Responding to supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic: A Black Swan event for omnichannel retailers The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered unprecedented growth in digital commerce and has accelerated the digital transformation of many retailers. An unforeseen event, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, is often referred to as a 'Black Swan' event - being of low probability to occur but causing substantial disruptions to a supply chain. Lockdown restrictions imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus resulted in significant external and internal disruptions to retailers' supply chains. Omnichannel retailer's ability to respond to the pandemic's disruption hinges on resilient supply chain strategies. The pandemic's impact on global supply chains has been drastic (Butt 2021) - revealing that most supply chains were insufficiently resilient when faced with multiple and multidirectional concurrent changes in supply and demand (Ketchen & Craighead 2021:51). Whilst some supply chains have broken down almost entirely, others have responded to the crisis in such a way that they have emerged more robust than ever before (Flynn et al. 2021:5). The pandemic itself and the ways in which organisations have responded to it, offer opportunities to diversify the understanding of SCD and resilience. Supply chain disruption management comprises four cycles, namely, disruption detection, disruption reaction, disruption recovery, and disruption learning (Behdani 2013:13). Disruption detection entails detecting and locating an SCD and determining its expected consequences as quickly as possible (Nel et al. 2018:4). Disruption reaction relates to an organisation's ability to assemble a multidisciplinary team to develop a reaction plan in response to the disruption (Behdani 2013:40). Disruption recovery is initiated when preventative measures and reactive plans were unable to mitigate the SCD sufficiently. During disruption recovery, organisations use information on the cause and effect of disruptions to develop response strategies (Messina, Barros & Matopoulos 2020: 439). Disruption learning in the final part of the SCD management cycle, means that organisations note lessons learnt from the disruption and make the appropriate changes to plans and policies (Behdani 2013:41). To date, only a limited number of studies have explored the ways in which organisations can mitigate the impact of SCDs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (Butt 2021 Dohale et al. 2021 El Baz and Ruel 2021 Mahajan & Tomar 2021). Dohale et al. (2021) and Mahajan and Tomar (2021) conducted extensive literature reviews to recontextualise previously identified SCDs within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Butt (2021) conducted a qualitative study to explore importing disruptions experience by manufacturing organisations, whilst El Baz and Ruel (2021) investigated the role of risk-mitigating strategies in French firms' responses to the pandemic. Although these researchers took different perspectives on the pandemic's impact on supply chains, a dominant theme that emerged from the research of these scholars was that supply chain resilience is critical to recovering from the pandemic.

Question 2 (25 Marks) Critically discuss any FOUR (4) ways in which technology from the fourth and fifth Industrial Revolution could have been used to minimise the impact on the organisations logistics and supply chain