Strategic Supply Chain Research Hub
BLUF: Bliss and Dustin will be surging until February 18th to establish breadth of knowledge of the dynamics that govern 5 representative supply chains of critical national interest to the US (oil, rare earth materials, EV batteries, semiconductors, quantum computing hardware).
What: The outputs of this process will be a 5-page memo covering the following (as well as a 10-minute presentation summarizing the main findings):
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Comparative Findings: Symmetries across different supply chains and where they break
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Product Opportunities: 3 second-order generalizations of common risks and opportunity levers to solve them across the different industries.
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MVP Hypothesis What is the next product that someone “will pay anything for?” to solve the most important generalized risk above?
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Next Validation Steps Proposal for research interviews + data needed in one specific industry
Why: Steve Blank encouraged us to adopt an ideation model of alternating breadth and depth. Start with analyzing many different supply chains to construct analogies and refine them through generalization. This process will inform common problems across different supply chains and particularly strong candidates for the product hypotheses that emerge from those problems.
When:
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Framework/timeline finalized by 1/24
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Oil exercise (what are all the ways people make money in oil) by 1/29
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Individual industry research complete by 2/8
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Cross-industry generalizations complete by 2/15
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Present research to Steve Blank on 2/18
How: We will employ the following analysis framework:
Strategic Supply Chain Research Framework
Where: As a starting point, we can consult the following sources:
Structural & Industrial
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CSIS, RAND, OECD industrial policy reports
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McKinsey Global Institute on supply chain resilience
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ITIF, SemiAnalysis, IEA
Financial & Risk
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Bernstein / Morgan Stanley sector primers
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BIS on global value chains
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WTO TiVA data
Policy Reports
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CHIPS Act, IRA
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EU Critical Raw Materials Act
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Export control briefings (BIS, CSIS)