What is a supply chain?

A network of connected and interdependent organisations mutually and cooperatively working together to control, manage and improve the flow of materials and information from suppliers to end users.
— Martin Christopher, Logistics & Supply Chain Management: Creating Value-Adding Networks, 4th ed, Pearson Education Limited 2011, p4
 

By some estimates, inefficiencies in the global supply chain impose overhead costs of between 15% and 20% of global GDP cumulatively. In private, some economists have said that estimate is unrealistically low, especially since such overhead costs can run as high as 70% – 80% in the developing world. Supply chain inefficiencies dampen corporate profits, and lower societal well-being. This presents an opportunity to solve a large and pervasive global problem, and to significantly boost global economic growth and prosperity in the process. The goal of The New York Supply Chain Meetup is to become a focal point for the formulation of questions, and the pursuit of the answers that will lead to comprehensive, sustainable and profitable solutions.

Building on the unique characteristics of New York City, #TNYSCM will become the world’s foremost multi-disciplinary community of practice for individuals and organisations committed to investigating and developing solutions for problems in global supply chain networks at startups, large corporations, academic institutions, and everything in between. A particular area of interest is the use of distributed ledger technologies, and other cutting edge technologies, as a foundation for innovation in supply chain networks.

The New York Supply Chain Meetup is powered by REFASHIOND Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund that is being built to invest in startups creating innovations refashioning global supply chains