With new crises seemingly emerging weekly, risk management has taken on a new urgency. Leading companies recognize the importance of a solid supply chain risk discipline, but grapple with scope, ownership, metrics, and ties to other types of strategic and operational risks facing the business.

The election of Barack Obama in the United States, the repercussions of the global "financial bailout" and a potential increase in environmental regulations will affect supply chain operations at multiple levels. The ability to quickly monitor and absorb these changes in supply chain structures will be the main agenda for 2009.

To make multi-echelon inventory optimization more impactful, it must take a more holistic approach that accounts for the implications of inventory decisions on total supply chain costs, for organizational realities and weaknesses in supporting functional areas.

Core high-tech consists of semiconductors, contract & design manufacturing, original equipment manufacturing, consumer electronics, and telecommunications. Most companies in this segment are highly impacted by the economic downturn, trying to reduce working capital, and segmenting product decisions based on profitability.

There is nearly unanimous recognition of the need for supply chain transformation driven by factors such as the globalization of supply, increasing competitive pressures, and dwindling product life cycles from companies. This transformation's initial state is the linear supply chains of the past and the final state is a dynamic multi-enterprise business network.

2009 is certainly shaping up to be a difficult year for manufacturers. Tight credit markets, poor consumer confidence and retail sales, along with low manufacturing activity, suggests that overall supply chain investment activity will be reduced and cost-savings activities will be prioritized.

Staying afloat during times of economic challenge may require companies to rethink the way they have traditionally conducted their businesses. Finding ways to standardize and streamline processes may be essential to reducing costs within the demand/supply chain planning functions.

The green imperative is expanding into virtually all walks of life and all facets of the economy. Demonstrating green credentials is increasingly a minimal stakeholder expectation and business risk management factor, and is shifting from an order-winning to an order-qualifying attribute. Swallow that carbon pill! A whole swath of additional environmental expectations may well be just around the corner, as well as a whole new way of looking at "green" and the environment.

For the last three years global corporations have added "green" and "sustainability" to the supply chain agenda, in particular with respect to climate change and carbon footprint reductions. This trend coincided with unprecedented economic growth and record-breaking energy prices. With recession looming, supply chains will face their true commitment to the environment as they adjust operations.

For those who maintain that companies have no business getting involved with responsibility-driven endeavors because, after all, "the business of business is business" there is often a lack of awareness of the business benefits-and practical imperatives-associated with responsibility-driven endeavors. Likewise, critics who point out that it is only for shameless cost or reputation-related motives that companies adopt responsibility-driven platforms often fail to acknowledge the many positive social and environmental outcomes even of initiatives with top or bottom line-driven goals. Case study interviews with firms of all sizes indicate that these critiques illuminate an outmoded way of understanding the social, economic, and environmental imperatives of this historic moment.