I always appreciate the insight offered by Edward Hertzman, Founder and President of the Sourcing Journal. Last October, which seems like a long time ago now, his organization put together the 2021 Sourcing Summit. The theme was “Inflection Point.” He says, “What do we mean by that? I see it as an opportunity, but also a potentially catastrophic fork in the road. The decisions we all make over the coming months will have a long-lasting impact on the success, or failure, of our businesses. As much as we want things to go back to the way they were, we can’t go back to 2019. Those days are over.”

A full report of the event can be found here, but I wanted to share a few highlights.

Because of the enforced hiatus of the pandemic, many companies worked on things they should have been working on for years, including rightsizing their organizations and retail footprints. But some also treated suppliers unfairly, reducing contract payments and even cancelling contracts without regard to their legal commitments. But as we exit the pandemic—or, perhaps more accurately, learn to live with it—are they continuing to change, or slipping back to “the way we’ve always done it.”