Global Macrotrends and Their Impact on Supply Chain Management: Strategies for Gaining Competitive Advantage

Even the largest, most progressive companies in the world cannot and have not been able to predict and forecast macrotrends that would unexpectedly throw their day-to-day business operations into an abyss. The primary, and most striking example given and continually looked back upon is the Plachimada Coca-Cola plant in Kerala, India. Coke has made inroads in places that businesses could only dream about. This plant, however, was another story. Unfortunately, when the plant was under consideration, one little factor was overlooked. No one thought about the natural resources that would be needed to produce their product. The lack of water in the area would spell doom and gloom for Plachimada when the water table began to lower. The aquifer wasn't a consideration and the locals righteously began tocry foul, eventually and predictably resulting in the closure of the plant.Keeping in mind this painful and somewhat embarrassing fiasco, the reader is invited to think about global macrotrends and their impact on businesses, now and in the future. For example, companies can no longer make assumptions about the availability of any natural resource. Even when designing a product "later finding out that there isn't enough of it [a natural resource] to go around, could dramatically impact the product's (or company's) viability." Future availability and possibly scarcity is something supply managers must factor into their planning equations and strategies.In planning out the goals and objectives that will hopefully lead to the future success of any company, "the macrotrends that characterize our transforming world will require proactive solution seeking." This book hopes to provide a framework that will help"future business leaders" to take into consideration the need for Demand and Supply Integration (DSI) beyond current trends. Businesses are no longer static, but must take into consideration macrotrends that will impact future success by using progressive "forecasting models." In this book, "particular emphasis is placed on how business processes that operationally balance supply with demand will be affected."Processes of Supply Chain Management (SCM)* Customer relationship management (CBM)* Supplier relationship management (SRM)* Customer service management (CSM)* Demand management (DM)* Order fulfillment (OF)* Manufacturing flow management (MFM)* Product development and commercialization (PD&C)* Returns management (RM)Part one takes a close look at global macrotrends that are currently on the near horizon "challenging business leaders' commonly held assumptions related to both consumer demand patterns and companies' and industries' supply capabilities." Population growth and migration, global connectivity and socio-economic leveling, geopolitical trends and threats, and the changing physical environment are examined individually and in relation to one another Part two similarlylooks at the uncertainty of demand and implications for supply chain planning, implications for sourcing/procurement(resource scarcity), implications for production (disruption process flaws), and implications for transportation and logistics-congestion and infrastructure, and their relationship and ties to one another. Part three takes a look a supply chain mitigation strategies of migrating supply-driven imbalances and its direct correlationto migrating demand-driven imbalances.This is an excellent resource today's business leaders can examine to solidity their businesses while looking to the future. This is a very readable text that guides not only by suggestion, but also by example. Take for instance, Circuit City. The authors don't dissect the reasons why they filed for bankruptcy, but rather tersely point out why they couldn't succeed in today's world. Conversely, they look at companies such as Lowes who are moving with the flow. Particularly striking are the implications of renewable resources vs. nonrenewable and scarcity of others, an extremely important consideration in the business arena. The book is not a "how-to" type, but rather one that gives the reader the tools that can be adapted to one's particular circumstances. It is futuristic, yet realistic. This well-written and thoroughly thought out book is an excellent handbook for businesses, large and small who need to look at global macrotrends if they wish to succeed in the not-so-distantfuture.

I find little to say about this book. It addresses the macrotrends of its title, at a fairly broad and repetitive level. It has much less to offer in terms of the second part: strategies for gaining competitive advantage. Just a few weeks after reading it, I genuinely can't recall a single instance of an insight that goes much beyond the obvious of the macrotrends. That obvious includes impacts of economic growth, strains of future logistics and widespread inadequacies in existing infrastuctures. Yes, agreed. The data the book offers is useful in framing the problem, but rarely gets concrete about suxh issues as cold storage facilities, transportation industry scale and coordination, costs, telecommunications ...............It's all like discussing airline policy without mentioning airplanes.

This book is intended - and is - a scholarly overview of supply chain management: that is getting goods where they are needed when they are needed. In my opinion, it is fully the equal of "The Box", a history of how containerization changed the world, even if your involvement with supply chain management is a trip to the generally full shelves of your local grocery store. Stand in the middle of a WalMart and ask yourself how did all that stuff get there? Clothes. Jewelry. Produce. Lawnmowers. Thousands of items, some very perishable. The fixtures that hold all that stuff. Practically the entire world participated in some way in getting all that stuff made and delivered to where you are standing. And that's not even half the story. This is a book about business managers and their need to decide which goods and services to offer the market, designing products that meet market desires and how to organize to create and deliver these goods and service on a global basis, if needed, while taking into account societal developments that affect the ability to create and deliver. Sound complex? It is, but the three authors do more than a merely admirable job in explaining themselves. The examples they provide make for wonderful and informative reading. From a Coca-Cola plant built in India without (amazingly) proper consideration of fresh-water supplies to the crash-and-burn of the once high flying Circuit City. Though scholarly overall, the entire book is accessible to the lay author. Mercifully the authors eschew technical jargon for plain language explanations of the macrotrends facing global business (and many local businesses) as well. I found the book fascinating because I am forever amazed at how the cornucopia of products that I use flows from sources around the world into my gadget worshipping hands. Forbes Magazine published a map several years ago illustrating Toyota's supply chain management. It traced the flow of a product through numerous Southeast Asian nations on its path to a Toyota factory in Japan. The product was transported through several nations taking advantage of raw material resources, labor pools and wage differentials all in an effort to produce a reasonably price product and get it to where it was wanted and could be sold. Though not intended to instruct laypeople on the intriciacies of supply chain management, this book does very well in that regard.Jerry

As someone very interested in supply chain risks originating in the macro environment, I very much looked forward to diving into this new book and paid for expedited delivery such was my anticipation!Overall I liked the book - it is particularly strong on "resource scarcity" taking it from a geopolitical issue to supply chain implications across design-plan-source-make and deliver and closing the loop with some good ideas on mitigation strategies with an excellent case study from GE. On the more frustrating side, some of the models offered did not seem overly inspired and the ideas offered were very high level.