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How Leading Companies Manage Customer-Supplier Alliances

After the oil crisis in the 70s, the economic progress took its turn. All are aware that those companies fortunate to survive the collapse, were forced to create new strategies and prepare themselves for the worst-case scenario.  

This book summary answers the questions related to this issue. We lay out some fundamental theories for weakened companies to rise from the ashes.

Who Should Read “The Connected Corporation”? And Why?

“The Connected Corporation” is perfect for those working their way through the business world and people who want to apply organizational changes.

In either case, you should be aware that this book comes without warning, and immediately exposes the weaknesses of many brands, leading to a discovery that alliances act as a route to financial heaven.  

About Jordan D. Lewis

Jordan D. Lewis is a worldwide authority on leadership, management, alliances, and consultant. He is also an author that used to teach at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. At this moment Lewis is a fellow of the World Economic Forum and a visiting scholar at the University of California.

“The Connected Corporation Summary”

Every now and then, corporations or companies are compelled to redevelop their strategies. The reasons for doing so are linked to achieving the best benefit/cost ratio. Obviously, it makes perfect sense of trying to take any company to a point where the cycle time, quality of products/services, and profits, will be at its best. Nevertheless, this procedure takes time; it’s a process consisting of 100% commitment and vision.

Why should you be customer-centric, instead of focusing around – the improvement on all company’s layers? – Stay with us:

Jordan advises that businesses should create strong bonds with suppliers as well, and form B2B alliances. Marching towards certain victory is a rare scenario in the business world, not even unions can guarantee you prosperity, but they’ll surely reduce the risk.

In either case, a partnership of this kind is the beginning of a new Age for your firm. Double your chances of victory with insights deriving from “The Connected Corporation” book written in the mid-90s. Perhaps, a dose of skepticism exists among the readers. Not many are willing to follow tips written more than two decades ago but don’t be foolish. Even though some of the methods are conventional, the overall experience is up-to-date.

You might be wondering: – Why emphasizing alliances?

Top-notch corporations owe their success to a well-designed strategy. Let’s look at things from an impartial standpoint. Any business goes after new markets which call into question, company’s vision, mission, and long-term strategy. What does this mean? – It indicates that if you don’t allow your business to grow by forging customer-supplier alliances, you’ll only end up in the bottom of the corporate chain. Increasingly more time and resources allocated to tasks of the highest order will allow the business to reduce costs, improve quality, and ultimately increase profits. The real measurement of your work is nothing other than a customer satisfaction.

Stay tuned for more:

Generally speaking, even in the digital age or the era of information, there are plenty of companies that refuse to share info, and participate in the process that contributes to the common good. The strategic alliance is not just a concept for creating value!! It represents the essence of success due to massive technological improvements these days. Filling the gap is a term used to showcase the unions and ties between societies, institutions, and companies to solve problems like lacking information, resources, creativity, etc.

The author of this classic – Jordan D. Lewis offers his expertise and the experiences of four major brands – Motorola, Marks & Spencer, Philips Consumer Electronics Company, and Chrysler – to demonstrate the benefits emerging from creating alliances with suppliers. The book, which is transparent and acceptable to most economies, nowadays.

The good thing about this classic is the table content, probably not relevant to the subject talked earlier, but highly beneficial if you are in a rush. Unless you have the time, it’s advisable that you digest this book piece by piece, section by section.

We feel honored to illustrate some of the critical aspects of  “The Connected Corporation”. Every question is answered with utmost sincerity and openness in the hope of reaching an agreement between the companies and their suppliers. Forging alliances is the thing of the 21st century as well – it’s a money-making trend.  

Key Lessons from “The Connected Corporation”

1.      Equal potential
2.      Integration to the rescue
3.      The end-goal

Equal potential

In reality, not much can be done about people’s beliefs – which are often based on superstition, lack of knowledge, or previous experience. One such theory worth sharing is that – only big “dogs” or companies such as Chrysler or Motorola are able to profit from beneficial partnership deals. Although small businesses have a lower potential to influence the market, it’s not true that they lack the ability to form alliances with limited resources.

Integration to the rescue

Integration is the key element to sidestep all external, and harm influences that enforce new practices to overshadow your company in a long-run. Probably, that’s part of the game, which puts you in the position to speed up the negotiations for “merging” with other companies and form economic ties between two or several firms.

The end-goal

In fact, there are no many other ways for increasing profits, then satisfying customer’s needs better than the competition. However, don’t take this the wrong way!! – It’s one thing to practice customer-oriented strategies, and something way different for finding enough room to implement these methods.

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“The Connected Corporation” Quotes

Our Critical Review

We sincerely recommend this classic, because it allows you to read it in thousands of different ways. You can skip chapters, return to them, go back and forth, without losing the essence of the book.

Emir Zecovic

Emir is the Head of Marketing at 12min. In his spare time, he loves to meditate and play soccer.