Today we had another early morning with more business on the agenda. We visited a company called GAP (not the clothing brand) and they were an extremely integrated brand that offers a lot of different services. The main company GAP works with on the island is UPS. They are one of their partners which means they are responsible for everything UPS ships throughout the island. They don’t only specialize in shipping management though, they also provide hospitality services, financial advisement, airlines, and much more. GAP has found large success in using vertical integration to expand their company.

The main principals that GAP is based on are based on basic supply chain concepts. Dr. Vassilopoulos, the professor that gave us this lecture, explained that the company works as a large chain with every link to the chain being a company they are partnered with. This means that if one link breaks, it will disrupt the entire chain. This is why they have to value all the companies they do business with even if they may prioritize the bigger ones like UPS. This concept is a lot like the topics of supply chain we learned about in the past because all aspects are needed for it to be successful.