Overview
A growing body of evidence suggests that the structure of supply chains and the choices that companies make regarding their level of fragmentation and geographic spread have material impact on financial performance. This course is designed to help you design and manage supply chains that boost profitability and improve your firm’s performance.
With this overarching goal in mind, participants will learn the key concepts that underpin supply chain excellence. You will gain tools and frameworks to design supply chains and manage them for value creation and enhanced performance. You will learn how supply chain configuration and management could be a source of differentiation and sustainable competitive advantage.
Taking a multi-disciplinary approach, the program applies state-of-the-art thinking in management, strategy, marketing, and decision sciences to supply chain design and management. Participants will apply models and solutions to real-world challenges of logistics, sustainability, and inventories, and learn frameworks for strategizing outsourcing and extracting value from procurement. You will come away from the program with the understanding of how supply chains are redefining product design and production management for a competitive advantage, and the tools to manage them in the evolving business landscape.
The program is designed to specifically address the needs of managers in the context of Africa, and the learning objectives will be examined with explicit reference to the reality of Africa and its business dynamics. Specific emphasis will be placed on the multiple ways by which African firms participate in global supply chains and what local imperatives entail for the management of supply chains in the African context. The program is designed to meet the needs of African managers across the Continent.
What Will You Gain from the Program?
- Learn tools to align supply chain processes for operational excellence and design supply chains that improve profitability
- Explore state-of-the-art models and solutions to the challenges of managing complex local, regional, and global supply chains, including logistics, inventories, transportation, information, relationships with suppliers, and outsourcing
- Learn frameworks to manage supply chain risk on local, regional, and global scales. Analyse sources of supply chain risk and explore strategies to mitigate risk. Incorporate reputational risk into supply chain design
- Explore purchasing, production, and distribution strategies and understand the trade-offs involved with execution on local, regional, and global scales
- Gain tools to adapt your supply chain to change
- Gain understanding of managing supply chains sustainability, and learn to manage the tension between sustainability and economic fundamentals
- Learn to make sense of the complexity and uncertainty of managing supply chains in the context of Africa.
Who Should Attend?
The programme is designed for senior and mid-level managers involved in creating, optimising, or redesigning local, regional, or international supply chains and logistics systems.
If you are responsible for, or contribute to, the supply chain decision-making process in your company, and interested in learning strategies, concepts, and techniques necessary to manage more effectively your firm’s supply chain; if you want to gain a deeper understanding of the role supply chains play in your firm’s overall business strategy and competitive performance, this program is for you.
Benefits of Attending
By the end of the programme, participants should be able to:
- Gain a deep understanding of how emergent sustainability challenges and trends impact their sectors, roles and regions
- Identify the sustainability opportunities for their organizations, and how to leverage them as a source of competitive advantage
- Understand the business case for sustainability and the necessity for innovative organizational models that create positive social and ecological impact e.g. Creating Shared Value
- Develop their leadership, specifically the capacity to anticipate change and to develop innovative and creative responses that can shape Africa’s future
Program Format and Delivery Methods
The program is offered in a live format and is delivered on Strathmore Business School campus in two sections of one week each, spread over two months. A blend of lectures delivered by academic experts and industry novices, class discussions, video clips of real-life cases, guest lectures, field trip, as well as participants-led, faculty-guided discussions of real-life supply chain issues will provide rich and diverse learning experience. These will be combined with a variety of networking sessions, events and company visits to provide opportunities for informal engagements among participants and faculty.
These mixed activities will enable participants to broaden their professional network by exchanging ideas and best practices with peers from various industries and firms aimed at accelerating improvement at their firm. It will provide participants with wide vision on planning and strategic thinking with theories and models that can be adopted and implemented in the context of their industry and country.
One of the unique features of this program is the critical/emerging issues workshop, which facilitates discussion among participants concerning their most significant supply chain challenges and how to address them. This would offer a means to share and discuss industry best practices in a collaborative learning environment designed to provides tangible, relevant actions for potential implementation following the program.
The program will also include live field cases in which participants work in teams on supply chain related challenges experienced by real-life companies to offer solutions for their situations.
Program Academic Director: Lilac Nachum, Visiting Professor, SBS
The program consists of ten modules, each addresses a key issue in the design and management of supply chains:
Module 1. Supply chains as a source of competitive advantage
Module 2. The Make or Buy decision in the context of supply chains
Module 3. Designing supply chains on local, regional, and global scales
Module 4. Establishing and managing relationships with suppliers and subcontractors
Module 5. Managing supply chains ethically: reputational consequences
Module 6. Managing risk, building resilience into the design of supply chains
Module 7. Digitizing the supply chains
Module 8. Managing logistical challenges on regional and global scales in practice
Module 9. Managing supply chains in Africa: African firms as suppliers for global supply chains
Module 10. Managing supply chains in Africa: African firms as builders of supply chains
Modules
| Module/Title | Module Description | Key Learning Outcomes/ Objectives |
| 1. Supply chains as a source of competitive advantage | This module focuses on supply chains as a source of competitive advantage and improved performance |
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| 2 The Make or Buy decision in the context of supply chains | The decision what to do in-house and what to buy or outsource to a third party as defining the scope and nature of firms supply chain |
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| 3 Designing supply chains on local, regional, and global scales
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The choice between different geographic scales for the distribution of value-creating activities in supply chains | · The advantages and disadvantages of different geographic scales
· The trade-off involved in the choice of different scales and combinations thereof · Understand regulatory and political challenges of different geographies · Impact of transportation cost and cross-border regulations (e.g., tariffs) · Understand logistical challenges on different scales Guest speaker: Andrew Mold, UNCEA: Regional Integration and AfCFTA: Implications for supply chains |
| 4 Establishing and managing relationships with suppliers and subcontractors | The selection of suppliers and subcontractors and frameworks for managing the relationships with them | · Criteria for suppliers and subcontractors’ selection
· Sources of information about suppliers/sub-contractors at the local, regional, and global levels · Building trust in relationships with suppliers/subcontractors · State-of-the-art principles for managing relationships with suppliers/subcontractors to create value |
| 5 Managing risk, and building resilience into the design of supply chains | Designing supply chains that are resilient to political, economic, and natural risk, and building resiliency into supply chains. | · Sources of risk in supply chains: Local, regional, and global
· Imperatives of forces stemming from global instability (e.g., geopolitical tensions, trade wars, pandemics, natural disaster) · Uncertainty in the context of supply chains · Mitigation strategies to ensure efficient supply chains |
| 6 Managing GVCs ethically: reputational consequences | Designing and managing sustainable supply chains along multiple sustainability dimensions | · Sustainability and ethics in supply chains
· Analysing the ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) in the context of supply chains · Understanding the reputational consequences of ethical management of supply chain and how to manage them effectively |
| 7 Digitizing supply chains | Digital revolution in supply chain management, and how businesses can use technologies to improve supply chains’ efficiency | · Using digitization of supply chains to enhance responsiveness and agility
· Employing digital technology to improve supply chain management efficiency |
| 8 Managing logistical challenges in supply chains in practice | The design and execution of the logistics of supply chains and how logistics and integrated supply chain can contribute to firm competitiveness | · Leveraging on logistics capabilities to achieve superior supply chain performance.
· Managing inventory in supply chains · Connecting local operations to regional and global supply chain networks · Designing and executing state-of-the-art purchasing strategies |
| 9 Managing supply chains in Africa: Africa GVCs in the green economy | Working with global and local partners as suppliers; Environmental sustainability in GVCs | · Managing supply chains in Africa sustainably: The imperatives and opportunities of climate change
· The green economy and the management of supply chains in Africa · Maximize upgrading opportunities via global supply chains · Leverage supply chain participation to develop capabilities and improve competitive advantage |
| 10 Managing supply chains in Africa: African firms as builders of supply chains
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Africa-specific challenges related to building and managing supply chains to improve competitive performance | · Agriculture and natural resource-based supply chains in Africa
· Africa-specific sources of risk in supply chain management · Taking advantage of Africa’s diversity to enhance the effectiveness of supply chains · Understand the logistics and supply challenges and trade-offs in the context of Africa |
Executive Supply Chain Programmes - Brochure Request Form
Developing Great African Leaders
Key Details
Date: 14 – 25 October 2024
Cost: Kes 150,000 (all-inclusive)
Mode of delivery: Face-to-Face (in-person)
For more information, write to Arthur on akasina@strathmore.edu
Tel: +254 (0) 703 034 580. Cell: +254 (0) 722 545 400.
