Alliance Competence: Maximizing the Value of Your Partnerships

Robert E. Spekman and Lynn A. Isabella with Thomas C. MacAvoy

John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2000

ISBN 0-471-33063-9

304 pages, $29.95

To order: Call (800) 225-5945 or visit www.wiley.com.

It's become a business axiom: To be successful, you need to be able to form effective alliances at key points along the supply chain. But how do you forge strong alliances in the first place? And then how do you re-energize them when they start to break down?

These are among the questions that the authors, all faculty members at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, address in Alliance Competence. As much as anything, this is a readable primer on partnerships—what they are, what ingredients make them work, what factors spoil the mix, and how to maintain a relationship over the long term.

One key point too often glossed over but made with emphasis here is that alliances require a lot of work. It takes time and effort to select the right partners, making sure that they have an operational and cultural fit with your organization. It's hard work, too, to create the kind of internal mindset necessary for alliances to flourish. In addition to the proverbial support from the top, the authors point out, formal training programs may be needed to help the partnerships succeed.

Though the information and insights about alliances apply to many aspects of a business, the book devotes a special section to supply chain management. The two key questions addressed in this discussion will resonate with any manager who has striven to put together a supply chain alliance: (1) How do you effectively integrate suppliers into the supply chain and (2) How do you share information in a climate of trust.

Even the most carefully conceived alliance will encounter bumps in the road. To smooth out the journey, Alliance Competence offers the "No Blame Review." This innovative tool is a collaborative approach to conflict resolution, in which no fingers are pointed or blame assigned. The review's ultimate objective is to identity and then quickly resolve any obstacles that may knock the alliance off track.

Readers will come away with something from this book that they won't get from the rosy talks about partnerships. That is, they'll get a sense of the true nature of alliances and the sweat involved in making a partnership work. Without that understanding—and that sweat equity—no supply chain relationship will come close to realizing its full potential.

AMR Research Web Site

AMR Research Inc., 2000

www.amrresearch.com

AMR Research is known as one of the best sources for up-to-date and objective analysis of supply chain technology and e-business trends. It's not surprising, then, that the firm's Web site contains a wealth of valuable information on these subjects.

To obtain access to this information cache, users must register with AMR and receive an ID and password. In exchange for their name, title, and contact information, users can read the more than 5,000 reports on technology and e-commerce issues as well as daily "alert" articles covering breaking news. They also can view opinion pieces by AMR analysts.

Particularly helpful are the strategic reports put out monthly by each of AMR's 12 practice areas. These reports do an admirable job of clearly defining and describing the ever-evolving field of supply chain technology. For instance, in the January 2000 Supply Chain Strategies Report posted on the site, AMR sketches out an e-business model that divides supply chain management software and enabling technologies into four groups. Depicted as a figure, this model provides a helpful visual aid for understanding how the various supply chain technologies are positioned and how they interrelate.

The reports not only provide a big-picture view of the market but also more targeted, practical analysis. For example, the Supply Chain Strategies Report for February takes an in-depth look at advance planning and scheduling (APS) applications. The report looks specifically at manufacturing planning and production scheduling functionality and recommends key criteria to be used when evaluating an APS application.

Mission Critical: Realizing the Promise of Enterprise Systems

Thomas H. Davenport

Harvard Business School Press, 2000

ISBN 0-87584-906-7

336 pages, $29.95

To order: Call (888) 500-1016 or visit www.hbsp.harvard.edu

For many supply chain managers, enterprise information systems like ERP (enterprise resource planning) are complex and difficult to understand. These executives often defer to the information systems people when it comes to system evaluation and deployment. But as Thomas H. Davenport points out in this highly approachable work, ignorance in this case is not necessarily bliss. It pays to know as much as you can, as early as you can, so you can participate in the decision on what type of enterprise system to get—or if you even need one in the first place.

The discussion of enterprise systems flows from one of the book's basic premises: To realize the promised value, companies must treat enterprise systems as a business initiative—not a technical one. The text itself flows from that premise. It describes the what, where, and how of enterprise systems in a way that the average supply chain practitioner can understand. And while the bias overall does seem to be pro-enterprise systems, a whole chapter is devoted to determining whether an enterprise approach makes sense in every situation. (In certain cases, the author believes, it doesn't.)

Of direct interest to readers is the discussion on using enterprise systems to manage the supply chain. As a part of that discussion, Davenport addresses the age-old question (in technology terms, anyway) of whether to opt for best-of-breed solutions from multiple vendors or select a more easily installed bundle of solutions from a major ERP vendor. In the author's opinion, the best tack for now seems to be a multivendor course that combines best-of-breed supply chain solutions with a core set of enterprise applications.

Davenport, the director of Andersen Consulting's Institute for Strategic Change and a professor at Boston University, attempts to take the discussion into the present day and beyond. He alludes to some of the new supercharged best-of-breed solutions and conjectures in broad terms about the Internet's effect on enterprise systems and providers. The problem, of course, is that developments in this space are happening so fast that anything written several months ago—or even several weeks ago—risks sounding outdated. Perhaps understandably, then, Mission Critical falls short in providing an updated report on the enterprise systems space. But more importantly, it succeeds in explaining the position and potential of this technology in a clear and at times entertaining style.

Harvard Business Review on Managing the Value Chain

Harvard Business School Press, 2000

271 pages, $19.95

ISBN 1-57851-234-4

To order: Call (888) 500-1016 or visit www.hbsp.harvard.edu

Anthologies can be a mixed bag. At best, the reader benefits from having the most innovative and insightful thought-leadership of recent years contained in one package. At worst, by relying on already published material, the anthology risks being out-of-date before it even hits the bookstore's shelves (or Web site).

Harvard Business Review on Managing the Value Chain possesses both these strengths and weaknesses. This book is one in a series of paperbacks that compile Harvard Business Review articles on current business management thinking about a particular topic—in this case, supply chain management. Managing the Value Chain focuses on new ways of conceptualizing the organization of the supply (or value) chain and the relationships between partners.

The anthology is at its best in the reprint of editor Joan Magretta's interview with Victor Fung, supply chain management innovator and chairman of Li & Fung. Fung's discussion about transforming his company from a traditional exporter into a manager of "information and relationships" still feels relevant as we continue to adjust to an information economy.

But with the earliest piece first published in 1993 and the most recent in 1998, other articles show signs of their age. For instance, in his 1996 article, "Make Your Dealers Your Partners," Caterpillar President and CEO Donald Fites details Caterpillar's close relationship with its dealers and its refusal to sell directly to customers. It would be interesting to hear if Fites has modified his argument in the face of the Internet's new direct sales channel.

On the balance, however, Harvard Business Review on Managing the Value Chain is a worthwhile addition to a business library for ready reference.

Logistics and the Extended Enterprise

Sandor Boyson, Thomas M. Corsi, Martin E. Dresser, and Lisa H. Harrington

John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1999

230 pages, $48.50

ISBN: 0-471-31430

To order: Call (800) 225-5945 or visit www.wiley.com

The information on logistics and supply chain practices in this new text has been reported in any number of academic and business journals over the last decade. Logistics and the Extended Enterprise does, however, gather a large number of ideas between two covers and, with some success, integrate them into a logical whole.

The book's foundation is a four-year, $1 million research project undertaken by Boyson, Corsi, and Dresser in their roles at the University of Maryland's Supply Chain Management Center. The text essentially equates logistics management and supply chain management—a definition that is likely to raise objections from some quarters. Purchasing specialists, for instance, certainly see themselves as part of the supply chain, but not as a subset of logistics. That disagreement does not take away from the central message, however, that understanding how to achieve best practices in supply chain management is essential for business success.

The authors begin by offering a framework for best practices in logistics and supply chain management. This is followed by a set of tools to help readers determine where they now stand and help them move toward best practices.

One of the more enlightening parts of the book is the effort to put supply chain management into some historical and economic context. What may appear at first blush as major leaps are revealed to be small and almost inevitable steps. That's not to say every business has taken them. The advantages supply chain leaders have over those who are behind are well established and repeated here. What the authors seek to do is show not only how business practices came to be where they are but to provide some guidance toward development of what they call the "fully extended enterprise."

As the authors explain, their research sought to define strategic level best practices in supply chain management. What they found is relatively simple to define, more difficult to practice. It requires corporate understanding of logistics and supply chain management as a strategic activity; cross-functional integration; and good performance metrics. The authors argue that best-practice organizations see logistics as the glue that holds together customers, suppliers, transportation carriers, and all other firms in their extended enterprises.

Who's Who in eCommerce Fulfillment? Armstrong's Guide to eFulfillment Service Providers

Armstrong and Associates, 2000

170 pages; $225 (hard copy only), $495 (hard copy and disk)

ISBN 1-891645-05-6

To order: Call (800) 525-3915 or visit www.3Plogistics.com

The latest "Who's Who" from Armstrong and Associates addresses a rapidly emerging supply chain requirement: how to physically fulfill orders made over the Internet. Who's Who in eCommerce Fulfillment? joins Armstrong's other offerings, Who's Who in Third Party Logistics? and Who's Who in Logistics Software?

The guide will help fill the missing link in many dot-coms' business plans: fulfillment and logistics. The listings profile more than 60 third-party logistics companies that Armstrong believes can serve both e-commerce start-ups and traditional companies trying to capitalize on the Web. The profiled companies range from larger and more established firms, such as UPS and Penske, to smaller start-ups specializing in e-commerce, such as Marketing Out of the Box.

Who's Who in eCommerce Fulfillment? sticks to the same format that worked so well in the two previous guides. Each vendor profile lists information such as the company's background and contact information, service capabilities, interfaces and information systems, inventory practices, and product capabilities. The profiles also include e-fulfillment center locations and representative customers. These listings are followed by a brief evaluative comment from the editors and by information about the company culled from Web sites, press releases, and trade magazine articles.

The guide is available as a spiral-bound booklet or as a booklet and disk.