The Value Chain Shift

Value chains today have a huge impact on multinational corporations right to exist and the way they compete. The future challenges associated with value chains are also huge and include new demands from society, emerging-market strategies, resource scarcity, risk proliferation and other issues. Anticipating and addressing these future challenges are crucial if companies are to compete effectively. IMD and several multinational companies created the IMD Global Value Chain Center (VC2020) in June 2011 to develop research about the future of value chains. This book summarizes some of the key findings from this two-year project."

In his 1985 book, Competitive Advantage, Michael Porter introduced the concept of the value chain and described it as “a systematic way of examining all activities a firm performs and how they interact, (necessary) for analyzing the sources of competitive advantage,” and introduced the idea of “linkages,” which was the real breakthrough in management thinking. Thinking of a firm as a series of horizontal and vertical linkages put the spotlight on the silo mentality within which firms operated and how business schools structured curriculum. The silo mentality caused business students unable to see the firm as a holistic entity, an understanding of how all of its parts fit together to develop competitive advantage. Students graduating with a silo mentality perpetuated the silo mentality in business firms. This book draws together existing knowledge to help facilitate the shift of mind necessary to effectively manage the value chain, and introduces a new conception of the value chain, one that has been copyrighted (2006) and provides a new perspective of the value chain commensurate with the demands of the 21st-century global economy.

Jan Hauke Holste analyzes how a company can innovate and change its business model to the degree that it can climb up the value chain. His research synthesizes a combination of the global value chain and the business model literature to create a new framework of local firm upgrading. The findings of an empirical test of the model indicate that local firms are more than just a link within a global value chain. Each firm has a choice and inter-firm differences indicate that there is a strong firm level factor. Next to other factors, the founder is the key driver of local firm upgrading. He is possibly the most important element within a firm.

The way organizations manage their value chain has changed dramatically over the past decade. Today, organizations take account of economic issues, but they also adopt a broader perspective of their purpose including social and environmental issues. Yet despite its global spread, sustainable value chain management remains an uncertain and poorly defined ambition, with few absolutes. The social and environmental issues that organizations should address easily can be interpreted as including virtually everything. Current literature on the topic seeks to understand the effects and management of initiatives dealing with diversity, human rights, safety, philanthropy, community, and environment. However, the penetration of social and environmental considerations into value chain management is described as ’desire lacking reality’ thereby making the idea a patchy success. The objective of this research anthology is to investigate different angles of sustainable value chain management. The book’s 27 chapters fill holes and explore new fields; the chapters are organised in five sections: Sustainable value chains - context, drivers, and barriers; Sustainable value chains - managing activities; Sustainable value chains - managing networks and collaboration; Sustainable value chains - integrative perspectives; and Sustainable value chains - specific sectorial and industry perspectives.

How to Conquer the Effective Frontier and Drive ImprovedValue in Global Operations Growth has slowed. Volatility has increased and the world ismore global. Brands are defined by innovation and services. Supplychain excellence matters more than ever. It makes a difference incorporate performance. One cannot snap their fingers and deliver supply chain success.It happens over the course of many years. It is measured in inchesnot miles. In this book, the author evaluates the progress of overa hundred companies over the period of 2006-2013. Success drives value. The effective supply chain makes adifference in winning a war, saving a patient, and drivingcommerce; but it also makes a difference in a community havingclean air, potable water, and a standard of living. Mistakes arehard to overcome. Supply Chain Metrics thatMatter tells this story. The book links corporatefinancials to supply chain maturity. In the book, the authoranalyzes which metrics matter. The author Lora M. Cecere is a supply chain researcher as wellas an authority in supply chain technology. She helps companiesgain first mover advantage. In the book, Cecere provides concrete,actionable steps to align and balance the supply chain to drivevalue. The book explores the crossover between supply chainefficiency and financial growth with topics such as: Outlining the metrics that matter, the metrics that don't Progress in industry sub-segment in improving inventory, cash,productivity and margin The management techniques that improve performance Sharing insights on how metrics change as the supply chainmatures The roadmap to improve performance. Today, supply chains are global and dynamic. They are rapidlyevolving. Companies that constantly seek out new solutions andopportunities for improvement drive differentiation. In a marketwhere growth is stalled and many companies are stuck in drivingsupply chain performance, this book provides a clear, conciseframework for a more modern, effective supply chain.

Recent developments are challenging the traditional separation between advanced and emerging economies as host of knowledge and production-intensive activities, respectively. Authors assess whether the co-location of R&D and manufacturing is critical for development and innovation.

This book studies labour conditions in GVCs in a variety of sectors and across several Asian countries.