Oisin Cooke

Special Guest Blog Post written by Stela Jaqueta   In today’s fast-changing world, Africa’s role in global supply chains is at a tipping point. For too long, the continent has been viewed primarily as a source of raw materials rather than as a strategic partner in value creation. But what if we reimagined everything, from policies and technologies to mindsets and sustainability practices, through an Africa-centered lens? In this blog post, I explore five questions that challenge conventional supply chain thinking. From redefining Africa’s place at the global negotiation table, to elevating cultural intelligence from “soft skill” to strategic necessity, to designing climate-restorative logistics and embracing the digital revolution in a way that includes youth-led and informal businesses, each question is a call to rethink, redesign, and re-center. 1. What would a truly Africa-centered global supply chain look like? A truly Africa-centered global supply chain would shift from a model of extraction to one of empowerment and value creation. It would prioritize investment in local manufacturing, infrastructure, and knowledge transfer, ensuring that raw materials sourced from Africa are processed, packaged, and innovated on the continent. African-led businesses are seen as power players, with a voice and authority at the negotiation…

Supply Chain Now is the voice of the supply chain industry, and our hosts are experts in the field. Podcast listeners and webinar viewers tune in to hear the sage advice of host Jake Barr, heralded as an architect of global supply chain strategy and creator of “profit powerhouses.” Earning His Spot on Stage Barr today is the CEO of BlueWorld Supply Chain Consulting, which provides support to such Fortune 500 companies as Cargill, Caterpillar, 3M, PepsiCo, and Pfizer and helps them bring products to market. “We place a premium on accelerating speed to market by leveraging supply chain transformation,” he says. “The result is better operating margin performance and the opportunity to drive faster growth in revenue.” During his more than 33 years with Procter & Gamble, Barr served as the global director of supply network operations and led the end-to-end planning transformation project, which created control towers that now manage the daily business globally and earned him recognition as the architect for the company’s demand-driven supply chain strategy. He served on the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics advisory council for its Supply Chain 2020 Project, was named to the League of Leaders for retail and consumer goods…