Once seen largely as operational support, supply chains today sit at the intersection of strategy, geopolitics, sustainability and risk. As global disruptions reshape how businesses think about resilience and responsibility, academic institutions are playing a growing role in influencing the conversations that matter in boardrooms. In this interview, Rajeev R. Tripathi, Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Supply Chain Management Centre (SCMC) at IIM Bangalore, shares his perspective on why supply chains must be treated as strategic assets, how Indian industry is navigating this shift, and how academia can help bridge the gap between intent and execution. He also outlines his vision for Indian academic institutions to contribute more meaningfully to global supply chain thinking at a time when established frameworks are being fundamentally redefined.
From a governance and strategic standpoint, how important is the role of academic centres like SCMC in influencing boardroom-level supply chain conversations, particularly around resilience and sustainability?
For a long time, supply chains entered boardrooms only when something broke – a disruption, a cost overrun, or a compliance failure. They were largely treated as support functions rather than strategic assets. Interestingly, in academia, supply chain management has always been viewed very differently – as a core business discipline, on par with finance, strategy, or marketing.
The SCMC at IIM Bangalore was established nearly two decades ago as a Centre of Excellence to bridge this gap between academic thinking and real-world decision-making, with an explicit mandate to engage deeply with industry and government.
What academic centres like SCMC can – and must – do is take the leadership role in shifting the conversations from firefighting to foresight. We sit in a unique position: we are not driven by quarterly results, we are not vendor aligned, and we are not constrained by internal organisational issues. That independence allows us to bring evidence, long-term thinking, and often uncomfortable questions into strategic and governance-level discussions.
A centre like SCMC creates value by translating rigorous research, global experience, and ecosystem thinking into insights that boardrooms can meaningfully engage with, without diluting the analytical depth.
Supply chains are no longer back-end functions. In your view, how prepared is Indian industry to treat supply chain leadership as a strategic capability rather than an operational necessity?
Indian industry has been pushed into recognising supply chains as strategic not by theory, but by events. The pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Red Sea disruptions, and now the reconfiguration of global trade around China-plus-one strategies have made it evident that supply chains are strategic assets shaped by geopolitics, regulation, and trust.
Indian firms are relatively well-positioned in this moment. There is scale, manufacturing ambition, and increasing global interest in India as a supply base. But preparedness varies. Many organisations still optimise locally while competing globally – focusing on cost and efficiency without fully accounting for geopolitical risk, compliance expectations, or sustainability scrutiny from global customers.
Treating supply chain leadership as strategic means empowering leaders who can engage with uncertainty, not just variability. It requires integrating supply chain thinking into investment decisions, market entry strategies, and even diplomatic and regulatory considerations. Some Indian firms are doing this very well. For many others, the shift is underway.
Industry–academia collaboration is often episodic. What structural changes are needed, from both sides, to make these partnerships long-term and outcome-driven in areas such as talent development, research, and policy influence?
Episodic collaborations usually reflect misaligned incentives.
From academia’s side, we need to move beyond one-off projects and consulting mindsets and invest in long-term partnerships that allow trust, data access, and learning to compound. That means being willing to engage with messy, real-world problems that do not always lead to publications in academic journals.
From industry’s side, collaboration must go beyond guest lectures and sponsorships. Firms need to treat academic centres as thinking partners, not training vendors – sharing data, co-creating research agendas, and staying engaged even when results are uncomfortable.
At SCMC, we have found that long-term impact comes when collaboration is built around shared questions, not predefined answers. When both sides commit to learning – not just outcomes – the partnership becomes durable.
This is an abridged version of the interview published in the February edition of the Logistics Insider Magazine. To read the complete interview, click here.
