The Resilient Enterprise: Overcoming Vulnerability for Competitive Advantage by Yossi Sheffi

by Yossi Sheffi

Stories from Nokia, Dell, UPS, Toyota, and other companies show how firms can reduce their vulnerability to high-impact distributions, from earthquakes to strikes, from SARS to terrorism, and use them for competitive advantage. What happens when fire strikes the manufacturing plant of the sole supplier for the brake pressure valve used in every Toyota? When a hurricane shuts down production at a Unilever plant? When Dell and Apple chip manufacturers in Taiwan take weeks to recover from an earthquake? When the U.S. Pacific ports are shut down during the Christmas rush? When terrorists strike? In The Resilient Enterprise , Yossi Sheffi shows that companies' fortunes in the face of such business shocks depend more on choices made before the disruption than they do on actions taken in the midst of it—and that resilience benefits firms every day, disaster or no disaster. He shows how companies can build in flexibility throughout their supply chains, based on proven design principles and the right culture—balancing security, redundancy, and short-term profits. And he shows how investments in resilience and flexibility not only reduce risk but create a competitive advantage in the increasingly volatile marketplace.Sheffi describes the way companies can increase security—reducing the likelihood of a disruption—with layered defenses, the tracking and analysis of “near-misses,” fast detection, and close collaboration with government agencies, trading partners, and even competitors. But the focus of the book is on resilience—the ability to bounce back from disruptions and disasters—by building in redundancy and flexibility. For example, standardization, modular design, and collaborative relationships with suppliers (and other stakeholders) can help create a robust supply chain. And a corporate culture of flexibility—with distributed decision making and communications at all levels—can create a resilient enterprise.Sheffi provides tools for companies to reduce the vulnerability of the supply chain they live in. And along the way he tells the stories of dozens of enterprises, large and small, including Toyota, Nokia, General Motors, Zara, Land Rover, Chiquita, Aisin Seiki, Southwest Airlines, UPS, Johnson and Johnson, Intel, Amazon.com, the U.S. Navy, and others, from across the globe. Their successes, failures, preparations, and methods provide a rich set of lessons in preparing for and managing disruptions. Additional material available at www.TheResilientEnterprise.com.

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction

Unknown Binding

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

Professor Yossi Sheffi is Director of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL), and Director and Founder of the Master of Engineering in Logistics Program. He is a faculty member of the MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, as well as the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. He is an expert in systems optimization, risk analysis and supply chain management and is the author of a text book Urban Transportation Networks: Equilibrium Analysis with Mathematical Programming Methods (1985) and four award-winning management books: : The Resilient Enterprise: Overcoming Vulnerability for Competitive Advantage (2005); Logistics Clusters: Delivering Value and Driving Growth (2012); The Power of Resilience: How the Best Companies Manage the Unexpected (2015); Balancing Green: When to Embrace Sustainability in Business (and When Not to) (2018). His latest book is The New (Ab)Normal: Reshaping Business and Supply Chain Strategy Beyond Covid-19 (October 2020).

Reviews

[Antonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the book is written in 2007 it is fascinating how up-to-date it is today with experience of disruption in Supply Chain in pandemic and energy disruption because of Russo Ukraine war.
The author goes from the basics of Supply Chain management, what are possible disruptions and how to mitigate them.
This is my assessments of this book The Resilient Enterprise by Yossi Sheffi according to my 7 criteria:
1. Related to practice - 4 stars
2. It prevails important - 4 stars
3. I agree with the read - 5 stars
4. not difficult to read (as for non English native) - 4 stars
5. Too long (more than 500 pages) - short and concise (150-200 pages) - 4 stars
6. Boring - every sentence is interesting - 4 stars
7. Learning opportunity - 4 stars
8. Dry and uninspired style of writing - Smooth style with humouristic and fun parts - 4 stars



Total 4,125 stars

[Ankur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for anyone deeply enthusiastic for learning about Supply Chain. A bit technical for layman and may require some additional efforts.
However, this book can provide a good foundational knowledge & examples of relevant case studies for anyone building their career in Supply Chain.

[Bibhu Ashish · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 2015 year book reading goal started with this wonderful book. May be at a first glance this book would look like a compilation of case studies on how risks are handled across the world within various organizations. But dig a deeper and this book is a gem for someone who is truly interested to understand the risk management concepts and the various approaches which can be adopted to mitigate various risks that an enterprise faces. Risks materialize in various ways. To an unprepared enterprise, this can be a loss of business or fall of the enterprise altogether but for a prepared enterprise the materialization of risks can be a great opportunity to strengthen her presence and become more powerful. This book no doubt would be a handy companion for any manager who is involved in risk management.The best takeaway from the book is that it gives a lot of ideas and case studies on how to manage risks. Some case studies felt like thrilling movies'screenplay. The book is well organized and well formatted. I would highly recommend this book.

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This could be one of the best business books I've read this year. Nearly all business-related books speak about marketing, selling, financial management, branding etc but, no one is talking about disruptions let alone what they are.

Reading this book agains the background of Victor Kgomoeswana's "Africa is ready for business" gave me an insight on how an organization builds resilience during a supply chain disruption.

Take the recent xenophobic attacks in Durban and how the effects were felt globally. The Mtn boycott in Nigeria. Shoprite was affected across its African operations. How African expatriates in Europe rallied together to boycott brand South Africa.

I'd recommend it for anyone in business. Whether operating locally or globally.

[Leader Summaries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Desde Leader Summaries recomendamos la lectura del libro La empresa robusta, de Yossi Sheffi.
Las personas interesadas en las siguientes temáticas lo encontrarán práctico y útil: liderazgo, anticiparse a los problemas, gestionar situaciones de crisis, gestión de la cadena de suministro.
En el siguiente enlace tienes el resumen del libro La empresa robusta, Cómo adelantarse a los desastres imprevistos y construir empresas más resistentes: La empresa robusta

[TK Keanini · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book that shows a completely different way to approach information security and risk management. Supply Chain management has always had to deal with uncertainty and this is a great example of how to approach operational risk in a way that the business understands day one.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was extremely interesting; the best supply chain book I've read. Interesting stories and examples kept me engaged the whole way through. It forces you to think about risk management in a whole new way.

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read book on strategy for knowledge workers and entrepreneurs.