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How Not to Develop a Supply Chain Strategy

AMR's Lora Cecere is a supply chain curmudgeon. She has the "been there, done that" type of approach and philosophy which makes it easier to tell companies what not to do even before telling them what they should do. Forbes recently reprinted one of her write-ups in their online edition which describes in detail how not to develop a supply chain strategy. Among other areas, Lora recommends avoiding "inward facing" strategies and "focusing only on your company" because "no company is an island, so a good plan focuses on the ecosystem, market dynamics and power shifts in relationships."

But perhaps most insightful is the obvious notion in the column -- which is not so obvious for many companies -- that technology alone will never solve or create a supply chain strategy. In Lora's words, "While technology supports the business processes in the supply chain strategy, it should never be confused with the development of a supply chain strategy." If you're curious about avoiding supply chain strategy missteps, it's worth spending a few minutes reading and digesting Lora's other strategy blunders to avoid. She clearly gets supply chain issues at a level which most analysts do not.

- Jason Busch

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2007 at 4:13 pm and is filed under Spend Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.