Reviews for Competing in a Flat World: Building Enterprises for a Borderless World

1. Mapping out a Flat World

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, June 12th, 2008

   Hello. My name is Gary Shane McGill - I sell patented ice cream machines and milkshake dispensers around the world for a career. I found this book rather insightful because even in the business that I specialize in we utilize supply chain orchestration ourselves, but this book is so well laid out, since it is a delight to see how these business practices have evolved around us.
   
   The chapters in this book are easy enough to read and the writing style used by the authors is outstanding. I feel that the words flow very well as you go through each chapter with a great deal of detail highlighted, but not so much detail as to overwhelm the reader, so I would assume that this is ideally positioned for the business novice through to the business veteran.
   
   I think that the lesson to learn here is the simplicity of starting up a global sales network without the need to invest in extensive infrastructure (as you would have expected two or three decades ago). At the very least any entrepreneur with their eyes set on sustainable global expansion should have a copy of this book on their bookshelf as a must read.
   

2. Strategic and Operating Principles of Supply Chain Orchestration

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, January 12th, 2008

   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.