Analysts announced the findings from this year’s research at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference, which is being held here at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa through today.
“At the heart of the Supply Chain Top 25 is the notion of demand-driven leadership,” said Debra Hofman, managing vice president at Gartner. “We’ve been researching and writing about demand-driven practices since 2003, highlighting the journey companies are taking: from the old ‘push’ model of supply chain to one that integrates demand, supply and product into a value network that orchestrates a profitable response to ever-shifting changes in demand.”
Alongside some perennial leaders with new lessons to share, Gartner’s 2013 Supply Chain Top 25 offers three new companies, a growing group of industrials from which to learn, and two newcomers to the Top 5. The Top 5 includes three from last year — Apple, McDonald’s and Amazon — and two that are new to the Top 5 but have been rising steadily — Intel and Unilever — while the three new companies joining the top 25 this year are Ford, Lenovo and Qualcomm.
Apple tops Gartner’s ranking for a record-breaking sixth year in a row, continuing to outpace everyone else by a wide margin on all five measures used (see Table 1). Apple was ranked No. 1 again by the peer voters, capturing 75 percent of the highest possible points a company can get across the voting pool. Nos. 2 and 3 switched places this year, with McDonald’s capturing the No. 2 slot and Amazon coming in at No. 3. This, however, was not reflected in the peer voters’ opinion. Amazon ranked a very close second behind Apple in the peer vote, almost completely closing the opinion gap from previous years and fast gaining on Apple’s voting position.