Grand Strategy: The Strategy of the Supply Chain

Grand strategy is the business policy used by a nexus firm-the leading concern in a supply chain-whose suppliers and distributors work alongside it to manufacture and distribute its products. This grand strategy helps the nexus marshal other companies into a formation, a supply chain in which the processes of independent firms are managed across their respective boundaries. A vertical grand strategy reworks the trans¬action cost theory and applies it to the creation of cost-optimal supply chains. The horizontal grand strategy applies micro¬economics to construct a competition strategy, which is employed at the end-user markets of a supply chain. In brief, this book pioneers the grand strategy of the supply chain. While it is written for managers who want to improve the competiti¬veness of their supply chains, it is also of substantial value to scholars since it combines economic theories with management learning to create a "science of business."

TAPIO PENTO has a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Michigan, an MSIA from the Carnegie-Mellon University, and an M.Sc. (Economics) from the Helsinki School of Economics. He has been an executive with a number of high technology firms and has served as a professor and executive education moderator for several European universities. At present, he is a business consultant.