Business Horizons 47/5 September-October 2004 (67-74) “Competitive dominance will be achieved by the entire supply chain, with battles fought supply chain versus supply chain.” —Roger Blackman “As the economy changes, as competition becomes more global, it’s no longer company vs. company but supply chain vs. supply chain.” — Harold Sirkin T he quest to meet customer needs in the face of fierce global competition is driving dramatic changes in the way businesses operate. For more than a decade, companies have reengineered, reorganized, and restructured in an effort to boost efficiency and meet customer expectations. The goal is to develop value-added processes that deliver innovative, high-quality, low-cost products on time with shorter development cycles and greater responsiveness than ever before. Many managers realize that their companies lack the wherewithal to do this. They know they need help, so they are setting out to leverage the resources and know- how of suppliers and customers. Efforts to align objec- tives and share resources across companies to deliver greater value are known as supply chain management (SCM) initiatives. In a supply chain world, “teams” of suppliers, finished goods producers, service providers, and retailers are formed to create and deliver the best products and serv- ices possible. Collaboration enables a company to do exceptionally well a few things for which it has unique advantages. Other activities are shifted to channel mem- bers that possess superior capabilities. Charles Fine (1998), author of Clockspeed, calls this supply-chain- design process “the ultimate core capability.” Managers may quote the supply chain mantra of manag- ing value creation from “suppliers’ supplier to customers’ customer,” say Fawcett and Magnan (2001), but it seems no one is engaged in this level of integration. Few firms have mapped their chains so that they know who their suppliers’ suppliers or customers’ customers really are. If companies are going to tap SCM to establish a uniquely In the face of fierce global competition and soaring customer expectations, many companies have turned to supply chain management to leverage the resources and know-how of suppliers and customers. To obtain an accurate view of what this requires, 52 in-depth interviews were carried out with supply chain leaders to answer the question, “What are the principles that drive successful supply chain design and collaboration?” The findings are summarized as the ten guiding principles of high-impact SCM. Mapping these guiding principles to a maturity framework reveals that there is much work awaiting managers who embark on the arduous journey toward supply chain collaboration. 67 Stanley E. Fawcett Donald L. Staheli Professor of Global Supply Chain Management, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah Gregory M. Magnan Associate Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington Ten guiding principles for high-impact SCM Copyright 2004 by Indiana University Kelley School of Business. For reprints, call HBS Publishing at (800) 545-7685. BH109 This document is authorized for use only in GCA - MBA G 51 by Winston Zavaleta from July 2012 to September 2012.