Single Point of Failure: The 10 Essential Laws of Supply Chain Risk Management [Hardcover]

Gary S. Lynch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2009

Over the past decade organizations have faced relentless customer demand for better value at less cost, individual customization, greater choice, faster delivery, higher quality, exceptional service, and more recently – increased environmental and social consciousness. The organization’s weapon of choice to address this increasing demand has been the supply chain. However, as the supply chain footprint changed (e.g. outsourcing, off-shoring and customer/vendor empowerment) so did the organization’s exposure to uncertainty. Organizations were taken by surprise since this exposure was unanticipated, complex and beyond their ability to manage. As customers become more demanding and change occurs at an even greater pace, supply chain risk continues to propagate like a parasite. Organizations and societies are at much greater risk of systemic failure because of the massive interdependency throughout global supply chains. The priority now is two-fold; play catch-up and address these massive gaps while deploying more intelligent and integrated strategies (i.e. social aware, instinctive, dynamic and predictive) for dealing with continuous change.

Single Point of Failure: The 10 Essential Laws of Supply Chain Risk Management uses analogies and dozens of case histories to describe the risk parasite that infects all supply chains while revealing methods to neutralize that parasite. The book addresses the questions: What are the "single points of failure"? How exposed are customers, investors, other stakeholders and ultimately the organization? What is the measurable impact (i.e. brand, financial, strategic, and non-compliance)? Who establishes the "risk paradigm"? How does the organization efficiently and effectively allocate precious resources - time, people, management attention, and capital? How is success measured? This book is both technically powerful and effectively realistic, based on today's complex global economy.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Single Point of Failure

It is mind-boggling to consider what it takes to produce the products we depend on—critical drugs like blood thinners, plastic-based products such as syringes, isotopes for medical imaging, and milk-based baby formula. Or maybe your livelihood depends on your ability to transport products, on your customers having access to your online order entry system, or on the timely receipt of parts from your suppliers on the other side of the world. The occurrence of a single point of failure—whether a product contamination, labor strike, trade credit crunch, an earthquake, or a health crisis—can interrupt the flow of goods and cause total systemic failure.

Written by internationally recognized industry veteran Gary Lynch, Single Point of Failure: The Ten Essential Laws of Supply Chain Risk Management reveals just that—the ten vital laws to successfully identifying, measuring, mitigating, and financing risk, with guidance for establishing your organization's supply risk management program, avoiding bad decisions, and gathering better information and data to make good decisions.

Here, you'll discover:

• How to establish your organization's supply risk management program

• Why no risk strategy is a solution for bad decisions

• What causes supply chain risk management demand to trump supply

• The sourcing strategies that create more risk, not less

• Why managing the parts does not equal managing the whole

• What the best policy is for knowing what's in your policy

Believing that all is well is a self-deception. You need to continually analyze and evaluate the risks to your supply chains and business networks, determine and learn the root cause of problems, and decide whether you have the proper philosophy, culture, and systems in place to identify, measure, mitigate, and finance risk. Addressing risk from several points of view, Single Point of Failure authoritatively guides you in how to remain agile to avoid risk, be resilient to respond, adapt and absorb risk, develop methodologies that are sustainable to scale, and maintain risk solutions.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Single Point of Failure

"We are in a world where risk is becoming a more central issue for senior management and boards of directors. A fundamental area of risk is in the supply chain of the enterprise. Gary Lynch has brought together his years of experience to provide a comprehensive yet pragmatic approach to understanding and managing supply chain risk. His 'ten laws' provide a blueprint for the effective management of this very critical source of strategic risk."—David A. Nadler, Vice Chairman, Marsh & McLennan Companies

"Single Point of Failure is a must-read book for all executives who are navigating today's risk-rich space that requires them to predict, measure, manage, and tame uncertainty in real time. Lynch offers a unique blend of risk management business theory, macroeconomics considerations, and real-life, vividly described examples, creating unique learning moments and providing thought-provoking insights that, if applied, could ultimately create the difference between planned success or inadvertent failure."
—Francois Nader, Director, President and Chief Executive Officer, NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

"With Single Point of Failure, Mr. Lynch brings supply chain risk to life and makes it accessible to all walks of businesspeople. It's a fast-paced book that crystallizes the key business issues with a rich blend of insight and humour! Essential reading for all levels of business managers!"—James Irwin, Senior Strategic Marketing Manager, Roche

"Lynch captures the dynamics of supply-change management in an effective and comprehensive manner ... identifying numerous risk factors that impact on reputational capital, and are organic and typically embedded within all organizations that face increased globalization and its associated uncertainties ... His suggested strategies provide invaluable guidance concerning how organizations can not only recognize leading indicators that may result in deteriorating profiles associated with quality service and overall corporate social responsibility, but also anticipate potential future mutations in the evolution of risk profiles associated with the supply chain, and implement remediation and ongoing sustainable best practices in proactively addressing and preventing against salient risk parasites."—Jess Boronico, PhD, Dean, School of Management, New York Institute of Technology

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (November 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470424966
• ISBN-13: 978-0470424964
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #69 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Insurance > Risk Management

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an essential guide, January 12, 2010

By 

Sandor Boyson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Single Point of Failure: The 10 Essential Laws of Supply Chain Risk Management (Hardcover)

As a supply chain professor who teaches the subject, I have been looking for a book that is thorough, has a solid conceptual framework and is very practical to address the learning requirements of 30-35 year old MBAs that I teach. This is the book I have been looking for. I spent part of my Christmas immersed in the book's rich philosophy, deep executive perspectives and the globe-spanning case examples the author uses to illustrate the core concept of risk as a virus constantly evolving to attack the supply chain. Given the dynamic and multi-faceted nature of this threat (which he so vividly presents), it is entirely appropriate that a major emphasis in the text is on methods for generating and diffusing risk awareness throughout the organization. The sense of urgency conveyed in the book is directly linked to the vast experience with hundreds of organizations that the author brings. he has seen it firsthand.

The essential laws of supply chain risk management contained in the chapters all seek to to address the goal of getting the organization to acknowledge risk, create a "risk paradigm" for its specific business that defines the organization's risk drivers and stakeholder expectations and pushes managers to break through inertia and take action. Taking action is the key for survival in a global economy that the author describes as still tenuous and fragile in its trade relationships across the supply chain. This is a text not only for students but for executives in international businesses who want to get ahead of the risk curve and get ready for that next inevitable shock.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just common sense, November 12, 2009

By 

Jan Husdal (Molde, Norway) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Single Point of Failure: The 10 Essential Laws of Supply Chain Risk Management (Hardcover)

The author, Gary S. Lynch, is Global Leader, Supply Chain Risk Management Practice at Marsh Consulting, so he knows what he is talking about. The book's tagline reads "The 10 Essential Laws of Supply Chain Risk Management" and what Gary Lynch is trying to convey is that there are certain basics every manager should know, understand, and act upon. Lynch breaks down Supply Chain Management into ten basic laws, neither founded in academic theories or mathematical formulas, but simple basic principles that anyone can appreciate.

What Lynch underlines is that in supply chains, everyone is connected. It is impossible to separate the supplier from the company or the company from the customer. The only way the supply chain can work is one for all, all for one.

This book is full of universally applicable real-life examples, obviously written for the practitioner and supply chain professional, and perhaps not so much for the scholar or researcher. Nonetheless, considering the highly affordable price, this is a book that definitely should be in you bookshelf.

Much of what it comes down to in risk management is just common sense. But in the day-to-day business of managing operations and logistics, the oversight and wider implications of one's actions are often lost. Gary Lynch manages to bring this oversight into view again.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outsider's Perspective, January 17, 2010

By 

Matthew Enuco (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Single Point of Failure: The 10 Essential Laws of Supply Chain Risk Management (Hardcover)

As someone who is not involved in building and maintaining supply chains I took a much different perspective on the authors analysis. As a consumer I play an integral role at the end of the supply chain and my day-to-day life heavily depends on the success of the value chain. Single Point of Failure illustrates the ubiquitous nature of risk as it applies to every participant in addition to illuminating the hot spots of risk potential. With a number of helpful examples from small and large companies alike Gary Lynch adroitly paints a vivid picture of the urgency for whistleblowers at every level of the value chain. This book is a perfect addition to any library.