New book on Managing Supply Chains for Strategic Advantage

Joseph Roussel, a partner with PwC France, and Shoshanah Cohen, director of the Global Supply Chain Management Forum at Stanford Graduate School of Business, have co-authored the second edition of “Strategic Supply Chain Management: The Five Disciplines for Top Performance.”

The book focuses on the five elements of supply chain management that are critical for companies in search of better business results. It is available for purchase online and at retailers nationwide in both hardcopy and e-book formats.

The new edition provides executives with insights on how they can make the supply chain a source of competitive advantage in today’s global economy and provides highly readable examples through six in-depth profiles of leading global companies.

“A supply chain that drives forward the overall business strategy is more important than ever, as companies are under greater pressure from shareholders to boost revenue and profits,” said Joseph Roussel, co-author and partner with PwC France. “But it’s also much harder to achieve, because of more-demanding customers, fragmenting markets, and continuing pressure on costs and working capital. Despite these challenges, however, the six companies we profile demonstrate that it can be done.”

The book presents five core disciplines for effective supply chain management that are essential for top performance:

View your supply chain as a strategic asset: Design the supply chain around a defined basis of competition that is aligned with the overall business strategy Develop an end-to-end process architecture: Create supply chain processes that are aligned and integrated with processes across the entire supply chain Design your organization for performance: Build and maintain organizational structures and skills to manage the supply chain on an ongoing basis Build the right collaborative model: Leverage a wide range of partnerships for maximum strategic and financial benefit. Use metrics to drive supply chain performance: Deploy metrics to measure and manage the supply chain processes critical to business success.

“Leading companies view their supply chains as a key to revenue growth and not just as an efficiency engine,” noted co-author Shoshanah Cohen. “They design their supply chains to meet the needs of specific markets and customer segments while mastering the complexity that comes with more tailored supply chains.”

Benchmarking research conducted by PwC’s Performance Measurement Group reveals that companies that treat their supply chain as a strategic asset enjoy better top-line growth and bottom-line performance – even in today’s uncertain business environment. According to PwC’s Performance Measurement Group, companies with top-performing supply chains exhibit stronger financial performance than their competitors because they treat their supply chain as a strategic asset.

The book also examines how to implement large-scale change initiatives across global supply chains. “Supply chain transformation poses some unique challenges, but offers tremendous opportunity to boost performance,” added Brad Householder, a principal in PwC’s U.S. Advisory practice focused on strategy and operations. “Our benchmark research explores operational performance and the underlying practices in leading companies that enable long-lasting change.”

A company’s operations should be a source of competitive advantage. PwC’s operations professionals help address companies’ challenges of revenue growth, profitability, innovation, cost and agility. PwC is focused on bringing business strategies to life through the development of innovative products and delivery through supply chain and service operations.

For more information and to purchase a copy of Strategic Supply Chain Management: The Five Disciplines for Top Performance, visit: www.pwc.com/strategicsupplychain