“This is essential reading for anyone seeking to compete–and succeed–in the fl at world.”

–John Hagel, Chairman of Deloitte Center of Innovation

“Competing in a Flat World provides an extraordinary glimpse into a new kind of organizational architecture, one built around the notion of orchestrating resources you don’t control and doing so in a way that builds both trust and agility. This architecture may well turn out to be the dominant model of the firm for the 21st century. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to compete in a flat world. Every chapter details new and powerful ideas.”

–John Seely Brown, Former Chief Scientist of Xerox Corporation and coauthor of The Only Sustainable Edge

“We are led by unstoppable economic forces to connect our resources to form smart networks, either wired or unwired. The authors bring forward the notion of ‘network orchestration,’ an almost one-size-fits-all strategy for organizations to survive and excel in an ever-flattening world.”

–John Chen, Sybase Chairman, CEO and President

In the “flat world,” everything changes…above all, what it takes to run a winning company. Success is less about what the company can do itself and more about what it can connect to. Find out how it’s done, from the company that pioneered “flat world” success, Li & Fung, which produces more than $8 billion in garments and other goods for the world’s top brands and retailers–without owning a single factory.

Victor and William Fung and Jerry Wind, author of the best-selling The Power of Impossible Thinking, reveal how they’ve replaced “old-fashioned” infrastructure and huge employee bases with a fluid, ever-changing network that can design, manufacture, and deliver almost anything, anywhere. The key to success in this world is a set of principles for “network orchestration,” described for the first time in this book. They examine how these principles can be applied in manufacturing, services and other industries. They show how to build and orchestrate your own world-class global network.

    *   Compete “network vs. network”–and win!

    *   Create a “big-small” company that combines scale and agility

    *   Forge loose-tight relationships with suppliers

    *   Balance control with empowerment, stability with renewal

    *   Manage the “bumps” in the flat world–from politics to terrorism

Visit the authors' website: www.competinginaflatworld.net 

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 12 Ratings

Strategic and Operating Principles of Supply Chain Orchestration - 2008-01-29
Reviewer Rating:
What is supply chain orchestration? It's an outsourced service that some use in fragmented supply markets to have someone else select and manage a supply chain for each purchase order. For example, a retailer wants to offer a supply of pants in various styles and sizes. Rather than bid among hundreds of suppliers for raw material, zippers, buttons, sewing, and packaging, the retailer might hire a supply chain orchestrator to perform those roles for a fixed price per garment. Although buying the supplies well would save some money, the big gain comes in putting the supplies together so efficiently that large costs like markdowns, needing lots of inventory in shipment, and last minute air freight are reduced.

Who does this sort of thing? Li & Fung, an eight-billion-dollar firm is in this business, and co-authors Dr. Victor K. Fung and Dr. William K. Fung share their perspectives among plenty of examples of how others try to perform the same functions with less good results.

Many such books end up seeming like advertisements for the firm being described in part, but Competing in a Flat World escapes that narrow message with plenty of description of general principles for strategy and operations. The key differences between traditional management efforts and this new business model are summarized on page 194 in table 12-1. If you don't have time to read the whole book, start with that exhibit.

The book's insights build on the observations of Thomas Friedman in The World Is Flat in describing the implications for business of converging technology, globalization, and the reduced effect of distances on costs and performance. If you thought that the Friedman book was interesting, this one will fascinate you more by drawing out more valuable points.

Because of the involvement of Wharton professor, Yoram (Jerry) Wind, the book has a professional academic feel without being inaccessible. There are many figures to illustrate the conceptual points that make the book easier to comprehend.

I was pleased to see that the authors appreciated that being good at supply chain orchestration will eventually require a focus on providing the same kinds of products to customers in the nations who are the low-cost producers for the offerings . . . a point that most Western-based businesses miss. I was also glad to see that the book drew on the idea of global contests to develop better models, but the discussion was pretty perfunctory. In many cases, such contests will be more important in global competition than supply chain orchestration will be.

I thought that the book didn't go far enough into getting into the specifics of how knowledge is acquired, tested, validated, retested, and distributed into a large organization that is a supply chain orchestrator. As a result, it's hard to know how important the value-added is for customers.

Many global commodities trading companies have often played similar roles in acquiring and distributing food, energy, and metals. I was surprised that the book ignored those organizations which provide similar streams of capability.

But for an introduction to network orchestration issues and opportunities, it would be hard to find a better book today.

More on the flat world - 2009-07-22
Reviewer Rating:
This is a bit more practical than 'The World is Flat', but not practical enough. Many, many businesses have gone global with the hopes of getting things done cheaply, only to find that the hoped-for savings was not so great. Perhaps if you are making dolls it is a bit more straightforward, but software projects can become a nightmare.

I want to write a book that outlines a dozen projects that failed in different industries and analyze what went wrong and what could have been done better. Then do the same with a dozen success stories.

Still, if you are going global, you need to read this book, so I recommend it.

It can be done....... - 2009-06-02
Reviewer Rating:
I purchased this book after reading The World is Flat by Friedman. I was looking for a more practical guide to competing in the "flat world". This book is not a practial guide! It only serves to affirm Friedmans notion of a flat world and provides what ammounts to one companies success within the flat world. Unlike Friedman's book, this book gives very limited examples of successful companies that have prospered in the Flat World.

Now for some positive - It does show you that at least one company can compete successfully in this flat world. Furthermore, it coins the term "Network Orchestration" (although this term may have already been in use) to describe the neccesary skills required to compete in this new world. It does provide a small framework to achieve success in the new world at the end of the book that incorporates some specific "things" to do to foster success but give no indepth detail on really how to accoplish this task.

This book would get a 4 if Fung really expaned on the "NETWORK" he describes and provided detailed "do's and don'ts" for the network.

Much better than propaganda but worse than the average business cases - 2008-10-15
Reviewer Rating:
As somebody who had lived in Hong Kong for decades experiencing the evolution of its textile and clothing industry, I did expect much more from this book about how Li&Fung turned itself to be debatably one of the most successful trading house, supply chain or "network orchestrator" as the authors crown themselves in the world. Little had been talked about how it had taken advantage of the opening of Mainland China and the pool of low cost Textile and Clothing human resources in the Greater China Region, and what edges Li&Fung had built and enjoyed to thrive beyond the thousands of trading house in the region. Disappointedly, the authors had been too busy to associate themselves with the "Flat World" euphoria and to "theorize" their work for a higher position in the academia and consultancy arena (Perhaps that's the fault of Wind, and not of the Fung's), or they had been too careful not to disclose their business secrets. For those who read more and better about the "Flat World" on a "strategic" level, I strongly recommend "A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink". For those who expect the Fung's to tell you how to copy their success formula, or learn how to enhance your own supply chain or trading house practice, please give this a pass.

The idea is nice, but what happens when your musicians form a competing orchestra? - 2008-07-26
Reviewer Rating:
Yes, the global communications and logistics systems does make it easier and even necessary to involve the globe in your manufacturing, marketing, and distribution systems. The idea of the "Flat World" is now in everyone's vocabulary, but I think it is a bit overdone. Just because information CAN be communicated anywhere, made in more places than ever before, and shipped from and to almost anywhere, does not mean that anywhere is equivalent everywhere.

Still, I think this book is interesting in the way they describe using your expertise to market and build just what the customer wants using global infrastructure by orchestrating the resources of a number of firms rather than building your own infrastructure and having to market to utilize your capacity rather than focusing on customer needs and desires.

We are seeing the problem with this theory, though. As American and European manufacturers moved their plants to other parts of the world, these places predictably learned. They are now either buying up Western brands or creating their own and bringing them to market in the West. Oops. They didn't stay in their role in the back of the orchestra, did they.

So, while this idea has some merit, the old rules of manufacturing, marketing, and aggressively competing in the marketplace with every tool (weapon) available still apply. You would be smart to think through handing the keys of your kingdom over to third parties based on these concepts. Rather than merely supporting your efforts, they may decide to push you aside and move in.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

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