Competing in a Flat World: Building Enterprises for a Borderless World
by Victor K. Fung, William K. Fung, Yoram (Jerry) Wind
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Book Summary Information
Author: Victor K. Fung, William K. Fung, Yoram (Jerry) WindEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-22
ISBN: 0132332906
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Wharton School Publishing
Accessories:
- We Are Smarter Than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business
- The Coming China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought and How They Can Be Won, Revised and Expanded Edition
- Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think
Book Reviews of Competing in a Flat World: Building Enterprises for a Borderless World
Book Review: Strategic and Operating Principles of Supply Chain Orchestration
Summary: 5 Stars
What is supply chain orchestration? It's an outsourced service that some use in fragmented supply markets to have someone else select and manage a supply chain for each purchase order. For example, a retailer wants to offer a supply of pants in various styles and sizes. Rather than bid among hundreds of suppliers for raw material, zippers, buttons, sewing, and packaging, the retailer might hire a supply chain orchestrator to perform those roles for a fixed price per garment. Although buying the supplies well would save some money, the big gain comes in putting the supplies together so efficiently that large costs like markdowns, needing lots of inventory in shipment, and last minute air freight are reduced.
Who does this sort of thing? Li & Fung, an eight-billion-dollar firm is in this business, and co-authors Dr. Victor K. Fung and Dr. William K. Fung share their perspectives among plenty of examples of how others try to perform the same functions with less good results.
Many such books end up seeming like advertisements for the firm being described in part, but Competing in a Flat World escapes that narrow message with plenty of description of general principles for strategy and operations. The key differences between traditional management efforts and this new business model are summarized on page 194 in table 12-1. If you don't have time to read the whole book, start with that exhibit.
The book's insights build on the observations of Thomas Friedman in The World Is Flat in describing the implications for business of converging technology, globalization, and the reduced effect of distances on costs and performance. If you thought that the Friedman book was interesting, this one will fascinate you more by drawing out more valuable points.
Because of the involvement of Wharton professor, Yoram (Jerry) Wind, the book has a professional academic feel without being inaccessible. There are many figures to illustrate the conceptual points that make the book easier to comprehend.
I was pleased to see that the authors appreciated that being good at supply chain orchestration will eventually require a focus on providing the same kinds of products to customers in the nations who are the low-cost producers for the offerings . . . a point that most Western-based businesses miss. I was also glad to see that the book drew on the idea of global contests to develop better models, but the discussion was pretty perfunctory. In many cases, such contests will be more important in global competition than supply chain orchestration will be.
I thought that the book didn't go far enough into getting into the specifics of how knowledge is acquired, tested, validated, retested, and distributed into a large organization that is a supply chain orchestrator. As a result, it's hard to know how important the value-added is for customers.
Many global commodities trading companies have often played similar roles in acquiring and distributing food, energy, and metals. I was surprised that the book ignored those organizations which provide similar streams of capability.
But for an introduction to network orchestration issues and opportunities, it would be hard to find a better book today.
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