In 2018, as the trade wars between the United States and China reached new heights, John faced challenges as he needed to quickly execute a plan to mitigate any risks to his company. The imposed tariffs were putting significant pressure on John’s current business initiatives, financial goals, and could derail is customers’ satisfaction.
John knew that he was in safe hands with the support of Jabil’s supply chain and compliance directors. As one of the worlds largest Electronic Manufacturing Service companies, Jabil prides itself with understanding logistics, compliance, and operations competencies to support the growth of current and future business, all while mitigating and avoiding potential risks in the market. With the impact of the imposed tariffs beginning to affect John’s business, he knew that he needed to make a quick decision; either move operations out of China to a non-sanctioned country, continue the operations in China with the hope that the sanctions would end but risk customer satisfaction, or continue manufacturing the products in China and shipping the incomplete goods to another non-sanctioned location for final assembly, ultimately avoiding the tariff impacts. How was John expected to make this decision without understanding the trade uncertainties in the future? John knew that he needed to make his business profitable for him and the customer, but what approach did he need to execute on to keep the business sustainable? All these questions were impactful on the success of the business and could ultimately impact any long-term financial gains and growth with his customer base. John was anxious to come to a resolution, and knew that his next decisions would be critical to his business.
Authors: Jean Chua, Stacy-Ann Henry, Darryl Johnson, Gerald Mallory, Justin Smith & Raymond Wilhite
Link: https://doi.org/10.28945/4331
Chua, J., Henry, S., Johnson, D., Mallory, G., Smith, J. and Wilhite, R. (2019). Jabil: Navigating through supply chain uncertainty. Muma Case Review 4(10). 1-20. https://doi.org/10.28945/4331