Customer Reviews

Straight to the Bottom Line: An Executive's Roadmap to World Class Supply Management

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Straight to the Bottom Line makes a compelling argument for why procurement must transform itself into fully integrated supply management. Take care of your supply network-its objectives, strategies, processes and data linkages-and you generate competitive advantage for your organization. In other words, you create value for shareholders and customers.

Although the talk of the shift from the purely tactical to the strategic has been around for many years now, actual implementation of strategically focused supply chain has simply not happened at many organizations. Why? The authors of this book are eloquently blunt: a "lack of understanding of the opportunities presented by supply-side performance" at the senior executive level.

And what is the sine qua non of a truly strategic supply chain? Leadership and understanding from senior executives. So where to begin? Slipping Straight to the Bottom Line into the executive suites would be a good start.

The strength of this text is its clear and lucid presentation of a "step-by-step" roadmap for executives on how to implement supply management transformation that directly produces bottom-line results. Illustrating straight-forward principles with compelling examples, it shows how executives can create an environment in which they can expect to see improved performance quarter over quarter and year over year.

If I have one criticism of the book it is that its subtitle might suggest that it can be overlooked by the non-executive. That would be a mistake. Yes, it's a "must read" for the senior executive, but it's also an essential text for anyone, including the currently mid-career procurement or supply chain professional, who plans to be one.