Supply Chain Risk Management Strategies Training Course

Course overview

Every supply network already carries risk decisions inside it, whether or not anyone made them on purpose. A sole supplier in one region, a lean buffer policy, a route that saves days but crosses a contested strait: each is a bet. The difference between a network that recovers from a shock and one that stalls is usually not luck but whether leaders chose their bets deliberately. This course is aimed at the people who set that posture. It works through how a supply chain leader decides where to avoid risk outright, where to mitigate it, where to transfer it to a carrier, insurer, or partner, and where to knowingly accept it because the cost of removing it is not worth paying.

The material treats network architecture as the main lever. Dual and multi-sourcing, nearshoring and reshoring, regionalization, and the trade-off between buffer inventory and lead time are examined as design choices that follow from a defined risk appetite. The SCOR model provides a shared way to describe the plan, source, make, and deliver flows under review, and ISO 28000 appears as the security-management reference for how organizations frame supply chain risk. Geopolitical and tariff exposure, along with ESG considerations, are handled as portfolio-level forces that shape where sourcing and capacity should sit. The aim is a governed strategy, not a folder of tactics.

Why network design decides who survives a shock

When a disruption hits, the room to respond was mostly set months earlier by structural choices. A regionalized network with qualified second sources has options; a globally concentrated one has a spreadsheet and a problem. Choosing among avoid, mitigate, transfer, and accept is only meaningful once risk appetite is written down and agreed, because the same threat justifies a different response for a company that can tolerate a two-week outage than for one that cannot. Strategic governance keeps those choices coherent across the portfolio instead of leaving each category to negotiate its own posture. Leaders who want to link this strategic view to formal recovery capability will find a companion in the Risk Management in Supply Chain & Business Continuity course.

Course objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Shape a supply chain around what a shock would actually cost
• Site capacity so that no single plant can halt production
• Duplicate a source only where the spare earns what it costs
• Compare a shock against the cure it would take to remove
• Relocate a source before a policy shift makes it unusable
• Cost every layer of protection before it is added to the network
• Accept a named exposure in writing rather than pay to remove it
• Govern sourcing categories so one agreed posture holds across them

Course outline

The five units move from reading the global risk picture to governing the strategy that answers it.

Unit 1: The global supply chain risk landscape

• Grouping geopolitical, tariff, and climate threats
• Writing risk appetite down before a shock forces it
• Locating where one supplier carries the whole flow
• Sizing what a month of lost supply is actually worth

Unit 2: Supplier risk management and oversight

• Costing an alternative source that is kept warm and unused
• Finding two approved suppliers drawing from one plant
• Screening ESG exposure that can close a sourcing market
• Dropping a supplier that costs more to hold than to lose

Unit 3: Logistics, trade, and regulatory risks

• Reading a tariff shift as a reason to move capacity
• Mapping how much volume moves through one port or lane
• Trading a longer route for the exposure it takes out
• Treating regulation as a limit on where the network sits

Unit 4: Building supply chain resilience

• Choosing central or spread capacity by product family
• Paying for capacity that is called on in no month
• Handing a risk to a partner who fails in the same week
• Keeping an exposure the network can afford to carry

Unit 5: Strategic governance and future outlook

• Naming the executive who signs the network risk posture
• Stating the posture as cost per unit of exposure removed
• Re-basing the strategy as tariff conditions move
• Anticipating which shocks the current shape cannot absorb

How the course is delivered

The course runs through facilitated discussion, structured analysis, and worked examples, with guided walkthroughs of documented case studies where leaders faced real network choices. Delegates debate response-strategy trade-offs, compare regionalization against centralization for sample portfolios, and reason through governance decisions in group case discussion. The value comes from thinking these strategic choices through together, so participants return able to shape their own network posture instead of copying a template.

Who should attend

The course is designed for supply chain directors, heads of procurement, strategy and operations leaders, and risk managers who shape the risk posture of a supply network and want a clear basis for structural and response-strategy decisions.

About EuroQuest International Training

EuroQuest International Training, founded in 2015, has delivered more than 1000 courses to over 15,000 participants and is headquartered in Bratislava, Slovakia, with training hubs including Dubai, London, Barcelona, Istanbul, Vienna, Paris, and Geneva. This course is educational; it references standards such as ISO 28000 and the SCOR model as subject matter only, and does not provide certification.

Frequently asked questions

How do I decide between mitigating a risk and simply accepting it?

That decision follows from risk appetite, which the course helps you define first. Once appetite is set, each exposure is weighed on impact and the cost of response; accepting a risk becomes a deliberate, documented choice for cases where removal or transfer costs more than the exposure is worth.

Is this a strategy course or a plan-writing course?

It is a strategy course. The focus is choosing response strategies and designing resilient network structures at portfolio level. Writing and testing detailed response playbooks is the subject of the contingency-planning course, and daily control of live risk sits with the operational course.

Will there be live drills or a certification at the end?

No. Learning happens through facilitated discussion and analysis of documented cases, not drills delegates perform or a technical environment. The course does not award formal certification; ISO 28000 and the SCOR model are covered as subject matter, and certification against any standard rests with the relevant body.

Related courses

These EuroQuest courses sit alongside the strategic view, from daily operations to planning and digital capability.

• See how strategy translates into daily control in Managing Risks in Supply Chain Operations.
• Turn strategic choices into documented response plans with Supply Chain Risk Management and Contingency Planning.
• Extend the picture across borders in Risk Assessment & Contingency Planning in Global Supply Chains.
• Add the technology dimension through Digital Supply Chain Transformation & Smart Technologies.

Register for this course

To hold a seat or discuss dates and host cities, get in touch with EuroQuest International Training and register for this course.