Value chains today have a huge impact on multinational corporations’ right to exist and the way they compete.
The future challenges associated with value chains are also huge and include new demands from society, emerging-market strategies, resource scarcity, risk proliferation and other issues. Anticipating and addressing these future challenges are crucial if companies are to compete effectively.
IMD and several multinational companies created the IMD Global Value Chain Center (VC2020) in June 2011 to develop research about the future of value chains. This book summarizes some of the key findings from this two-year project.
How speed affects risks, opportunities and new business models in value chain
Summary
The impact of speed on risks and opportunities is tremendous. While higher speed increases costs, it can also reduce risks and increase business opportunities. However, the “faster is better” maxim has its limitations. Depending on the industry and the context in which companies are operating, they need to determine their optimal speed. Despite the fact that many companies would like to increase their speed because of the volatile context of recent years, increasing levels of control, bureaucracy and¦compliance regulations are decreasing speed and making companies more vulnerable to risks and less able to take advantage of opportunities. The VC2020 research proposes a new model in this chapter that shows how companies¦can substantially improve both their speed and costs by standardizing products and removing variability. However, they need to find the right balance among speed,¦efficiency and variability. A supply chain or a process might be strong on two of these dimensions, but it cannot be strong on all three. The right speed falls at the point¦where the cost is minimized.
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Measuring corporations' cost and contribution to society
Summary
Prior to the 2008 crisis, it was an (almost) universally held belief that business should be conducted for the benefit of shareholders. Governments should interfere as little as¦possible with business to avoid hampering efficiency, wealth creation and economic growth. That world collapsed in 2008. During the months following the Lehman¦Brothers debacle, politicians and governments across the globe were forced to save their countries’ largest businesses, from auto manufacturing to banking. This soon¦became a tragi-comedy. The CEOs of America’s largest automotive companies flew to Washington in their luxurious private jets asking for bailouts worth billions in taxpayer money. Since then, it has become more openly recognized that businesses depend on a variety of different stakeholders and today’s business leaders increasingly¦need to show how they create value for stakeholders along the entire value chain of their products or services.
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Optimizing IT-enabled processes and systems in the value chain: The role of governance
Summary
IT-enabled processes and systems are widely acknowledged as key drivers of global value chain management. When investing in these processes and systems, corporations want to benefit from standardizing their worldwide networks, but they are faced with¦the challenge of how to adapt to and support differentiated markets and business models with standardized solutions. The goal of this chapter is to understand the implementation journey to IT-enabled processes and systems in global corporations and to provide insights into the governance challenge of balancing centralization¦versus localization.
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Scale and speed: Traditional multinationals versus emerging market firms
Summary
For multinationals in the West, emerging markets represent both a growth story and, increasingly, the need for a pre-emptive strategy. Why? Because emerging-market¦firms have begun to display a clear pattern, they are focusing on customer market segments that are less attractive to – and therefore not satisfactorily served by –¦traditional multinationals. In addition, a poor country is usually surrounded by other poor countries. Once these firms secure a foothold in those markets, they begin to¦improve their product offerings at such a low cost that traditional multinationals find it difficult to replicate. The Japanese applied this strategy when the country began to¦take off almost 50 years ago. And there are a rising number of emerging-market firms in almost every industry imaginable that are keen to establish a foothold in the global marketplace.
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The organizational design shift
Summary
Over the past years, organizations have evolved from being very independent and internally focused to becoming part of an ecosystem that includes the entire value chain. The high level of outsourcing and specialization has resulted in companies having interdependent relationships with the other companies in the value chain. While the focus continues to be mainly internal and on the customer, it is starting to move towards the ecosystem that serves and manages the whole value chain (with the client serving as a prime driver). This change implies that traditional organizational structures with their business units,¦geographic structures or other models, need to be adapted to consider the whole ecosystem. The challenge is how to organize and structure the management of the value chain, from supplier to customer.
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The value chain shift: Seven future challenges facing top executives
Summary
Value chains today have a huge impact on multinational corporations’ right to exist and the way they compete. The future challenges associated with...
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©2014
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Available Languages
English
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Surviving Global Tariffs - Industry Reactions
Summary
Surviving Global Tariffs means Medtech and Luxury brands must revisit 1990s strategies to adapt to the US’s steepest trade barriers in decades.
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Strategy Meets Execution - Supply Chain
Summary
10 years of exclusive surveys reveal top supply chain strategy challenges—and how tools like AI, ML, and digital twins are reshaping the path forward.
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Can eDNA revolutionize biodiversity monitoring?
Summary
Explore eDNA science with Kristy Deiner on the IMD Management Cast . Learn how genetics, biodiversity, and data analytics shape conservation and the bioeconomy.
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Tariff wars: How business leaders can survive and thrive
Summary
Stay ahead in a shifting global economy. Learn how to build resilient supply chains, manage currency risks, and adapt strategies for long-term business success.
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Boosting and sustaining operational excellence
Summary
The case explores the principles and challenges of operational excellence through the experience of Magdi Batato, former EVP of Operations at Nestlé. It examines how he implemented Mission-Directed Work Teams (MDWTs) to empower front-line workers,...
Reference
IMD-2653
Copyright
©2025
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Organization
Nestlé
Industry
Consumer Goods, Food and Beverage;Consumer Goods
Available Languages
English
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Managing Multiple Role Identities - Family Enterprise
Summary
Leaders of family firms are struggling with multiple role identities, and poor board management is putting the future of family enterprises at risk.
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Navigating the negotiation staircase
Summary
This technical note introduces the Negotiation Staircase Framework, a comprehensive approach to understanding and managing complex negotiations. The framework presents six distinct levels of negotiation: Set-up, Process Definition, Guiding Princip...
Reference
IMD-2660
Copyright
©2025
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Available Languages
English
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Can your supply chain be both resilient and efficient?
Summary
Resilience and efficiency of supply chains should no longer be viewed as competing goals but rather as complementary aspects of a well-calibrated supply chain management strategy.
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Imprese familiari: Il valore nascosto tra numeri, tradizioni e futuro
Summary
Family businesses represent the heart of the European economy, combining numbers, tradition and future vision to generate unique and lasting value. How can this be calculated?
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The five types of negotiators: Understanding diverse negotiator styles
Summary
This note, designed for use in sessions and programs on negotiation, explores five distinct negotiator types: competitor, collaborator, strategist, innovator and problem solver. Each type has unique characteristics, strengths and weaknesses that c...
Reference
IMD-7-2596
Copyright
©2024
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Available Languages
English
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