For financial services companies, expanding efforts to include their supply chain, minimizing supply chain risk means effective supply chain management and building resistance to ensure the whole operation works in sync in anticipation of potential challenges and breaks in the system in order to increase the ability to pinpoint the problem and deal with it in a timely manner. Strategies include diversifying suppliers, an over-reliance on a few major suppliers greatly increases risks of delivery failures and reduces price negotiation vantage points, maintaining higher inventory for operations flexibility, and creating partnerships, or possibly investing in, or acquiring suppliers.
Blockchain can help mitigate supply chain risks with smart contracts that will be able to manage contractual relationships with alternative suppliers, automatically dealing with supply chain issues such as interruptions in delivery and inventory maintenance, as well as monitoring movement of goods and services along the supply chain in order to ensure smooth operation.