Announcing LINK: An Ecosystem to Accelerate Global Supply Chain Innovation

Written By Ali Jordan

Innovation Endeavors and Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP) are bringing together leading global companies and agile startups to transform the technology and infrastructure of the global supply chain.

While the world's supply chains are required to accelerate to the speed of e-commerce, many of the processes, technologies, and infrastructure are mired in 20th century thinking. As consumers continue to expect items bought online to arrive quickly and cheaply, it places enormous pressure on traditional supply chains that are not set up for rapid and flexible delivery. The global COVID-19 crisis has now put a spotlight on this long-standing problem: supply chains operate as disparate, disconnected nodes rather than as a cohesive and collaborative ecosystem. With limited integration and visibility, each company feels pressure to make a challenging decision: Do I run a more flexible and extensive (but costly) network of inventory and assets, or a less costly, tighter operation that may be more efficient most of the time but inflexible when crises hit? At Innovation Endeavors and SIP, we believe that emerging technologies have the potential to change the equation: if companies are brought together to collaborate around shared data and information, leverage predictive technology, and deploy novel designs and infrastructure, they can create a supply chain that is both resilient and efficient while meeting the needs of rapid, online delivery.   

Before the onset of COVID-19, supply chains always struggled to deal with unexpected events: a hurricane in the southeast, a shortage of truck drivers, delays in a major port. With the largest supply and demand shock in history, the virus has accelerated long-standing challenges and drove an already wound-up global supply chain to buckle, resulting in medical facilities with critical shortages of PPE and ventilators, stores without toilet paper, and groceries with empty shelves of milk while dairy farmers simultaneously dumped supply because their commercial contracts for schools and restaurants were suddenly canceled. Even large, global supply chain behemoths were unable to meet prior delivery promises, as deliveries were slowed from hours to days, from days to weeks, and from weeks to months. 

Now, fixing the supply chain isn’t just practical — it’s survival. 

COVID-19 has shined a light on many ways the supply chain must improve: 

  • Meet consumer expectations for rapid, online delivery

  • Keep staff safe 

  • Deal with demand fluctuations — both rapid increases and decreases in demand, as well as swinging demand across consumer and commercial sectors 

  • Reduce interdependence and risk when a part of the chain breaks down

  • Leverage predictive technology to route goods and manage inventory efficiently 

  • Transform the infrastructure and form factor of the supply chain to be more flexible, distributed, and resilient

These issues are not unsolvable. By launching LINK, our new ecosystem, we aim to accelerate innovation in the world’s supply chain. LINK, which is co-founded by Innovation Endeavors and Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), brings together leading global companies and entrepreneurs who are designing cutting-edge supply chain technologies.

Historically, it has been challenging to collaborate in supply chain’s networks and processes, both technically and operationally. Infrastructure is complex and often outdated, making integrations difficult and expensive. Operations are global and have no room for error, making pilots complicated and risky. However, we believe that improvements in technology and the relentless demands of the 21st century make it possible -- and necessary -- for forward-thinking supply chain operators and entrepreneurial technologists to work together and accelerate innovation in the space.

LINK adopts an ecosystem approach to tackle supply chain challenges. It aims to bring together companies operating at multiple stages of the supply chain — from startups developing cutting edge technologies for more efficient picking, packing, storing, shipping, or delivery of goods, to multinational corporations selling their goods all over the world. LINK seeks to facilitate collaboration and enable the creation of unnatural partnerships, (i) bridging silos between companies that inhibit efficiency and resiliency of the supply chain, (ii) expanding the sample size of valuable data about what consumers are purchasing, and when and where, to allow companies to developer smarter and more flexible approaches to satisfying customer demand, (iii) seamlessly linking each phase of the supply chain process while simultaneously identifying and eliminating interdependencies when one part of the supply chain breaks down, and (iv) introducing small startups to large corporates and other potential users and customers, and providing promising innovations the opportunities they need to demonstrate their potential and gain traction in the market.

LINK’s Corporate Partners include some of the world’s biggest supply chain players, including BMW, Carter’s, DHL, Estee Lauder, Georgia Pacific, PepsiCo, Shopify, Starbucks and USPS. As co-leads, Innovation Endeavors and SIP work with an expansive portfolio of innovative start-ups that are focused on the supply chain, whether they’re developing robotic automation, solving for last-mile delivery, or improving operational efficiency.  

If you’re an ambitious founder or forward-thinking supply chain executive, we’d love to hear from you.

Ali Jordan