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Every retailer, from luxury brands to Walmart, understands that the worst possible scenario for a company is a natural disaster: a fire, flood, hurricane, earthquake.
For years, these companies have used different types of internal financial planning to weather the storm: operational triage, “at-risk,” and “extreme risk” assessments, which help them calculate what they need in advance in case something goes wrong — and how much of it to spend on making sure it doesn’t happen.
But a huge change to the country’s supply chain may be changing that, whether or not companies realize it yet.
Less than a week ago, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding was free of thunder and lightning, but the wedding of the century has been turning into a logistical nightmare.
While the royal couple had other guests, those visiting the British Isles this month, their day off, and the Soho House and Birks arrangers that brought Prince Harry and Ms. Markle’s dream wedding to life have been used up trying to make their day run smoothly.
Along the roadsides of Windsor, where Markle and Prince Harry celebrated their wedding with a military ceremony and horse and carriage ride, hundreds of people have been raising their umbrellas and waving British flags for the royal couple. Many families had come as far as Scotland.
Supply chain and logistics experts are observing the challenges they’re experiencing. But companies in the U.S. are not thinking about the wedding, at least not yet. Even the decision to skip the procession route through Windsor town was made because of safety concerns.
However, if the royal wedding was a situation with a direct ripple effect on the American economy, it would likely be a nightmare for American companies, according to several experts.