Hi there! Welcome to the final edition of The Sidekick for 2024!

As we barrel towards a new year, this is a great time to reflect on why we started this newsletter. The topics covered were chosen with purpose, to show that nearly everything that happens here and abroad impacts the supply chain. 

I’ve often noticed that top procurement professionals have this belief in common - they consider being tuned into current events as part of their strategy. 

The other point of The Sidekick has been to show that there’s more to group purchasing organizations than you may have thought. GPOs should be considered not only savers of money, time and effort, but as trusted procurement advisors and valuable sources of truth. If your GPO isn't doing that for you, do you really have a partner?

While some of the topics may have seemed edgy, the reality is that we, in procurement and supply chain, work at the cutting edge of business trends, the economy, and geopolitics. We still have plenty to solve for, and there’s much work to do on the horizon.

Scroll down for a quick review of the year that’s been across the past 11 months. Starting next month, we’ll be shifting The Sidekick to an exciting new format, where you’ll hear more about what GPOs like Una can do for you. 

If you’ve enjoyed reading this newsletter, please share it with a friend or colleague in procurement or supply management - and if you haven’t done so, don’t forget to slam the “Subscribe” button above. 

Here’s hoping you have a restful break and all the best for the new year!

2024 Is Going To Be A Doozy! 

Our inaugural issue jumped headfirst into an edgy but fascinating topic - the Texas Nationalist Movement and the (remote) possibility of Texan secession. What would it mean for American supply chains if we had a hard border around the whole of Texas?

Spoiler: a bucket of disruptions and inefficiencies.

This issue also touched on China-Taiwan relations and explored the impacts of a potential military conflict.

Herds Shrink, Farmers Rage

This issue explored the EU’s war on its own farmers to understand the friction caused by overregulation and rapid decarbonization. Could it happen here in the US or has it already started?

You may have read that the US cattle herd is in decline – is this a consequence of drought conditions and market forces, or is the industry prepping itself for the policies and Executive Orders that have already been rolled out?

With Houthi rebel attacks dominating the headlines, I also checked out three possible oil shock disruptions in the Middle East and what they could do to U.S. supply chains.

Food Insecurity At Home and Abroad

After February's issue left readers hungry for more, Issue #003 served up an exploration of the wider challenge of food security at home and overseas. Why? Because the number of US farms is declining at an alarming rate, commodities like cocoa are facing an unprecedented supply crisis, and the EU is wargaming food shortages.

Plus, I asked the question on everyone’s minds - what the heck is going on with Boeing?

It seemed like you couldn’t open a news website back in March without reading about misdrilled holes, engines erupting into flames, and other “technical events.” It was like watching a live lesson about the consequences of reckless cost-cutting.

Baltimore Collapse Rattles Supply Chains

This issue checked out the supply chain impacts of the Baltimore bridge collapse. The loss of maritime traffic cost somewhere around $9 million per day, while thousands of port side jobs were impacted. 

The other big news in April: the end of non-compete agreements! This was BIG news for people who have felt trapped in their jobs, and for the economy as a whole which can expect a massive jolt in terms of mobility, innovation, and yes… even pay increases.

The BRICS Bash

In this issue, I looked at the BRICS countries’ plans to establish a currency to rival – and maybe one day replace – the US dollar’s dominant position in world trade.

Representing nearly 30% of the world’s economy, the bloc includes economic powerhouses China and India, and also some countries where relationships are extremely tense like Russia and Iran. How would a rival BRICS currency impact the US? 

Also, I checked out some of the ways the United States’ higher-for-longer rates policy was starting to bite. The Federal Reserve at the time was walking an increasingly wobbly tightrope with galloping inflation on one side and a “recession” on the other; I put recession in quotes because based on what I was taught in school, we’d already been in a recession for some time.

Beyond the Green Veneer

There’s this idea out there that the hot new technologies like electric cars are inherently green and sustainable. But the reality, as this issue explores, is a bit more complicated. The energy needs and environmental impacts are actually pretty darn complex.

And I think a lot of people just don’t appreciate how messy the energy picture can be, particularly around the energy mix used for charging and the massive carbon impacts of EV batteries.

Talking about batteries, this issue also checked out a Swiss startup connecting multiple lab-grown human mini-brains to create massive savings in energy usage. Brain-machine interface systems and bioprocessors might sound amazing to some, but I’m personally pretty creeped out.

What Happened to the Hustle?

What’s with all the “quiet quitting”? In this issue I wrote about the death of hustle culture, and the drivers behind workers doing the bare minimum and nothing more. What’s behind it?

Younger generations are asking themselves why they should risk burnout when it would take twelve years to save a typical down payment for a home. The erosion of the boundary between work and non-work hours - made a whole lot worse by remote working - also contributed to this movement.

And did you know the Chinese term for quiet quitting is “lying flat”? 

Food Inflation - Is Deflated Leadership to Blame?

Inflated food prices rarely come back down. They’re here to stay. But who or what is to blame? From extreme heat to crop disease, decades of underinvestment in agriculture, global conflict, and short-sighted land use; there’s a complex network of factors driving food prices sky-high.

In this issue, I took a look at these culprits and explored some of the ways we can fix this mess. Other news at the time included NASA deciding to replace Boeing with SpaceX due to safety concerns, and advanced US tech like semiconductors still somehow finding their way to Russia.

Generative AI - Fiction Meets Algorithm

It’s common knowledge at this point that OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Huawei, and other players are scrambling to throw everything at AI without a clear plan - hence the chaotic, dangerous output. This issue explores why, and how, GenAI makes mistakes.

We asked why GenAI so often goes barking up on the wrong tree during a task. I wrote it out of frustration at the impact we’re seeing here at Una.

If people are searching for “group purchasing” and are given an AI response that has been mashed together (often with misleading or outdated information) that can directly impact their experience - and ours as a business. It becomes harder for people to find us, fact-check information, and make a decision about whether to join a GPO.

U.S. Supply Chains Aren't Ready For This

In this Halloween-ish issue, I sounded the alarm over the spooky (and fragile) state of our international supply chains. With risks including geopolitical flashpoints around the globe, the rise of BRICS, and Chinese restriction of critical minerals, there’s only one way to describe the situation: vulnerable. 

I revisited a topic we should all take very seriously - the BRICS countries' intention to develop supply chains that bypass U.S. interests altogether. This shift threatens American companies and raises critical questions about reliance on foreign suppliers for essential materials.

With over 40 countries eyeing BRICS membership, the potential for a united front against U.S. economic power is growing.

Energy Security: A Cautionary Tale

Imagine waking one day to find that your energy supply is no longer secure. It sounds dramatic, but look across the Atlantic where this is a harsh reality. With Russia’s stranglehold on gas supplies and countries like the UK scrambling to import LNG from halfway around the world, it’s clear that energy security is heavily impacted by geopolitics.

Unless, that is, you’re in the enviable position of the United States where we currently produce more energy than we consume.

But can this last? This issue explores the lucky (and rare) state of energy surplus we currently find ourselves in, and the necessity of keeping it that way. At the moment, it’s driven by the shale oil boom, but when the economics of extraction no longer make sense, the shift to renewables is inevitable.

Can we build enough capacity, or will we need to import green power from our neighbors? 

If you’d like to see more, please hit the “subscribe” button below and please share with a friend.

The Sidekick will be back in 2025 with an updated format that's more focused and tailored to meet your needs.   

See you next year!

– Kris

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