Living Supply Chains contains much more than its title suggests. This fine book challenges modern managers to consider again the role of supply chains in their businesses and offers genuine answers to the questions they face. John Gattorna highlights the way forward in matching supply and customer demand." Michael Andrews, Director, Tenon Ltd John Gattorna has brought Supply Chain right into the executive suite where it belongs. The opportunity for business leaders clearly outlined in Living Supply Chains is to create real organizational alignment with your end markets, and in the process better comprehend the role leadership and people play in making supply chain an integral part of a High-Performance business." Jeffrey Russell, Managing Partner, Supply Chain Asia Pacific, Accenture The challenge of supply chains has long been omnipresent, but as our world becomes more complex and our supply lines longer, the power of our supply chain management capabilities to create and destroy value is magnified. Why do our supply chains succeed or fail? The answer lies in alignment. The alignment of the needs and values of our customers, our own organisation and our suppliers.
When it works it's truly magnificent, and what makes it work is people. People are at the heart of Living Supply Chains, and the key to a better supply chain future." Jon Bumstead, Strategy & Business Planning Director , DHL EXEL Supply Chain John Gattorna is one of the most original thinkers in the fast-changing arena of supply chain management. He has pioneered the idea of dynamic alignmentwhich is so powerfully presented in this ground-breaking book. If proof were needed that successful companies compete through their supply chain capability, then this fascinating book provides it." Martin Christopher, Professor of Marketing & Logistics, Cranfield School of Management, author of bestselling Logistics and Supply Chain Management "Dr Gattorna has enlivened the book with real examples from around the world .both insightful and highly readable" Ralph Evans, CEO, FAICD J. Sainsbury recently lost share in the market by failing with their supply chain. Wal-mart and Dell won in the market by getting theirs right. Smart supply chains can be decisive.
In the J Sainsbury debacle, there was nothing wrong with the strategy, except no one thought to check if the personnel in the company were capable of delivering such complex and sophisticated plan within such a short timeframe, and they are paying the price now. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated example - it is happening every day. Living Supply Chains is unique in looking beyond the systems and technology of your company, to developing the role of people and behaviour in placing customer-focused supply chains at the heart of their enterprise. Based on John Gattorna's empirical research, Living Supply Chains shows you how to drive the design and management of your supply chains by starting with your customers and understanding their dominant buying behaviours'. In most cases, only 3 or 4 of these will be dominant' and should then be hardwired' into the organization's selling approaches, performance indicators and logistics operations. With quick' diagnostics and guidelines executives can use to rapidly identify and close performance gaps, logistics and supply chain management can finally move from the hands of the functional specialists, to the executives.
Analysts and shareholders alike have recognized that taking back control of this vital area of business will have the most fundamental impact on future share price performance.

Reinvent your supply chain from the outside in – leverage customer insight, heuristics and digital tools to meet rising expectations and adapt in a volatile world.

Customers have become increasingly demanding, and the operating environment has become more turbulent and complex. Mature companies wishing to survive and thrive in the coming decades must transform themselves to become flexible and market responsive. They need to reconsider their traditional supply chains and find ways to increase the clockspeed of their operation and their decision making without creating more complexity for their staff and partners.

But where to start this transformation journey? Most of the world’s largest corporations have logistics networks and supply chains that have evolved over time, many based around systems that drive a ‘one-size-fits-all’ philosophy, which does not fit anymore. And most have not kept up with the changing cadence of their markets.

This book describes the path to a different paradigm; where a set of tailored supply chains are used for in-built flexibility and adaption as the world changes, and where internal capabilities and digital capabilities are consciously aligned with the customers and strategies they serve.

Transforming Supply Chains builds on John Gattorna’s seminal Dynamic Alignment framework; and he and his long-term collaborator Deborah Ellis review the analytics and decision-making tools needed to be effective in the digital age. Case Studies of organisations that excel using the ‘outside-in’ paradigm that they describe are scattered throughout the book; as are a series of prompts to help ‘kick start your thinking’ about your own transformation path.

Transforming Supply Chains is your guide to designing supply chains that fit, and adapt, and bring competitive advantage - whatever your business and whoever your customers.


Reinvent your supply chain from the outside in – cut costs, growth revenue and increase customer satisfaction.

We are now seeing and experiencing increasing turbulence in practically all our major industries, which is leading to costly mis-alignments between suppliers and their customers/end users. The world is no longer as forgiving as it was a few decades ago. Customers going online have become increasingly demanding, and the operating environment has become exceedingly complex. This combination means that companies wishing to survive and thrive in the coming decades must transform themselves to become more agile and market responsive.

The problem is: where to start this transformation journey? We all pay lip service to being customer-centric, but the reality is that most of the world’s large corporations have built up their logistics networks (and by extension their enterprise supply chains) over many years of sunk investment, pursuing the flawed philosophy of ‘one-size-fits-all’.

The solution to this dilemma is the Dynamic Alignment™ framework, which directly links the target market, to the operational strategies, internal cultural capability, and leadership styles inside our enterprise. It will help you to adopt an ‘outside-in’ perspective of our market by seeing the world through the lens of our customers; and use the insights gained in this way to reverse engineer the capabilities inside our enterprises to more precisely align with customers’ expectations.

Transforming Supply Chains allows you to segment your customer’s expectations into not one, but several dominant buying behaviours. By identifying how your market is structured, you can develop matching value propositions and corresponding operational strategies for each behavioural segment identified and then use those findings to redefine the internal operating structure as well as the external supply chains. Companies already using this model have seen greater customer satisfaction, an uplift in revenue, and a reduction in costs. In some cases, companies have doubled their margins within a year.

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