COMING SOON
In his new guide to supply management, author Thomas DePaoli
offers no-nonsense strategies learned from his diverse career in many
organizations. Told in part via a story format, Common Sense Supply Management uses real life examples to discuss
what goes right, and often wrong, in the supply chain management trenches.
The stories are told factually without any embellishing notes
to distract the reader. By carefully following this book’s accounts, supply
management professionals can learn a career’s worth of what to do and what not
to do. DePaoli provides practical lessons launched from real-life cases and
tested in the unforgiving supply chain management reality.
Like many good business leaders, the author places business
relationships first and foremost in his guide. “Supply management covers more
breadth and depth than any other discipline in an organization,” says DePaoli.
“It is the art of building multiple relationships.”
His book advances to tackle best practices, Lean Six Sigma,
and information-based negotiations. He includes an extensive chapter on
planning and strategy that prepares the reader for his multi-dimensional
approach to suppliers, offering proven tactics for testing and sourcing
suppliers, and he is candid about the possible pitfalls of using international
sourcing.
A stickler for robust, data-driven decisions, he shows the
sorts of metrics supply managers should be tracking. He discusses a range of
computer-based tools that allow professionals to conduct their business. He warns managers about adopting
slick-looking technologies that remain incompatible with an organization’s
culture.
He remains convinced that his story-telling strategy will
allow readers to learn more than what any textbook offers. “Some of the stories
are good management lessons,” says DePaoli. “Others were the result of having
great people work for me and teamwork, while others were the result of just
hard work and massive amounts of tough homework.”
Supply chain management continues to form the backbone of most
companies. Knowing how to orchestrate
its complexity can give an organization a strong competitive edge. The supply
managers who are willing to take the journey and possess the indomitable spirit
necessary to succeed will greatly benefit from this unorthodox but powerful
guide.