THE TICKET OF THE WEEK
By Jean-Marc Bacquet, Lieutenant General, General Officer of the Army in second section
Supply Chain and History-Geography: a long love affair
The importance of knowing how to decipher the history of horizons
Understanding space.
If, as Yves Lacoste says, geography is first and foremost used to wage war, the great explorers of yesterday and today could reply that geography is first and foremost used to bring people together.
Geographic space is the result of a long process that cannot be entered with impunity. Placed at the heart of supply chain concerns, resource flows are first established in a geography of places whose constraints and facilities, openings and closures, must be understood.
In the perspective of a sustainable activity, understanding the geographical scale on which one interacts is today to grasp the scope of one's footprint, heavy or light, in the ever increasing respect of a fragile environment.
Understand the story.
The encounter with the other is first and foremost the encounter of two stories that sometimes oppose each other but most often combine and enrich each other. There can be no serene and sustainable economic activity without understanding and respect for the mutual histories of those who choose to undertake together.
Consubstantially open to the world that it must crisscross with humility, the supply chain therefore feeds on the understanding of the history of others, which it knows how to enhance along a path that respects the trace and the contribution of each contributor.
In the perspective of a better resilience of organizations, understanding the history of the worlds in which we venture is to prepare ourselves with patience for the ruptures and surprises that the uninterrupted theater of operations likes to keep on display.
Travel the world.
In an open and connected world, no entrepreneur can ignore the hot and cold winds that sweep across the distant plains and valleys and ultimately affect his or her business. Increased interdependence is the marker, chosen or suffered, of a planetary civilization inexorably on the move.
The men and women in the supply chain know this well, as they travel the world in search of the resources necessary for their company's activity, but above all for the satisfaction of an increasingly demanding clientele in terms of the deep meaning they legitimately place in the act of purchasing.
Yet this world is regularly shaken by violent spasms that weaken the balance and lower the ambitions of an intertwined economy. To understand the geographical and historical forces of a world in perpetual recomposition is a necessity, and forgetting this is always very costly.
Without seeing the intimate and living link that brings Supply Chain and History-Geography together and that allows to grasp the connivance of the scales of time and space, the company deprives itself of a part of the intelligence of the world it wants to serve
NOT TO BE MISSED
The presidents of France Supply Chain remember
On the occasion of the 50 years of France Supply Chain, we contacted the former presidents in order to dedicate them a weekly column with Radio Supply Chain.
In this series of interviews, they will share with you the memories of their mandates. Find now the interviews of Denys Liurette, Laurent Grégoire, Yves Le Denn, Pascale Eymery, Frédéric Hendricks and Jean-Michel Guarneri on our Youtube channel.
Events
Find all the events around the Supply Chain.
