Season’s Readings: Inside Supply Management®’s Best of 2025

If there were a supply management zodiac calendar, 2025 would be known as the Year of Peak Uncertainty.

With President Donald Trump holding office again, tariffs were expected. But not to the degree that they occurred, seemingly changing by the day or week, increasing and decreasing, only to increase again. Uncertainty over Red Sea turmoil — and that of other shipping lanes — caused companies to reroute shipments, stretching arrival times and delaying goods. And artificial intelligence (AI) became the buzzterm — and the technology of choice — for the year as many companies, perhaps uncertain about how it could help them and how it would impact talent, joined the bandwagon.

Amid these and other uncertainties as 2025 comes to a close, Inside Supply Management^® is once again at the ready to help you manage the disruption through articles that cover supply chain trends, topics, news and strategies. To take you into the next year, we’ve compiled our 10th annual “holiday card” to readers, featuring work from the previous 12 months that we’re most proud of.

These articles from the magazine — available to Institute for Supply Management^® (ISM^®) members — and the Inside Supply Management^® Weekly e-newsletter as well as ISM’s “Supply Chain — Unfiltered” podcasts (available to all) are worth revisiting or discovering. They cover the gamut of supply chain topics:

Supply chain risk and resilience is always a hot topic. The March/April magazine issue discussed how U.S. manufacturing is at a crossroads as the sector seeks to balance the tools, talent and technology to make up ground lost to China in “Forging the Future of Factories.” In the September/October issue detailed how the monthly ISM^® PMI^® Reports (formerly the ISM^® Report On Business^®) are closely watched by organizations, government entities and financial analysts for their ability to predict economic trends in “Prescient, Market-Moving Indicator.”

Also, the May/June edition featured “The ‘$1 Million Question’ on Immigration,” and notable newsletter articles included “Improving the Food Supply Chain Through Recalls, Traceability and Regulation” and “Impact Of Interest-Rate Cut Could Be Minimal Amid Current Chaos.”

Tariffs. Tariffs are here to stay, at least for the near term. At ISM’s Tariff Resource Center, you’ll find research, statistics and the Tariff Strategy Playbook, as well as myriad newsletter articles that will help you form strategies, learn the latest news and become more resilient. These articles include: “Tariffs Deepen Global Trade Fault Lines, Forcing Businesses to Adapt,” “Tariffs Strategy: Foreign Trade Zones,” “Tariffs Impact Showing Up in Inflation Data” and “Strategies to Strengthen Procurement Amid Tariffs Turbulence.”

Global supply chains. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an emerging force — as a region and as individual countries, each with their own supply chain strengths — that bridges East and West, as the November/December issue detailed in “ ‘Manufacturing Powerhouse’ ” (November/December). Guest author Ji Li, MBA, C.P.M., who traveled to China over the summer, offers a glimpse into how Chinese manufacturers are faring in the current environment — as well as sound advice for any supply chain organization — in “Ancient Wisdom for Modern Supply Chains” from November/December.

Trade wars and tariffs are intertwined, and uncertain outcomes play havoc on supply chains. The November/December magazine article “The Mixed Reshoring Bag” discussed dynamics and frustrations later confirmed by ISM^® PMI^® Reports panelist comments. Don’t miss this popular newsletter article: “How a Trade War with China Benefits U.S. Companies.” Also impacting trade — as well as logistics and transportation — is the ending of de minimis rule: “The De Minimis Factor: E-Commerce and Buying Habits Likely to Change.”

Transportation and logistics. Newsletter coverage pertaining to this topic also touches on shipping — “The Ins and Outs of the Louisiana Ports” — and shipping safety innovations — “The ‘Edmund Fitzgerald’ and its Legacy of Shipping Safety.” (By the way, the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank 50 years ago on Lake Superior, is the topic of a bestselling book, The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by John U. Bacon. Read Dan Zeiger’s review of the book in “Selections for a Supply Chain Book Club.”)

Diversity. The diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) discussion intensified in 2025. The March/April magazine issue featured “The DEI Debate” on how companies were responding amid hostility from the Trump administration, and the newsletter article “What’s Next for DEI Initiatives — and How Companies Can Capitalize,” discussed strategies and more.

In the e-newsletter, the ISM^® PMI Reports^® Roundups continued to gauge reaction to the monthly releases of the Manufacturing PMI^® and Services PMI^® data, and the monthly Supply Chain Roundtable offers insights on current matters from ISM’s subject matter experts. And our ISM World 2025 coverage gave a glimpse into what ISM’s Annual Conference is all about.

Among our favorite podcasts:

• “Maximizing Operational, Tactical and Strategic Changes Transforming Large Supply Chains,” featuring Vijay Manohar Cherukuru, product director at Walmart GoLocal. a division of Walmart, who shares insights into the evolving landscape of delivery and logistics.
• “How International Supply Chains Navigate Regulations, Risks and Internal Volatility.” Audrey Clavedon, head of environmental, social and governance (ESG) leadership and consultancy at Sedex, talks about opportunities for transforming ESG compliance.
• “Shedding New Light on Procurement through AI,” featuring LightSource CEO Spencer Penn, who discusses how leveraging AI and automation are redefining procurement.
• “Data Democratization — Unleashing Potential, Navigating Risks.” Technology expert Charlotte de Brabandt, DBA, introduces a framework designed to make data accessible to both analytics-driven professionals and those less data-inclined.

Finally, a big shout out and thanks to all the talented contributors and guest authors who help ISM Publications resonate with our readers and viewers. These include regular contributors de Brabandt; supply management expert John Perez, CPSM, CPSD, who discussed how the military concept of wargaming can be used as a boardroom business tool; and Chris Caplice, Ph.D., chief scientist at DAT Freight & Analytics and senior research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Transportation and Logistics, who covered AI in a big way in “Avoiding Pitfalls in the AI Jungle” for the September/October issue.

Also: international leadership and cultural change strategists Mandy Flint and Elisabet Vinberg Hearn, authors of Inside Supply Management^®’s Last Word on Leadership column; members of IBM’s Procurement Analytics as a Service team who regularly contribute data, analytics and technology articles; Boston Consulting Group partners, managing directors and colleagues who contribute to both the magazine and e-newsletter, and Ji Li, who wrote a series of e-newsletter articles as well as the aforementioned magazine article.

At midday on December 24, ISM begins its end-of-year close; we’ll be back on January 5. The next e-newsletter will publish on January 6.

When the staff of Inside Supply Management^® returns to work, we move into a new all-digital era by putting the finishing touches on a January/February issue that is annually one of our favorites. It’s our yearly economic outlook issue, with an overview of the U.S. economy and feature articles on how the chip war is a supply chain war, how tariffs could be bringing cost first back, and a mid-cycle Incoterms report card.

We wish you a happy and safe holiday season. See you in 2026.