Building a Customer-Centric Supply Chain Strategy: Enhancing Competitive Advantages
The IUP Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 28-42, 2019
14 Pages Posted: 24 Jul 2019 Last revised: 18 Jan 2022
Date Written: July 23, 2019
Abstract
Customers are crucial to any business, as without customers, there will be no sales; and without sales, there will be no revenue and profits. Hence, there is a lot of attention on ‘customer-centricity’. With competition now at the supply chain level, competitive advantage comes from the ability of supply chain partners to co-ordinate and integrate strategies aimed at satisfying the ultimate customers of the supply chain at a relatively low total cost. Customer-centric supply chain strategy provides an approach to respond to these challenges as it strives to match supply and demand, thereby driving down costs and simultaneously improving customer satisfaction. This study works in this direction to underline the significance of customer-centric supply chain strategy. The study also provides supporting matrix to underscore the various attributes of customer-focused supply chain strategy; develops 4Rs (responsiveness, resilience, reliability and realignment) framework for building customer-centric supply chain strategy; and formulates a value creation framework to emphasize the overall benefits in terms of improved firm performance.
Keywords: customer-focus, customer-centric, supply chain, strategy, competitive advantages
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