Amazon Beats Apple in Battle for Supply Chain Leadership

Amazon Beats Apple in Battle for Supply Chain Leadership PR Newswire LONDON, November 27, 2012 LONDON, November 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Global poll of over 1,000 executives reveals that the e-commerce giant is more admired than its Californian rival on all major supply chain attributes except innovation. Amazon is more widely admired than Apple for supply chain excellence, according to research published today by SCM World, the leading global community of supply chain practitioners. http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121127/579658 In a poll of 1,136 executives, 58% said they admired Amazon most overall for the way it operates its supply chain, compared with 37% who picked Apple (5% said neither). The Seattle-based retailer also came out top on three of the four supply chain attributes that survey participants were asked to rate the two companies on: agility, collaboration and execution. Amazon is locked in a high-profile battle with Apple in the fast-growing market for tablet devices and the digital content - music, movies, apps and books - consumed on them. The companies' rival products, the Kindle Fire and iPad, are expected to be among the hottest purchases this Christmas. The survey results are a reversal of Gartner's Supply Chain Top 25 for 2012, which placed Apple first and Amazon second. Its ranking was based on the votes of 173 practitioners and with half of the total score determined by companies' financial performance.