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When President Trump announced “major” tariffs on pharmaceutical imports in early 2025, the industry’s response was immediate and telling. Pharmaceutical imports from Ireland hit record levels in March – double the previous high – as companies rushed to stockpile medicines before duties hit. But the companies that will weather this disruption most effectively won’t necessarily be those with the deepest stockpiles. They’ll be the ones whose leadership teams can align quickly on complex strategic responses under pressure.
While the industry has spent years building technical solutions – dual sourcing strategies, supply chain mapping, scenario planning models – the real challenge isn’t knowing what to do. It’s getting your organisation to act as one when every functional leader has valid but competing priorities.
The hidden complexity of supply chain decisions
Consider a typical supply chain resilience challenge: diversifying away from a single-source supplier that operates in a geopolitically sensitive region. On the surface, it’s an operational question. But scratch beneath and you’ll find a web of organisational tensions:
Commercial worries about launch delays and revenue impact. R&D sees potential clinical trial disruptions. Regulatory predicts regulatory submission complications and possible delays. Operations focuses on the cost implications and maintaining production continuity. Quality flags potential compliance risks in new jurisdictions. Finance questions the investment required versus probability of disruption. Corporate Affairs worries about reputational risk and how to manage stakeholders in new regulatory environments.
Each perspective is valid. Each leader has genuine concerns. And in many organisations, these competing priorities persist because leaders lack a structured way, or the skills, to surface and resolve the inherent trade-offs.
When technical solutions aren’t enough
We recently worked with the leadership team of a global business unit facing exactly this challenge. Ninety percent of their raw material for manufacturing was sourced from the US, creating concerning dependency in an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment. The regulatory and political complexities were immense.
Two management consultancy firms had already attempted to develop a strategy. Both had failed to generate recommendations that satisfied the Executive Leadership Team. The technical analysis was sound – detailed country assessments, regulatory pathway maps, cost-benefit analyses. But something was missing.
The Head of Operations asked us to facilitate a cross-functional workshop that would finally deliver an actionable recommendation to the Executive Leadership Team. But our approach was fundamentally different.
Instead of starting with technical solutions, we began with appreciative inquiry to understand the barriers, opportunities, red lines and workarounds of each sourcing approach from each leader’s perspective. We didn’t just want to know the functional requirements, we wanted to surface the underlying tensions and competing priorities that would ultimately determine success or failure.
Turning tensions into clarity
What emerged wasn’t just a clearer understanding of the operational challenges, but genuine insight into why previous recommendations had fallen flat. The key insight our work uncovered was the lack of fundamental alignment between different leaders who were optimising for different outcomes, often without realising it. Risk tolerance varied dramatically across functions. Success metrics weren’t aligned.
We co-created sourcing principles collaboratively, ensuring each leader could see their priorities reflected while understanding the trade-offs required. We created criteria for evaluating sourcing approaches that balanced competing needs rather than optimising for any single function.
The risk/investment matrix we developed wasn’t just an analytical tool – it became a shared language for discussing difficult trade-offs. The country characteristic assessment wasn’t just about regulatory frameworks and political stability, it incorporated the practical constraints each function would face in real-life implementation.
Perhaps most importantly, we used role-playing exercises to help leaders rehearse the narrative they would present to the Executive Leadership Team. This wasn’t about polishing a presentation – it was about ensuring genuine alignment on the rationale, the trade-offs and the implementation approach so the Executive Leadership Team could feel confident that leadership of the different parts of the organisation were each committed.
The result: “The best workshop I’ve ever attended”
Within a month, the strategy was endorsed by the Executive Leadership Team and is now being implemented. But the real success of this work was captured in feedback we received from the Global Head of Sourcing: “That was the best two-day workshop I’ve ever attended.”
Why? Because for the first time, leaders felt genuinely heard, understood each other’s constraints, and co-created a solution they could all champion. The technical analysis was important, but it was the organisational alignment that made the difference.
Supply chain resilience as competitive advantage
In today’s environment, supply chain resilience isn’t just about operational risk management – it’s about organisational capability. When governments treat supply chains as national security issues, when trade routes can be disrupted overnight, when new regulations can reshape entire industries, your ability to respond cohesively becomes a source of competitive advantage.
This approach requires a different kind of consulting support. Not just analysis and recommendations, but facilitation of the human dynamics that determine whether strategies actually get implemented. Not just functional expertise, but an understanding of how senior leaders and their teams navigate organisational complexity under pressure.
The path forward
The next supply chain disruption is coming. We don’t know when or where, but the geopolitical landscape suggests it’s a matter of when, not if. The critical question isn’t whether your organisation has contingency plans – it’s whether your leadership team can align quickly enough to execute them effectively.
An Insocius, we specialise in turning strategic complexity into organisational clarity. If your team is struggling to align on how to navigate today’s complex supply chain environment, let’s talk.
Sources:
Axios, “Pharma shipments surge as Trump tariff threat looms,” May 7, 2025
Reuters, “Trump says US will soon announce tariffs on pharmaceutical imports,” April 8, 2025