Commentary
Takes on the news and the numbers shaping procurement and supply.
Commentary: the essentials
What it covers
Our take on the news and the numbers shaping procurement and supply: trade policy, tariffs, freight, risk and the market signals behind the headlines.
What leaders are working on
- Trade and tariffs: what the latest rules mean for sourcing plans
- Logistics: freight, ports, carriers and the verdicts that reshape them
- Risk: theft, spoofing and disruption inside the supply base
Where the thinking is moving
Trade policy now changes on a news cycle, not a calendar, so the teams that fare best are the ones building sourcing plans that can absorb the next shift.
Commentary across Art of Procurement
The conversations, articles and research behind this topic.
What practitioners actually say
Real quotes from Art of Procurement conversations on this topic, each linked to the episode it comes from.
Tariffs
One famous study showed that those steel tariffs created about a thousand steel jobs in the U.S., but resulted in around 75,000 job losses in downstream industries.
Resilience
Resilience is how you change, how you act, how you recover quickly. Agility is how you adapt according to conditions.
FAQ: Your Commentary questions, answered
How should procurement respond to tariff changes?
Model the exposure by category and country of origin, understand the options (dual sourcing, foreign-trade zones, contract terms), and agree triggers for action with finance before the next change lands.
Where can I follow supply chain commentary from AOP?
Art of Supply, hosted by Kelly Barner, covers the week's supply chain stories, and The Playbook newsletter carries the takeaways every Friday.
Hear it on the shows
Every Commentary episode, filtered on each show's page.