Supply chains move to the boardroom as volatility becomes the new normal
For years, supply chains were viewed largely as operational functions focused on sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, and fulfilment. Today, however, they have become strategic assets that increasingly influence growth, profitability, resilience, and customer experience.
According to Razat Gaurav, CEO of Kinaxis, this shift is fundamentally changing how business leaders think about supply chains and why they now occupy a prominent place in boardroom discussions.
In an exclusive interaction with Express Computer, Gaurav explains how organisations are moving beyond operational efficiency towards intelligent, data-driven supply chain decision-making, and why volatility is forcing enterprises to rethink traditional planning models.
Supply chain leadership becomes a strategic function
Gaurav believes the growing strategic importance of supply chains stems from their direct impact on business performance.
While sourcing, manufacturing, and logistics remain critical functions, planning and decision-making have emerged as the real differentiators.
“Organisations have become a lot more informed about the strategic importance of balancing demand with supply. Once you’ve launched new products, you’ve got to make sure you’re balancing demand with supply. You have to do it with the least amount of inventory, the lowest amount of total landed cost, and in a way that maximises service levels to customers.”
He points out that global enterprises increasingly recognise supply chain expertise as a pathway to executive leadership.
“Global companies have had supply chain executives that have gone on to become CEOs. Tim Cook is a famous example. Lots of global companies have had supply chain executives who became key parts of executive teams or the boardroom themselves.”
India, he adds, is also becoming more conscious of supply chain innovation, particularly as customer expectations continue to evolve. “India is taking it to a whole new level with 10-minute, 15-minute and 30-minute delivery windows. That doesn’t happen without really thinking about supply chains.”
Breaking down fragmented visibility
Despite significant investments in digital transformation, many enterprises continue to struggle with fragmented visibility across their supply chain ecosystems.
The challenge, according to Gaurav, is that supply chain data remains scattered across multiple systems, from ERP and order management platforms to warehouse and transportation systems. “There is no one single system of record for all supply chain data. Data sits in tens or hundreds of different systems.”
The solution lies in creating a digital representation of the physical supply chain. “Supply chains don’t exist in the cloud. They exist on factory floors, in warehouses, containers and pallets. It’s important to take data from all those systems and create a digital representation of the physical supply chain,” he adds.
This digital model enables organisations to understand dependencies, constraints, costs, and operational impacts in real time. It allows leaders to assess how shifts in demand affect production plans, inventory positions, and fulfilment capabilities across the network.
Resilience becomes as important as efficiency
The past few years have dramatically altered the way organisations think about supply chain risk.
While efficiency, cost control, and service levels remain important, resilience has emerged as a critical priority following the disruptions caused by the pandemic, geopolitical tensions, regulatory shifts, and changing consumer behaviour. “What we’ve tracked is that volatility for both demand and supply has been growing. It became very visible during COVID, but it has continued since then.”
Gaurav recalls how the pandemic exposed hidden vulnerabilities across global supply chains, including India’s dependence on international suppliers for critical pharmaceutical ingredients.
More recently, factors such as tariffs, economic uncertainty, shifting regulations, and evolving consumer habits have added new layers of complexity.
“The consumer in India is changing dramatically. My mother still goes to a kirana store, while my nephew orders groceries online and gets them delivered in 15 minutes. These generational shifts are creating major changes in demand patterns.”
As a result, organisations are no longer optimising solely for cost, cash, and service.
“Risk has become a fourth leg to the stool. Supply chains today have to balance cost, cash, service and risk.”
AI finds its place in supply chain planning
Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly embedded within supply chain operations, but Gaurav notes that the use cases are highly specialised and mathematically intensive.
Forecasting, demand planning, inventory optimisation, and production planning all require sophisticated modelling capabilities that can process massive amounts of data and complex relationships.
Using the automotive industry as an example, he explains how forecasting must account for hundreds of dealer locations, multiple vehicle models, countless configurations, and deeply layered bill-of-material structures. “The use cases in the supply chain are very quantitatively driven. Understanding the physics of the supply chain layered with sophisticated algorithms and agents is what really drives the best decisions and the best outcomes.”
Rather than replacing decision-makers, AI helps organisations process complexity at a scale that would be impossible through manual planning alone.
Why India matters
India is becoming increasingly important in the global supply chain landscape, both as a manufacturing hub and as a source of technology talent.
For Gaurav, India’s significance extends across three dimensions: talent, market opportunity, and global competitiveness. “India is a growing source of talent for us. Today about 22% of our global workforce is based in India, and I expect that percentage to continue growing.”
Beyond talent, India also plays a critical role for multinational companies that view the country as one of their largest growth markets. He reminds that at the same time, Indian-headquartered enterprises are becoming stronger global competitors.
As supply chains become more complex and interconnected, Gaurav believes the organisations that succeed will be those that can combine visibility, intelligence, resilience, and speed into a single decision-making framework.
In an era defined by uncertainty, supply chains are becoming one of the most important strategic levers available to business leaders.
