Supply chain books today come in two flavors:

• Management books for executives.  These books, of which each author has written one, are meant for practitioners, executives currently in supply chain roles who are looking for perspectives to deepen their understanding and help them devise strategies.  They often contain real-world business cases, problem-solving, benchmarks and practical management advice.

• Academic textbooks.  These books emphasize quantitative methods in aspects like planning, distribution and transportation.  They do not address the management or organization aspects of supply chain management.

We believe that there is an unmet need in the market of supply chain management literature for a simple, accessible book that lays out many of the key fundamental pillars of supply chain management, one that:

• Can be read and understood by non-supply chain experts.

• Does not intimidate with graphs, equations and calculations.

• Recognizes the organizational and management complexities of supply chains in large companies.

• Communicates the key success factors and performance drivers in a business context.

And this is the motivation for The Launch of the Century!

Who is The Launch of the Century written for?

• Any undergraduate, MBA or EMBA student about to begin a course on supply chain management in order to familiarize, sensitize and contextualize the reader for the deeper educational material of the course.

• A new arrival in a company who will either work in supply chain management or will collaborate extensively with the supply chain teams as part of their onboarding within a new organization, demonstrating the company’s appreciation of supply chain and cross-functional collaboration.