MISI Hosts the First of MIT Global SCALE Network’s Series of Roundtables on Scenarios of Global Supply Chains

17 Mar 17

MISI successfully hosted the first of the six roundtables to be held at each center in the MIT Global SCALE Network to explore the implications of regulatory, social, and technological changes in the world on global and regional supply chains. A stellar group of 15 industry leaders from Malaysia, China, and Singapore gathered at MISI on Thursday, March 9 for four hours of discussions to identify and explore the key driving forces affecting the global and regional supply chains, and to deliberate their impact on the supply chains.

The participants in this invitation-only event came from a variety of industries—such as, banking, biomass, chemicals, food & beverage, industrial goods, oil & gas, retail, and logistics—as well as governmental organizations related to policy and industry investment. The roundtable discussion was facilitated by Mr. Jim Rice (MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics) and Dr. Shardul Phadnis (MISI).

The discussion in the roundtable focused on themes, such as growing sentiment in the West towards anti-globalization, formation of new regional alliances, the internet of things and Industry 4.0, and so on.

The data gathered from this roundtable will be published in a report by MISI by mid-May. The findings of this roundtable will be compiled with those from five other roundtables to be held at the five other centers in the MIT SCALE Network, and published in a report by the SCALE Network describing the sentiment of a global community of supply chain leaders regarding the major driving forces of the business environment and their implications for supply chains.

The response from the roundtable participants before, during, and after the event has been highly positive. As a result of the supportive feedback, MISI is considering hosting its own series of smaller and focused workshops to explore the issues discussed at the roundtable.