SCORE!: A Better Way to Do Busine$$: Moving from Conflict to Collaboration [Hardcover]

Thomas T. Stallkamp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2005

To maximize long term profits, companies and their managers must focus more on win/win collaboration with business partners rather than using coercion and adversarial tactics to force compliance. Stallkamp pioneered new strategies for collaboration as President of Chrysler Corporation. His breakthrough strategy (SCORE--Supplier Cost Reduction Effort)turned Chrysler around and into the world's most profitable automaker. Organizations ranging from Dell Computer to the U.S. Air Force are now profiting from the lessons they learned from Chrysler. Stallkamp offers a complete blueprint for deploying strategic collaboration with suppliers, customers, and employees. Learn how Stallkamp overcame the pitfalls and cultural obstacles.  Stallkamp reveals detailed metrics that demonstrate the remarkable cost and quality improvements strategic collaboration makes possible. Stallkamp's proven techniques address strategy, communication, leadership, measurement, information sharing, responsibility sharing, and more. Simply put, this is everything needed to establish collaborative relationships that drive unprecedented business value.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

To maximize long term profits, companies and their managers must focus more on win/win collaboration with business partners rather than using coercion and adversarial tactics to force compliance. Stallkamp pioneered new strategies for collaboration as President of Chrysler Corporation. His breakthrough strategy (SCORE--Supplier Cost Reduction Effort)turned Chrysler around and into the world's most profitable automaker. Organizations ranging from Dell Computer to the U.S. Air Force are now profiting from the lessons they learned from Chrysler. Stallkamp offers a complete blueprint for deploying strategic collaboration with suppliers, customers, and employees. Learn how Stallkamp overcame the pitfalls and cultural obstacles.  Stallkamp reveals detailed metrics that demonstrate the remarkable cost and quality improvements strategic collaboration makes possible. Stallkamp's proven techniques address strategy, communication, leadership, measurement, information sharing, responsibility sharing, and more. Simply put, this is everything needed to establish collaborative relationships that drive unprecedented business value.

About the Author

THOMAS T. STALLKAMP is Founder/Principal of Collaboration Management, a private consultancy specializing in helping businesses implement collaboration; and Industrial Partner at Ripplewood Holdings, LLC, a NY-based private equity firm.

Formerly CEO/Chairman of MSX International, he is best known as former Vice Chairman of DaimlerChrysler. During almost 20 years at Chrysler Corporation, Stallkamp helped lead the company to new stability and growth in the uncommonly competitive automotive industry. As President there, his supplier partnership strategies drove major improvements in both quality and cost, helping make Chrysler the world's most-profitable automaker.

Stallkamp serves on several corporate boards and on the advisory board of Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, and on the faculty at Babson College's Graduate Entrepreneurship Center.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

chapter one of SCORE!: A Better Way to Do Busine$$: Moving from Conflict to Collaboration [PDF]

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wharton School Publishing (March 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131435264
• ISBN-13: 978-0131435261
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,205,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All Gain And No Pain, June 11, 2005

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SCORE!: A Better Way to Do Busine$$: Moving from Conflict to Collaboration (Hardcover)

It makes sense to approach business relationships as a partnership to make sure that both sides come away from the experience in a positive light, but how many times have you been involved in something the gets competitive and turns into a game of who can get the most out of the other guy. That is what this book is about. The authors premises is that in today's competitive and global environment with all the price pressures that there are, it is going to be relationships that are more important then squeezing that last 1 % out of your vendors.

Sure this sounds like some sort of play nice book written by a non business professional that really does not know what it is like. That perception is incorrect. The author was the Vice Chairman of the Chrysler Corporation and practiced what he is laying out in the book. Overall he gives any number of examples of how win - win relationships help you out in the long run. He is a very persuasive author and his premises is helped out by the fact that deep down most if us know that he is correct. We all like working with people that make things easy and are treating us fairly and we all dislike the pain associated with dealing with a firm that you know will stick it to you unless you are on top of them.

Overall I enjoyed the book. The author writes in a very easy to read and positive manner. The book reads at a fast pace and is full of insightful points. It is the kind of book that you wish all business professionals could read and put in practice. Not only does the book spell out a better way to do business, but it is the way to stay in business.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for executives who think bullying works, May 27, 2005

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: SCORE!: A Better Way to Do Busine$$: Moving from Conflict to Collaboration (Hardcover)

SCORE is an acronym for Supplier COst Reduction Effort and is used to describe the policy of cooperating with suppliers, labor unions and other associated companies rather than being confrontational. Stallkamp is the former vice chairman of DaimlerChrysler and the former president of Chrysler Corporation. Therefore, his experience is in the auto industry, where the amounts are enormous and relationships can be complicated.
His arguments, and they are persuasive, are that companies should establish partnerships with their suppliers and strong-arm tactics are self-destructive. He describes cases where executives of auto companies made threats to suppliers and dealers in an attempt to cut the costs to the Auto Company. This was predicated on the misguided belief that since the Auto Company had the financial clout, the other entities would be forced to acquiesce. While it worked for a short time, those being bullied were resistant and eventually the policy had to be rescinded. There was a complete loss of trust between the companies and it took some time before there was a restoration of the good faith needed to conduct business.
I very much enjoyed this book, it is truly an example of how cooperation, even with rivals, can lead to improved conditions for all. Many of the points made in this book reminded me of the book, "The Evolution of Cooperation" by Robert Axelrod. Axelrod cites many examples in human history where cooperation between rival groups spontaneously arose, to the benefit of all.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From adversarial to collaborative commerce, April 12, 2005

By 

B.Sudhakar Shenoy (India) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SCORE!: A Better Way to Do Busine$$: Moving from Conflict to Collaboration (Hardcover)

The car is the second most valuable investment next only to a house for most consumers during their life time. The global automobile industry rolls out 40 million vehicles every year. Of these 15 million are from USA where at about 20000 dollars a piece, this is a $ 300 billion industry. The industry is dominated by a few players who have consolidated over the years. This structure and size gives them enormous power and leverage in dealing with their suppliers. Traditionally the big three companies have followed strong command and control structure in dealing with their suppliers, employees and dealers. It is not uncommon to see unilateral cost reduction mandates, threat of switching over to new suppliers or similar tough measures to reduce the per unit price of the components they procure. The automobile supply chain is highly complex involving thousands of suppliers in different tiers. Under the current system each layer is isolated from the next. This traditional way of doing business or "adversarial commerce" is harmful to all stakeholders according to the author. The book is about a closer examination of the malady and to recommend a new way of doing business that is beneficial in the long run for entire value chain, right from the producer of raw materials to the end consumer.

The Japanese manufactures on the other hand practice a different approach defined as collaborative commerce. Here the OEMs involve the suppliers in all stages manufacturing including joint goal setting, treating them as partners and an extension of their organization. This is a model that operates in an atmosphere of trust and cooperation and the suppliers are deeply involved in and share the costs and profits of a win-win approach. Several advantages including supplier investments in development costs leading to superior products with shorter time to market is a key factor for the global success of these firms. Chrysler's success in implementing this approach under the banner "SCORE" is the main theme of the book.

The book is based on the author's rich experience in the automobile industry. It also contains recommendations for implementation and the challenges to overcome in companies not used to collaborative practices. Written in first person narrative style, it is worth reading once. However, sharp criticism of some executives could have better been avoided.