13 May 2010 | David Hawkins
By Morten T Hansen, Harvard Business School Press, £19.99
I have worked for and with a number of multinational
organisations over the years, so I could certainly relate my own experiences to
many of the aspects covered in this easy-to-read book. It is well written and
obviously based on a broad range of research.
The book takes the reader on an informative journey
through the benefits and potential dangers of fostering internal collaboration.
The author captures these within his concept of “disciplined collaboration”, which
is a framework that will clearly be useful to those considering how to extract more
value from their operations.
As someone who works a lot in the field of collaboration
I felt the book focused too much on what the issues are and was less helpful
when it came to how leaders can take action. It concentrates on internal
collaboration and ignores the increasing need to consider external
collaboration – which is probably equally, if not more, relevant to business
leaders today and certainly to those in procurement and supply chain.
Like many books of this nature, it reinforces its
principles and conclusions using examples based on high-profile
mega-corporations.
These tend to disconnect its valuable observations from a
wider readership, particularly when it comes to considering the resources and
development needed to gain a competitive advantage. It also concerned me that
leaders of smaller organisations may fail to see how it could be translated to
benefit them.
David Hawkins is a director of operations at Partnership Sourcing Ltd
CIPSbookshop stocks a wide range of supply management titles (01780 756777,
bookshop.cips.org)
