During the holidays, chatting with friends and family, I heard about challenges with buying goods. Furniture, appliances, cars . . . people are looking for specific items but can’t find them. Many things are on back order and delayed. This is affecting people’s plans and forcing them to seek alternatives, many of them costly.

Supply chain issues have been pervasive all year. The impact on the availability of goods and their prices has been significant. I met with a few founders during the year who are running product companies. Their businesses were seriously affected by these issues. They figured out temporary work-arounds but planned for the issues to be resolved by EOY. Things would be back to normal going into 2022, they thought.

I’m curious to see how the supply chain looks in 2022. If there isn’t a clear line of sight to normality, I think companies will develop new strategies and seek out new solutions to get goods in the hands of their consumers. They’ll be thinking more long-term this time, not about temporary work-arounds. If that happens, we could see rapid innovation in supply chains, which could have a big ripple effect on other industries and the broader economy.