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Posted by David Sexton
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15 Sep, 2026
BOLSTERING supply chain resilience during a time of turbulence is a key message to come from a new book aimed at the business community.
The book, Australia: A Lighthouse in the Global Storm – The CEO Imperative, was published by Kearney, a global management and consulting firm.
Senior partner and one of the authors Kate Hart spoke with DCN about shifting from long, fragile global supply chains into "hyperlocal, digitally connected networks designed to absorb shocks, adapt to disruption and recover quickly, while retaining regional and global flexibility".
Ms Hart specialises in consumer and retail, transformation and sustainability.
The book argues five pressure points will define resilience over the next decade:
- United States–China relationship
- Clean energy transition (Australia imports 90% of its solar panels from China)
- Pharmaceutical supply security
- Ageing transport infrastructure
- Agricultural exports exposed to biosecurity and market access risk.
“We have seen many examples in recent years of the infrastructure being impacted by significant climate events and having to scramble significant capital required to upgrade the infrastructure,” Ms Hart said.
“The supply chain has been looked at from a cost reduction sense and perhaps been underinvested in.
“Whereas now we are really talking about supply chain resilience and that does come at a cost but not having a resilient supply chain and not being able to provide for a customer’s requirements also comes at a significant cost.
“We can’t afford not to have resilient supply chains, domestically inbound and the like.”
Ms Hart also spoke of biosecurity exposure, with Australia being a key exporter of agricultural products and a food bowl in some areas.
“A biosecurity event can become an export issue with cascading effects across the supply chain,” she said.
“The perspective here is resilience, be it biosecurity, be it climate impact. It is about having options and being able to ‘plan ahead’ and know where your options are to respond to these events.”
