Five Core Supply Chain Management Attributes of Successful Companies

If there’s one thing that’s crystal-clear from Shoshanah Cohen & Joseph Roussel’s new edition of their book Strategic Supply Chain Management, it’s that superior supply chain performance is directly correlated with superior financial performance.

And that means that a company’s supply chain strategy must be closely aligned with its overall business strategy.

Easier said than done. In the real world, many companies think about their supply chains only when something is broken - high inventory levels, dissatisfied customers, or supplier problems, for example. And in an environment where, increasingly, globalization is the price of survival, recent trends have underscored the heightened risks facing global supply chains.

Economic instability - marked by decreased access to working capital, macroeconomic shocks and volatile energy prices - has become a constant. Competition for natural resources and talent has intensified.

Natural disasters are on the increase, as is scrutiny of sustainability and corporate social responsibility practices. The global playing field has gotten more crowded with the entry of companies from emerging economies.

Since the first edition of this book, it’s clear that the global supply chain has become both more critical to success and more vulnerable to disruption.

So what does it take to execute superior supply chain performance today? This important new edition of Strategic Supply Chain Management describes how leading companies – often with robust support from C-Suite executives – are changing their thinking about their supply chain, seeing it not only as a strategic priority but also as a key driver of competitive advantage and business success.

The book describes the latest principles and innovative practices that supply chain managers are following today - and demonstrates in detail how to balance the long-term strategic view with the need for short-term agility in coping with the inevitable disruptions that affect global organizations.

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Read the article: 7 Principles of Supply Chain Management Redux