they would pursue cost savings measures.
- More than one-third (35%) said they would pass price increases on to customers.
- More than one-quarter (26%) said they need to absorb the costs through reduced margins.
- The mean uplift in third-party supply chain costs respondents would accept to guarantee supply chain resilience is 17.3%.
[READ MORE: In 2026, retail supply chains are being rebuilt for resilience]
Supply chain threats
The survey further finds that respondents are facing a multitude of threats with roughly an equal number (17%-22%) saying conflict and geopolitical tensions, emerging technologies, sustainability targets and regulatory requirements, climate change and extreme weather events, and protectionist policies such as tariffs pose the greatest financial challenge to their supply chains.
"It is no secret that businesses are navigating a period of intense supply chain uncertainty,” said Simon Geale, executive VP at Proxima. "This research shows that CEOs are still very alert to disruption risk and that they are placing an increasing emphasis on building sustainable supply chain resilience to counteract."
Proxima’s Global Supply Chain Resilience Outlook is based on a survey of more than 500 CEOs at businesses generating more than $500 million in annual revenue across the U.K., U.S., Australia, Singapore and Germany.
