In the November edition of Resource Nation, Stanford University researcher Shawn Parcells offers a rare glimpse at the supply chain crisis. With regard to sourcing products, more U.S. companies are producing close to the consumer or importing or making much of their products in China than the average (but much fewer than years ago). And most suppliers are smaller, and at times totally dependent on American-style credit cards, Cash Value and retail credit cards for their survival.
Parrish argues that this is actually a good thing, but that larger firms that often benefit from this seem to spend almost no time cultivating these relationships. And when there’s a crisis like the current one, we have no fewer than three words to thank: Dick Costolo.
Costolo was the CEO of Twitter when the company announced it would cut the number of U.S. vendors it uses for its Dickies, canvas and canvas coated shirts and polos. The decision “prompted a domino effect” because a major middleman, Gold Coast Exports, became worried about losing business. That chain, though, was also suffering from the anxiety caused by China’s seemingly endless supply of cheap workers, and it responded by offering Dickies leather jackets manufactured in Vietnam.