RISK & RESILIENCE
in their context. A true partnership comes from situations where the risk of failure is equal to both parties, so the success of both parties is intertwined. If that balance isn’ t there, there’ s a commercial relationship with uneven power distribution.
Ashley: Most of us talk about partnerships quite loosely, but what we really need is true partnership where there’ s recognition by both parties of dependency. That dependency really matters. This is a supply network, an ecosystem where everyone is required to deliver value to the end client. We all fall over unless we work that way. The simple way to tell if you’ ve got a partnership is to ask: how much data do you share with one another? Do you share technical data, capacity information, risks proactively, quality concerns? Those are the indicators that tell you if you’ ve got something different, something that’ s not just transactional.
Q: WHAT’ S THE SECRET TO BALANCING COST WITH LONG-TERM RESILIENCE? Martin: If that trust is there for the long term and you’ re sharing information and data and working in partnership, I believe that’ s the best way to drive out real end-to-end cost from a supply chain. You’ ll have resilience because you’ ve got trust in the relationship and, over time, you get the best end-to-end cost. My approach has always been one of curiosity – let’ s break down how the cost of this part is
“THE MOST BENEFICIAL THING YOU CAN DO IS GET INFORMATION AND ALERTS AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE”
Ashley Naughton, Head of Supply Chain, NTT DATA UK & I
structured and what we can do together to remove cost. I’ m happy for the supplier to make a fantastic margin if the end cost to us is better. That relationship, dependency, trust and information sharing gets the best blend of cost and resilience.
Ashley: There’ s a fundamental need for manufacturers to revisit how they measure value. For far too long, we’ ve had experts speak about resilience and sustainability, but there’ s a lack of value-driven metrics that demonstrate this to the C-suite. Businesses don’ t measure resilience and the value that comes from preventing events from repeating. The KPIs that organisations hold themselves to are often the wrong measures and that has to change. People need to look at the supply chain not as a cost centre, but as a strategic growth engine.
96 January 2026