“Finally, the long-awaited synthesis of strategy and the systems approach! The benefit of reading Kamran’s innovative, insightful book is a deeper systemic understanding: it enables superior strategies for complex value networks.”

-—Prof. em. Dr. Markus Schwaninger, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

“With his innovative, holistic and interdisciplinary approach, Prof. Kamran delivers significant added value for research and practice. The combination of theory and practice by explaining different concepts and models and the corresponding illustration through case studies completes this worthwhile book.”

-—Prof. Dr. Ingo Böckenholt, Managing Director/President, ISM International School of Management

“As a philosopher, not an economist, I am deeply impressed by Professor Kamran’s book and his endeavour to host a dialogue between business strategy on the one hand and cybernetics, system thinking, and complexity sciences on the other. His language is lucid, his argumentation persuasive even for the layperson, and his interdisciplinary focus exemplary.”

—Prof. Dr. Dr. Holger Zaborowski, Professor of Philosophy, University of Erfurt, Germany

Description:

A supply chain is the process of all parties involved in fulfilling a customer request, while a value chain is a set of interrelated activities a company uses to create value and a competitive advantage. In Strategic Value Chain Management the authors bring together a variety of disciplines, showing how to move from traditional supply chain management to value chain management. Research from the (ISM) International School of Management, Germany, originating from a network of companies in a range of sectors, is integrated with case studies to demonstrate particular concepts.

Strategic Value Chain Management brings together theory and practice and presents tangible ways of creating competitiveness in a changing world through the use of effective models and frameworks. Challenging the traditional Porters Five Forces Model, the authors introduce the important academic disciplines of cybernetics and systems sciences as essential drivers of strategy within the supply chain, supported by case studies illustrating their implementation.

Introduces the theory behind strategic value chain management and examines its impact on an organisation’s performance with examples of its implementation in practice.

Key features at a glance

• Demonstrates how to integrate customer responsiveness and agile supply chains into the overall value chain strategy
• Provides research-based models and frameworks which introduce new ways of driving effective strategic decision-making
• Presents an interdisciplinary approach, highlighting the important field of systems sciences
• Includes real-life examples of how to increase competitive advantage through effective value chain management, from large corporates such as BAT and Maersk

Contents:

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction • Structure of the book • Management and strategy as tools of organizational functionality • The contemporary undertaking of strategic thought • Practical applicability • Scientific theoretical positioning • Strategic management and competitive strategy – an advanced introduction • What robust strategy models can accomplish • References

Chapter 1: Michael Porter – the founder of competitive strategy • Porter’s generic strategies • Porter’s value chain model • Porter’s five forces model (FFM) • References

Chapter 2: A treatise of cybernetics, system sciences and complexity sciences • Systems theory and its relevance for strategic management • System methodology as a foundation of organizational steering in complex environments • System dynamics and its implications on strategy • Designing a grand strategy for management • Recursion – the foundational principle of organizational complexity • Self-organization in social productive systems • Cybernetics – the science of effective organization • Autopoiesis and social systems • Artificial intelligence and organizational behaviour • Understanding and integration of ‘fuzzy logic’ for strategic thought • Understanding complexity via the lenses of cybernetics • The viable system model (VSM) • Second-order cybernetics • The team syntegrity model (TSM) • Radical constructivism and its implications for strategic management • Complex adaptive systems (CAS) • Understanding chaos theory and economics, management and strategy • References

Chapter 3: Introducing the six forces model • Complexity and strategy • In-depth reflections on organizational structure – the VSM and FFM, a necessary synergy • References

Chapter 4: Global value chain management strategies and models for competitive advantage (Co-authored with Lukas-Arved Eiben, MBA) • Introduction • The historical development: from transportation to supply chain • Supply chain: current state of research and approaches • Introduction to Porter’s value chain theory • A critical review of Porter’s VC model and his concept of sustainable competitive advantage • Global value chains: the basic model • Current trends and predictions about the development of global value chains • Supply chain research and global value chains: current state, criticism and approaches • The missing link between existing research and hands-on models • Conclusion and outlook • Notes • References

Chapter 5: Economic dimension of the six forces model and practical implications (Co-authored with Maryam Sezavar, MIM) • A background to the contemporary business environment of Iran • Sanctions and MNCs in Iran • Applying the SFM in Iran • References

Conclusion • Corroborative outcomes of theoretical analysis and complexity modelling • Exemplary application areas and recommendations • References

Appendix: Economic layer, supply chain and collaboration (Co-authored with Dr Rolf Neise)

Index

About the Author:

Prof. Dr. Sc. Qeis Kamran (MBA-GM, MBA- PPM, MBL-HSG, LLM, PhD Scholar and researcher at University of Twente, the Netherlands) is the full Professor of Strategy, Cybernetics and Design Science at ISM International School of Management, Dortmund, Germany. He previously worked in sales, management, entrepreneurship and leadership roles in retail, energy, oil, petrochemicals and consulting industries.

Target Audience:

People interested in supply chain management, logistics and operations.