From the COVID pandemic to the Ever Given’s mishap in the Suez Canal, recent shocks to the global supply chain have demonstrated that the need for resilience is greater than ever.
The turmoil and uncertainty of the last year-plus exposed serious risks and vulnerabilities, with automakers like Ford and GM warning of complete shutdowns and President Biden calling for an all-hands-on-deck approach to address shortfalls in semiconductor supply, key minerals and materials, pharmaceuticals, and advanced batteries. As manufacturers scramble to ramp up investments in R&D, accelerate process innovation, diversify their supplier base, and build for more flexibility and surge capacity, how else should they prepare if disruption is the new normal?
Last week, we held our inaugural M12 Manufacturing Summit to answer just that, with an exciting panel discussion and showcase of M12 portfolio companies accelerating intelligent manufacturing. We were proud to host industry business decision makers representing global enterprise and mid-market companies across manufacturing, automotive, retail, food and beverage, and more. Our goals for this event were threefold:
- Capture top-of-mind insights for industry professionals: As B2B investors, it’s critical that we understand the pain points of business decisionmakers. At this summit, we aimed to get a deeper understanding of the most significant opportunities and challenges in manufacturing today, and to better forecast tomorrow’s trends.
- Facilitate customer connections: Several of our portfolio companies are driving innovation in manufacturing and supply chain excellence. It was important for us to showcase their impact while addressing priority manufacturing challenges and opportunities with enterprise-ready startup technology.
- Cultivate our network: Events like this activate a flywheel of enterprise customer needs, startup solution adoption, and anticipated risks or trends to inform where we should look for innovation next. But that flywheel requires authority, trust, and relationship building. This summit served as a foundational block of the innovation flywheel we aspire to build.
I want to extend a special thank you to our speakers Robert Locke, SVP of Corporate Development – Johnson Controls and Microsoft Industry Strategy Leader David Petrucci who joined me for an engaging panel conversation.