How Prepared are Leaders for Supply Chain Risk in 2026?

Following the turbulence of 2025, businesses are looking to assess their supply chain readiness for 2026.

Sphera has published its 'Supply Chain Risk Report 2026' to help global organisations ensure they are prepared to face any challenges ahead.

The report explores preconceived ideas of what is contributing to business risk and how these leaders are responding to it, as well as how businesses can implement real change.

The risk report

2025 proved to be a year of constant supply chain disruption, with wars, trade tensions and extreme weather all adding to the turbulence supply chains around the world were already facing.

Now, business leaders are looking to reduce the effect disruption has on supply chains, looking at forecasting, predictions and scenario planning to ensure they can develop some level of preparedness.

As well as this, leaders now understand that efficiency is no longer the answer to a strong supply chain, but that resilience is the key. As a result, supply chain leaders are developing business strategies to ensure they remain resilient, exploring supplier diversity, AI and transparency strategies.

The Sphera risk report uses data from its 2025 survey, a perception-based view of how businesses assess their risk readiness as they head into 2026. The analysis uses four Censuswide surveys, with responses from 800 Chief Procurement Officers and Chief Supply Chain Officers across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Canada. 

The data demonstrates that leaders are confident in their capabilities but the outcomes they report point to potential loss and disruption. Governance pressure is increasing, with increasing pressure from boards and senior executives to ensure supply chain risk decisions are as strategic and beneficial as possible.

"Supply chain decisions are now being questioned regularly by boards and CFOs, which means leaders need real proof behind their data not just confidence," warns Sam Perry, Group Vice President, Supply Chain Risk Management at Sphera.

The confidence gap

Sphera's Supply Chain Risk Survey Report reveals a major gap between company perception and actual business readiness, demonstrating where the pitfalls lie regarding navigating risk. Respondents report high confidence in the completeness and quality of supplier risk data–98% feel confident, 66% of which feel very confident. 

100% of respondents express confidence in their ability to detect supplier financial distress before it escalates and 99% are confident with the accuracy and completeness of supplier data used for ESG and compliance reporting.

However, despite this confidence, there is a significant gap between perceptions and results, 73% of respondents report financial or operational losses due to supply chain disruption. When leaders were asked about how visibility is achieved throughout their businesses, data showed:

• lack of accurate and up-to-date supply chain data (44.5%)
• lack of supplier cooperation and data sharing (34.8%)
• poor data quality and completeness (32.4%)
• fragmented tools
• limited internal capacity
• need to justify ROI for further investment

The main risk heading into 2026 is a misalignment between capabilities and expectations. When data quality is low, with poor visibility and slow decision-making speeds, businesses cannot meet their expected goals. 

All sustainability, net zero and sustainable procurement leaders should attend:

• Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE: The Net Zero Summit - QEII Centre, London, March 4-5
• Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE: The US Summit - Navy Pier, Chicago, April 21-22

Co-located with Sustainability LIVE, these events brings together CPOs, CSCO, CSOs, ESG leaders and senior decision-makers at a moment when sustainability, supply chains and commercial performance are increasingly interconnected.

Tickets can be booked online today for The Net Zero Summit and The US Summit. Group discounts available.

Expectations vs reality

Leaders around the world are looking towards macro forces as the main disruptive risks, including geopolitical tensions (35.5%), macroeconomic instability (24.5%), regulatory compliance (15.5%), supplier financial health (15.5%) and environmental or climate-related disruptions (8.5%). This reflects the 2025 trade market which was disrupted by trade restrictions, tariffs, export controls and volatility. 

However, the incident data collected points to issues caused at a supplier level, rather than a global market. Much of these shocks can be detected earlier as long as the foundations are strong. This includes ESG/compliance concerns and fragility within the supplier network. 

Though supply chain leaders have started adopting risk mitigation strategies, such as supplier diversification (52.5%), regionalisation or near-shoring production (40%), increasing inventory buffers (55.5%) and more supply chain risk monitoring tools (53.5%), disruption is still taking place.

This is because they cannot be successful if they are applied to weak foundations. If suppliers are sending incomplete data and using fragmented systems, the monitoring tools will not be as accurate as believed. Moreover, while these measures can absorb shocks, they do not fix deeper issues such as non-compliance or poor data integrity. 

Changes for resilience

Sphera notes some real changes supply chain leaders can make to their operations in order to move to demonstrable readiness.

Visibility as proof
Leaders need to ensure visibility is verifiable, updated constantly and auditable. It cannot only be used to measure current crises, but should be constantly showing supplier network status.

Supplier engagement as core infrastructure
Rather than treating supplier engagement as a bonus, it needs to be a core part of business operations. To build ESG reporting integrity and strong capabilities, there needs to be total and scalable cooperation and data sharing. 

Implement AI maturity for foundations
Rather than making AI suitable for faster alerts, it should be used to run analysis on data in a way that searches for cross-category patterning and stronger business foundations by exploring ESG pressure.

By making small changes to how current tactics are applied, businesses will see a real impact to their resilience. Rather than applying these methods quickly to demonstrate reactions to trends, businesses should focus on how they are applying these measures, ensuring they can introduce risk mitigation correctly.