Thursday, October 1, 2020

Cuba - diversifying its supply chain

Welcome readers, This is Aswath A C from Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore.

Cuba, the Caribbean country famous for its cigars, rum made from sugar cane, Fidel Castro, Che Guevera, architecture of Spanish colonial times is the subject of this blog.

Cuba after experiencing the colonial rule from Spanish for several centuries, American influence, rebelled against America and had held the country with the support of the Soviet Union (USSR) for almost 4 decades. But, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba didn’t have any other source in its supply chain, because, Cuba exported its cigars, rum, and sugar to Soviet and got back what they needed. This period was also known as the ‘special period’ when Cuba was facing a big problem with running out of gasoline, food for its people. People during this time had only one meal in a day.

Cuba started exploring new ways to handle this situation. The Cubans wanted the supply chain to give them choices, and this resulted in the allowing of business from other countries in Cuba. The Cuba government started joint ventures along with the European hotels and Asian manufacturing industries. The taxi, restaurants were allowed, along with they started promoting tourism, cultural exchange programs, etc. 

The cubans felt that their independence depends on how diversified their supply chain is.

This case is a classic example of Business continuity management and the supply chain risk management.

To know more about the special period, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Period , https://youtu.be/xhfpmKAEfy4

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