The $28 Trillion Problem

Why Your Supply Chain Strategy Is Already Obsolete

The world’s supply chains are breaking. Not slowly, not predictably, but in cascading waves that leave executives scrambling to react. From the Suez Canal to semiconductor shortages to geopolitical shocks, the traditional playbook no longer works.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: if your company is still choosing between cost efficiency and resilience, you’re already behind. A new Roland Berger report, “Supply Chains in Polycrisis,” released recently, exposes why the old toggle-switch approach to supply chain management has become a liability. The consulting firm’s analysis reveals that companies must fundamentally rethink how they design global networks or risk being outmaneuvered by competitors who adapt faster.

When Everything Breaks at Once

The numbers tell a stark story. Between 2009 and 2025, global supply chains endured more disruptions than in the previous four decades combined. Each shock didn’t just cause temporary pain. It permanently altered the landscape.

COVID-19 shut down global trade overnight, exposing just-in-time manufacturing as dangerously fragile. The Ever Given container ship blocking the Suez Canal in 2021 proved a single bottleneck could halt $9 billion in trade per day. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced manufacturers across Europe to tear up production maps they’d relied on for decades.

Then came 2024. US tariff policies exceeded even pessimistic forecasts. China’s economic slowdown rippled across Asia-Pacific. Climate disasters disrupted transportation routes with increasing frequency. Political upheaval across multiple continents created uncertainty that traditional risk models couldn’t capture.

CEOs and supply chain officers now face a reality their predecessors never dealt with: disruptions don’t happen in isolation anymore. They compound. They overlap. They create cascading failures that traditional contingency planning can’t handle.