Supply chain risk management in the Retail & Consumer industry

The greatest asset for a company in the retail and consumer company is its reputation. To quote Warren Buffet, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it." Consumer products manufacturers, retailers, and others along the supply chain are more prone to reputation risk today than ever before. Globalization has created new business models & new challenges; the financial crisis has heightened internal & external company fraud; and growing, complex supply chains have increased the need for monitoring and mitigating risks from source to sale, making supply chain integrity a critical concern for R&C companies today.

Retail and Consumer companies must be particularly vigilant in protecting their brands and reputation from increasing reliance on suppliers and sub-suppliers because of the cost reduction demands on the supply chain which has the consequence of making the supply chain almost a cost center with demands on suppliers to reduce and lower per unit costs. This can result in unapproved substitutions to products, a slacking of quality and possible product recalls. Because R&C companies sell directly to consumers and the trust in their products is important to repeat sales, anything that undermines trust can easily undermine and eroded a company’s reputation.

How we help clients

PwC offers a proven method to align risk appetite with strategic goals, deploy resources more effectively, reduce operational surprises and losses, and improve risk response. We collaborate with R&C companies to:

• Establish systematic approach to identifying and managing an organization’s business risks.
• Align risk appetite with strategic goals, deploy resources more effectively, reduce operational surprises and losses, and improve risk response.
• Perform a performance analysis, "what if" modeling, business model assessment, and a customer/product profitability analysis.
• Help properly manage computer systems and security, fraud programs, internal audit effectiveness, and audit committee oversight and regulatory compliance.
• Address extended supply chain issues, assisting them to adopt a strategic view to supply chain integrity, addressing both operational and reputation risks to the supply chain.
• Establish enhanced controls and systems for a long term solution.

How clients benefit from our work

• Meet brand protection goals and avoid reputation risk.
• Monitor compliance across the enterprise (including compliance with food safety regulations.
• Utilize a forward-looking policy to supply chain risk.
• Simplify global supply chain and streamline business processes across organization.
• Gain visibility into/avoid supply chain blind spots.
• Enhance crisis management procedures.