The Soft Supply Chain

Margaret Heffernan writes persuasively about "Wilful Blindness", our ability and tendency to ignore what is sitting in plain sight.

In the semi hysterical bunfight that was the debate around Brexit, much was made of the issues of possible trade friction and the dependence on certain sectors on the economy on imported labour - particularly farming and the NHS. It was treated as though these were somehow neatly boundaried issues that could be dealt with. Not a lot of systems thinking in evidence.

Enter Covid-19. Unbidden and unexpected. And all of a sudden, the systems make themselves apparent.

Uncertainty over travel, export restrictions on pharmaceuticals and face masks.

The contribution to the collapse of FlyBe. which is turn disrupts people who have got used to commuting from the South West to Greenwich on a daily basis.

Working parents who face the real possibility of having to look after children who would otherwise be in School or Nursery because they are either closed or isolated.

The…