ARTICLE IN PRESS

doi:10.1016/j.pu

Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 12 (2006) 343–344

www.elsevier.com/locate/pursup

Book review

Living Supply Chains, John Gattorna. FT Prentice Hall,

Harlow, England (2006) (£23.80), ISBN-13:978-0-273-

70614-4; ISBN-10:0-273-70614-4.

If you are a CEO looking to gain competitive advantagefrom your supply chain, Dr. John Gattorna has a solutionfor you: dynamic alignment. His contention is that toomany companies view their supply chains as ‘‘mechanical’’,focusing on infrastructure and systems technology. How-ever, Dr. Gattorna claims that this perspective ignores thesubstantial human behavioral element of supply chainmanagement and he uses a biological metaphor, describingsupply chains as ‘‘organic’’. The metaphor is extended toportray individual company supply chains as parts of thebroader business ecosystem. The dynamic alignment modelpresented in the book describes how to group and alignprocesses, assets and people into modular structures orcells. The organic nature of a company’s supply chain isderived from the capability to quickly re-align and re-configure based on changing customer buying behaviors.

Dr. John Gattorna is co-director of the Centre forSupply Chain Research and Professorial Fellow in SupplyChain Management at the University of Wollongong,Australia. The key concepts in the book are not based onrigorous academic research, but drawn from Dr. Gattor-na’s more than 20 years of experience as a consultant.Consequently, the Living Supply Chains is riddled withanecdotal stories and commonly cited best-practice exam-ples in the supply chain management literature fromcompanies such as Tesco, Zara, Li and Fung and Nokia.These examples are used opportunistically to illustrate theadvantages of dynamic alignment, while examples ofstruggling companies are trotted out to point out thepitfalls of ignoring the dynamic alignment model.

The book contains 10 chapters. The first chapterintroduces the concept of supply chain management andpresents the four elements of dynamic alignment: producer(P), administrator (A), developer (D) and integrator (I).The second chapter deals with customer segmentation,supply chain alignment and, drawing from the P-A-D-Iframework, introduces four types of supply chains:continuous replenishment, lean, agile and fully flexible.The author contends that each requires a differentconfiguration and operating characteristics. Chapter 3covers organizational culture and change managementwhile Chapter 4 identifies leadership styles for each of thefour customer segments and leading organizational change.

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Chapters 5–8 are dedicated to the four supply chainsegments. Each chapter addresses 10 critical areas forimplementing the supply chain strategy and creating theappropriate subculture to underpin the strategy. Withinthese chapters are also examples of ‘‘mixed supply chainlogics’’—illustration of companies that have variouscombinations of the four supply chains. Chapter 9 coversa broad range of business models for supply chainmanagement and Chapter 10 concludes with a review of13 issues, or what the author describes as ‘‘Exocets’’ thatDr. Gattorna believes will affect the way enterprise supplychains will perform over the next decade.The author attempts to use his dynamic alignment model

to illustrate how firms can treat their supply chains as a setof dynamic mechanisms. He argues that the modelprovides a clearer view of customer segments and helpsshow how to align culture and leadership styles ofbusinesses to dominant customer buying behaviors. Ineffect, the dynamic alignment model is designed to assistfirms to understand, manage and synchronize their supplychains.Make no mistake; Living Supply Chains is about

customer segmentation and re-configuring the firm’sorganization to meet changing customer buying behavior.There is very little in the book about supply management,and therefore it is best suited for courses in eithermarketing or distribution.

Living Supply Chains provides two important contribu-tions. First, the book offers a strategic orientation andidentifies opportunities for firms to use their supply chainas a source of competitive advantage. In doing so, theauthor points out the significant role of senior managementin leading organizational change and supply chain align-ment.The second contribution is the dynamic alignment model

highlights the different moving parts of a supply chain andthe careful balancing act confronting CEOs as they struggleto align internal operations with constantly changingcustomer buying behaviors. Dr. Gattorna correctly pointsout (in my estimation) that the traditional view of supplychain management places too much emphasis on informa-tion technology and infrastructure, while ignoring thesubstantial human behavior aspects.Unfortunately, I feel that book fails to deliver on two

very important dimensions. First, it is long on theory andshort on execution. The author attempts to use anecdotalexamples to illustrate his theory and the opportunities, but

ARTICLE IN PRESSBook review / Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 12 (2006) 343–344344

as I read the book I kept asking: How would a CEO goabout implementing dynamic alignment? In my estimationthe examples used in the book were superficial and lackeddepth and detail. A clear roadmap and convincingillustrations would have gone a long way to convincingme that firms can and should adopt the dynamic alignmentmodel. Missing was in-depth analysis and a detailed studyof companies that have successfully adopted and imple-mented dynamic alignment. While the appendices in thebook are designed to provide support for dynamicalignment diagnostic and implementation, their level ofdetail and sophistication was lacking.

Second, I did not see much new in the dynamicalignment model. Despite the author’s arguments to thecontrary, I found the P-A-D-I framework and customersegment framework similar to previous work in this area.For example, the continuous replenishment and leansupply chains described in the book are similar to Fisher’s(1997) physically efficient supply chains, while the agile andfully flexible supply chains are similar to Fisher’s (1997)market responsive supply chain. There are a number ofother researchers that have also addressed the topic ofcustomer segmentation and supply chain alignment.Furthermore, the supplier segmentation framework is

reminiscent of the framework from Peter Kraljic’s 1983HBR article.An additional problem with the book is that it strays

into a number of areas and does not connect these topicswell with the dynamic alignment model. For example,Hofstede’s work on country cultures in Chapter 3(Implementing a Multiple Supply Chain Alignment Strat-egy) and the description of 4PLs in Chapter 9 (NewBusiness Models for New Supply Chains) was only looselyconnected to dynamic alignment. I felt that the mainmessage could be been delivered in a much more succinctmanner.As a result, I will not be including Living Supply Chains

on my list of essential readings on supply chain manage-ment. In addition, given the emphasis on market segmen-tation, there is very little content in the book that wouldhave applications for my courses in either supply manage-ment or operations management.

Fraser JohnsonRichard Ivey School of Business, the University of Western

Ontario, Ont., Canada

E-mail address: fjohnson@ivey.uwo.ca.