Carlos Cordon
Carlos Cordon

Professor of Strategy and Supply Chain Management

Carlos Cordon is Professor of Strategy and Supply Chain Management. His areas of expertise are supply chain management, digital, value chains, digital lean, and process management, all of which are particularly relevant topics in the context of the supply chain challenges that businesses face today. His research and teaching are currently focused on the reconfiguration of supply chains in the face of persistent disruptions, how supply chains are driving revenue, reshoring and onshoring, and digital strategies.

Cordon says supply chain constraints have become a driver of extraordinary growth in profits for some companies as a result of availability constraints, increased demand, and higher prices. General Motors sold 20% fewer cars in 2021 than in 2019 as a result of a shortage of microchips, for example, but still managed to record a 48% rise in profits over the same period.

He is the author of numerous articles and case studies in his specialist fields and has won various awards for his work. He was named on The Case Center list of the top 50 best-selling case authors globally in 2020/21 and was a winner in the 2017 EFMD Case Writing Competition with IMD colleagues Benoît Leleux and Beverley Lennox for a case study on Adidas.

He is also the author of four books, including the 2016 title Strategy is Digital, which explores how companies can use big data in their value chains. The book presents strategies and practices to allow companies to take advantage of the huge business opportunities arising from the advent of big data and guides them through their big data journey.

Supply chains are being disrupted but they are also becoming drivers of extraordinary growth. Price increases and availability constraints have enabled some organizations to deliver record profits.

Cordon is a consultant to multinational companies in the electronics, food, chemical, pharmaceutical, and automotive industries, among others. He has designed and directed numerous executive development programs and has helped some of the world’s biggest companies to develop their supply chain and digital strategies, including Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Coca Cola, Merck, Mondelez, Unilever, Heineken, Philip Morris, Danone, and Reckitt Benckiser among others. He is also a member of the Coca-Cola European Partners’ Digital Advisory Board.

He joined IMD in 1993 after completing a PhD in management at INSEAD. He was previously a manager in Accenture’s manufacturing and distribution consulting group and MIS Manager at Grupo General Cable in Spain (now part of the Prysmian group).

Selected publications
Why sustainability targets are close to mission impossible
Article
Why sustainability targets are close to mission impossible
Supply ChainSustainabilityStakeholder Management
Influencing suppliers, complying with regulations and sourcing raw materials has become a bureaucratic and logistical nightmare for chief operating officers.
25 November 2021
Re-use or recycle? Designing a business model for the circular economy
Article
Re-use or recycle? Designing a business model for the circular economy
SustainabilitySupply Chain
Reuse can transform industries that struggle to recycle products, but it can also impact on the viability of the recycling industry. Before designing a circular economy strategy, companies must dec...
21 April 2021
Article
Physical stores' surprising comeback in the pandemic
DigitalSupply Chain
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, while most physical retailers were scrambling to avoid bankruptcy, remarkably, one company recorded its best performance ever and a few others returned to pos...
2 February 2021
Case Study
The antibiotic ecosystem conundrum
FinanceStrategy
The invention of antibiotics increased the average lifespan by two decades, though WHO warns that antibiotic resistant will become the most common death by 2050 if the resistance issue cannot be ov...
31 December 2020
Strategy is digital: How companies can use big data in the value chain
Book
Strategy is digital: How companies can use big data in the value chain
Big DataChange ManagementStrategyValue Creation
This book presents strategies and practices to allow everyday companies to cope with the fundamentally changing landscape of business models and to take advantage of the huge business opportunities...
22 June 2016
The value chain shift: Seven future challenges facing top executives
Book
The value chain shift: Seven future challenges facing top executives
Value CreationGlobal Business
Value chains today have a huge impact on multinational corporations’ right to exist and the way they compete. The future challenges associated with value chains are also huge and include new demand...
1 January 2014
Strategic supply chain management
Book
Strategic supply chain management
Top TeamDecision MakingSupply Chain
The supply chain is at the heart of every successful business organization's decision-making process. This textbook explains how to create a winning supply chain management strategy by spotlighting...
30 April 2012
Book
The power of two: How smart companies create win-win customer-supplier partnerships that outperform the competition
Supply Chain
This book presents the best way for your company to increase its competitive advantage. By forming close collaborative relationships with a small set of customers and/or suppliers you can achieve a...
9 June 2008
Academic publications
Celonis: Building a lean digital ecosystem
Case Study
Celonis: Building a lean digital ecosystem
DigitalDisruptionEntrepreneurship
To maintain its position as the category leader in process mining and execution management, Celonis needed to be able to facilitate – or even automate – corrective measures on these processes to ed...
24 August 2022
Case Study
Integrate or partner? An M&A analysis from the acquiree’s point of view
StrategyLeadershipEntrepreneurshipCultureSustainability
Avaloq, headquartered in Switzerland, is a market leader in global digital banking. It was acquired by the leading Japanese IT conglomerate NEC Corporation at the end of 2020, despite COVID-19 pand...
9 February 2022
Case Study
The antibiotic ecosystem conundrum
FinanceStrategy
The invention of antibiotics increased the average lifespan by two decades, though WHO warns that antibiotic resistant will become the most common death by 2050 if the resistance issue cannot be ov...
31 December 2020
Case Study
PMI: Disrupting the tobacco industry
Operations
With its mission to “unsmoke the world” and its bold new purpose to replace cigarettes with less harmful tobacco products, Philip Morris International (PMI) was revolutionizing every part of its ex...
19 June 2020
Case Study
Adecco: Project management masterclass (A)
Operations
At the outset, the A case appears like a typical IT project at Adecco, the leading HR solutions company. At the end of 2017, a new IT infrastructure service provider had been selected. Adecco’s IT ...
14 May 2020
Case Study
Adecco: Project management masterclass (B)
Operations
The B case starts in June 2019 – at the project deadline – and looks back at the challenges and actions taken during the previous 18 months. The outgoing provider did not make it easy for Adecco, a...
14 May 2020
Case Study
Amazon: The trillion dollar company coming to the Swiss alps
Strategy
The case describes two major dilemmas for Amazon’s expansion in Europe. First dilemma is about options to expand: Sweden has a sizeable and mature market, but Amazon is already #1 retailer through ...
14 August 2019
Case Study
Faurecia digital transformation (A)
Operations
The case is based on a dynamic real-life story. In this case we have examined how Faurecia decorative division has used digital tools and technology, both hardware and software, to first modernize ...
13 May 2019
Case Study
Faurecia digital transformation (B)
Operations
The case describes the various industry 4.0 options which were available to Faurecia for digital transformation and finally illustrate the process of successful implementation of the digital transf...
13 May 2019
Case Study
Faurecia digital transformation (C)
Operations
The case covers real time experiences of the people involved in digital transformation, capture the lessons learned and explain how Faurecia was able to transform its plant into a culture of innova...
13 May 2019
Article
Digitization of healthcare organizations: The digital health landscape and information theory
DigitalChange Management
This paper builds on an integrated framework of digital opportunities, based on information theory that was initially proposed by Claude Shannon: 1) providers of infrastructure for transmitting inf...
1 April 2019
Case Study
Mary Barra and the Lyft investment: Leading GM into the sharing economy through acquisitions
StrategyOperations
The case presents the impact of the digital disruption coming from the sharing economy from the perspective of the largest American auto manufacturer, General Motors (GM). 
The car-sharing business...
30 November 2018
Case Study
Growth dilemmas: Amazon or Alibaba in India
StrategyDiversity and Equity and Inclusion
This case highlights the differences in the business models of Amazon and Alibaba, respectively. Readers need to analyze the characteristics of India with respect to culture, wealth and income dist...
19 November 2018
Case Study
Suntu motors: Planning for excellence (A)
This two-part case series makes a deep-dive into the Sales and Operational Planning (S&OP) process of Chinese carmaker Suntu Motors. They could not have wished for a better market response when it ...
24 April 2018
Case Study
Suntu motors: Planning for excellence (B)
This two-part case series makes a deep-dive into the Sales and Operational Planning (S&OP) process of Chinese carmaker Suntu Motors. They could not have wished for a better market response when it ...
24 April 2018
Case Study
Nestlé Purina: The global website challenge (A)
In early 2015, Nestlé’s Purina pet food operation undertook an assessment of its digital footprint across Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMENA). The results revealed that Purina had more than 500 we...
27 November 2017
Case Study
Nestlé Purina: The global website challenge (B)
In early 2015, Nestlé’s Purina pet food operation undertook an assessment of its digital footprint across Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMENA). The results revealed that Purina had more than 500 we...
27 November 2017
Case Study
LEGO in the age of digitization (A)
Strategy
The “LEGO IN THE AGE OF DIGITIZATION” case is in two parts. Part A provides an opportunity to follow the developments of the LEGO Group in the digital gaming arena. It focuses on the “failure” of L...
11 September 2017
Case Study
LEGO in the age of digitization (B)
Strategy
The “LEGO IN THE AGE OF DIGITIZATION” case is in two parts. Part A provides an opportunity to follow the developments of the LEGO Group in the digital gaming arena. It focuses on the “failure” of L...
11 September 2017
Case Study
Hilti: Challenging its processes to become an agile corporation
AgilityOperations
Hilti’s executive board wanted to expand Hilti’s offer from mainly physical products and just a few free services to a full portfolio of both products and services. The objective was to increase cu...
21 June 2017
Insight for Executives
How to measure and strengthen sustainability along the supply chain
Article
How to measure and strengthen sustainability along the supply chain
Supply ChainStrategySustainability
To properly address supply-chain risk, multinationals should be doing due diligence on every supplier and cascading action down through the value chain.
24 May 2023
Now is the time to address supply-chain risk
Article
Now is the time to address supply-chain risk
Supply ChainStrategy
The COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine have exposed dangerous vulnerabilities in companies’ supply chains, warns Carlos Cordon, Professor of Strategy and Supply Chain Management at IMD Business S...
24 February 2023
The end of ‘made in China’? Five ways to cut supply chain risks 
Article
The end of ‘made in China’? Five ways to cut supply chain risks 
Supply ChainChinaStrategy
Outbreaks of COVID-19 and geopolitical tensions underscore the urgent need to look beyond costs and diversify production to alternative locations to lower the risk of disruption
23 January 2023
How to lower soaring energy costs (without worsening climate change)
Article
How to lower soaring energy costs (without worsening climate change)
StrategySustainability
As energy prices climb to record highs, businesses of all sectors and sizes need to start implementing energy-saving measures now to prepare for shortages over the winter.
16 November 2022
Inflation: How to raise prices and preserve margins (without losing consumers)
Article
Inflation: How to raise prices and preserve margins (without losing consumers)
FinanceSupply ChainPricingStrategy
Companies can offset the pressure on their cost base by rethinking products, supply chains, and pricing strategies.
5 September 2022
Taiwan tension: Three ways to circumvent the global supply chain crisis
Article
Taiwan tension: Three ways to circumvent the global supply chain crisis
Supply ChainPoliticsChina
Concerns over “tit for tat” retaliatory measures in the wake of the controversial visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives, have underlined the urgent need for co...
9 August 2022
Three ways CEOs can untangle supply chains
Article
Three ways CEOs can untangle supply chains
Supply ChainLeadershipStrategy
Boardrooms can no longer afford to neglect supply chain management. Companies can capture more of the value created in the supply chain by bringing top executives up to speed
11 July 2022
Disease and war triggers onshoring of supply chains
Article
Disease and war triggers onshoring of supply chains
Supply ChainStrategy
As geopolitical tensions flair, multinational companies are bringing production closer to home to boost supply.
21 April 2022
Agile pricing will help firms profit from supply chain constraints
Article
Agile pricing will help firms profit from supply chain constraints
Supply ChainPricingAgility
An inability to change prices more frequently is the source of a huge missed opportunity when supply is limited, particularly for automakers.
14 April 2022
"A supply chain is as strong as its weakest link"
Article
"A supply chain is as strong as its weakest link"
Supply ChainGeneral Management
As we move towards a world of more constrained supply, companies will have to shift their focus to designing products and services around what is available and working more closely with suppliers a...
14 April 2022
Managing risks and relationships: How to make your supply chain more resilient to shocks
Article
Managing risks and relationships: How to make your supply chain more resilient to shocks
Supply Chain
Supply chain management should be more than just directing the flow of goods.
18 March 2022
Taking stock: A history of supply chain innovations
Article
Taking stock: A history of supply chain innovations
InnovationSupply ChainDisruption
From a focus on manufacturing to broader responsibility for the entire supply chain, Tetra Pak’s former head of Supply Chain Operations Eric Baudier discusses the highs and lows of supply chain man...
17 March 2022
Supply chain mind map: Try our tool to help make critical decisions
Article
Supply chain mind map: Try our tool to help make critical decisions
Supply Chain
Are you overwhelmed by supply chain problems? Martijn Lofvers and Carlos Cordon have created a detailed visual guide will help you manage your way out of a crisis.
17 March 2022
Panic buying will worsen supply chain disruption from the war in Ukraine
Article
Panic buying will worsen supply chain disruption from the war in Ukraine
Supply Chain
From discussions I’ve had with supply chain managers over the past week, it is clear there is a huge sense of panic over the potential disruption to supply chains from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,...
8 March 2022
Time to safeguard supply chains against China’s zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19
Article
Time to safeguard supply chains against China’s zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19
Supply ChainChina
Restrictions and lockdowns herald even worse disruption for 2022. Multinationals should rethink operations to deal with disruption to manufacturing capacity. China’s “zero-COVID” strategy risks st...
17 February 2022
IBM’s stalled ambitions with Watson show AI isn’t elementary, but can work when focused
Article
IBM’s stalled ambitions with Watson show AI isn’t elementary, but can work when focused
Supply ChainTechnology ManagementDigital
When IBM’s Watson supercomputer won US TV show “Jeopardy!” in 2011, it was heralded as a sign of how artificial intelligence would revolutionize industries from healthcare to finance and agricultur...
28 January 2022
Why sustainability targets are close to mission impossible
Article
Why sustainability targets are close to mission impossible
Supply ChainSustainabilityStakeholder Management
Influencing suppliers, complying with regulations and sourcing raw materials has become a bureaucratic and logistical nightmare for chief operating officers.
25 November 2021
Four strategies to make your energy supply more resilient to price spikes
Article
Four strategies to make your energy supply more resilient to price spikes
StrategySustainability
With the prices of natural gas, coal and electricity spiking to record highs, manufacturers should start thinking about how to reduce their energy consumption so they can keep production humming ir...
7 October 2021
Re-use or recycle? Designing a business model for the circular economy
Article
Re-use or recycle? Designing a business model for the circular economy
SustainabilitySupply Chain
Reuse can transform industries that struggle to recycle products, but it can also impact on the viability of the recycling industry. Before designing a circular economy strategy, companies must dec...
21 April 2021
How COVID-19 vaccines turned the pharmaceutical supply chain into the ultimate gamble
Article
How COVID-19 vaccines turned the pharmaceutical supply chain into the ultimate gamble
Process Management Supply Chain
“In light of the pandemic, we must design new supply chains to better meet the needs of society,” says IMD supply chain expert.
2 March 2021
How companies can use big data in the value chain