Analyze a recent (last 12 months) business article Research Paper - 1

Analyze a recent (last 12 months) business article - Research Paper Example As pertains to this assignment, focus shall be on an article published by The Wall Street Journal. The article highlights how companies are cushioning themselves against paralyzing incidences such as natural disasters to ensure continuity of business while keeping the bottom line ‘protected’. The writer has included viewpoints from CEOs/CFOs of a few global companies and their take on the importance of reinforcing the supply chain. The article stems from the fact that multinational companies have had to incur enormous expenses because of natural disasters. This has been after a long history of establishing cost-moderated links. The awareness on a need to strengthen the supply chain arises from the earthquake that hit Japan in 2011. This is because the earthquake led to a shortage of electronic and car parts; forcing companies to think up other sources. This led to exposing the vulnerability of the supply chain but the next action is still a matter of great deliberation as establishing dual sources is seen to affect the bottom line of companies largely (Murphy). Moreover, because the supply chain of most multinational companies is disciplined, some CEOs find it hard to establish new links. This implies that the next logical thing would be to push the suppliers to ensure their own supply chains are sustainable in the event of natural disasters and other paralyzing risks. For example, Jabali Circuit a manufacturer of electronic parts, advised its suppliers in Japan to consider de-clustering their factories that is, not having them close to the factories. This guarantees that companies can still rely on their regular supply links when a natural disaster occurs (Murphy). However, de-clustering would force the suppliers to incur huge costs in terms of setting up and streamlining new networks of operation. Nevertheless, this increment in expenditure is minimal considering