Supply chain disruptions: We are in a 'state of crisis' around the world, EY CEO says

Yahoo Finance's Alexis Christoforous spoke with Carmine Di Sibio, EY Global Chairman & CEO discuss the global supply chain crisis and labor shortages.

Video transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: You know, another big challenge, of course, for companies right now is the supply chain disruptions, affecting companies across a lot of different industries. Again, what are you hearing from your clients? And how are you able to assist them during this time, Carmine?

CARMINE DI SIBIO: Yeah, so this is obviously a huge topic, and it ties into the labor shortages that our clients are going through. But just before COVID, we did a survey of our clients globally. And we found out that only 25% of our clients actually had a digitized supply chain. And so, obviously, people learned during COVID that without a digitized supply chain, you really can't operate in a world that we've been operating in because of the pandemic.

So the number one thing is companies have to get their technology up to speed when it comes to their supply chain. Number two, there's been a lot of geopolitical issues. There's been issues disrupting supply chain, including labor shortage. So this is all-- and we've also been helping clients de-risk their supply chain, in particular, in terms of countries that they're in, making sure that they have a backup type supply chain going forward, making sure that they're not susceptible to one country, you know, when it comes to the supply chain.

So this is critical. We are going through a place right now where I think labor is incredibly important, the people supply chain. So we have to do everything possible to make sure that companies are allowed to hire, are attracting people, and are able to produce the goods that need to be produced. We are in a state of, really, disruption, but also a state of crisis when it comes to our supply chains around the world.

And I think this is going to be incredibly important as we go into the holiday seasons around the world. You know, and it's something that obviously the more planning that can be done, the better. And the more planning around people supply chains that have been done are going to be helpful.