Supply chain as strategic asset : the key to reaching business goals / Vivek Sehgal.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chapter 1: Planning and Realizing Goals of Business Strategy. Strategy. Strategy Realization through Functional Capabilities. Strategy Planning: The Missing Link. Technology as the Enabler. Creating Competitive Advantage through Functional Capabilities. The Alignment of the Business, Functional, and Technology Strategies. Chapter 2: Understanding Strategy. What Is Strategy? Attributes of Strategy. Levels of Strategy Planning. The Strategic Horizon of Impact. Chapter 3: Concepts of Business Strategy. Porter's Generic Strategies. The Resource-based View. Capabilities-based Strategies. Creating Advantages by Viewing the Corporation as the Sum of Its Components. Creating Advantages through Value Chain. Developing Competitive Advantages through Capabilities. Understanding Advantage. Beyond Business Strategy: Functional and Deployment Strategies. Chapter 4: Exploring Functional Strategy. What Is Functional Strategy? Why Is the Functional Strategy Important? Steps in Creating Functional Strategy. Chapter 5: Current Thinking on Supply Chain Strategy. Current Thinking on Supply Chain Strategies. Understanding the Supply Chain Sphere of Influence. What Drives Your Supply Chain? Chapter 6: Creating a Functional Supply Chain Strategy. The Effect of Industry Segment on Supply Chain Design. The Effect of Business Strategy on Supply Chain Design. The Effect of the Primary Driver on Supply Chain Design. Supply Chain Strategy and Business Strategy. Chapter 7: Technology Strategy. What Is Technology Strategy? Components of a Technology Strategy. Why Develop a Technology Strategy? Technology Strategy and Organization. Process Overview and Deliverables for Creating Technology Strategy. Chapter 8: Supply Chain Nirvana: Bringing It All Together. What Is Supply Chain Nirvana? Defining a Supply Chain Strategy That Works. What Can a Well-aligned Supply Chain Strategy Do for You? How to Get There? Keeping It All Together.

Hands-on guidance for creating competitive advantages through strategy realization How can your supply chain create competitive advantages and help achieve business goals? Drawing from the author's abundant research and analysis, this resourceful book shows how aligning the supply chain design with business strategy helps build competitive capabilities, prioritize capital investments, and takes your firm beyond the industry best-practices to create competitive advantages, not just competitive parity. Summarizing the current literature on business and supply chain strategies, this book provides path-breaking new direction to build your own winning supply chain strategy. Real-life cases show how this strategy alignment has produced results for the most successful companies and how it can be achieved in your firm. {u2022}An overview of the concepts of business strategy, the current thinking on supply chain strategy and why it is inadequate to drive competitive advantage through supply chain design {u2022}Process for establishing your own supply chain strategy to build competitive advantage {u2022}The place of technology in creating business capabilities in modern corporations and why managing technology should be a core competence and an integral part of strategy planning {u2022}Step-by-step direction and examples for creating strategy alignment and designing a supply chain that goes beyond supporting your operations {u2022}Case studies including Wal-mart, Cemex, Kmart, HP, Dell, and others Consolidating the lessons learned along with implementation guidance, Supply Chain as Strategic Asset is the must-read road map for designing a supply chain that will be vital in achieving your business goals.