A thorough and enlightening exploration of the importance of supply chain risk management that needs more examples for...
A research-driven assessment examines the role of supply chain risk management in the financial industry.
In this business book, vander Straeten (An Overture to Geofinance, 2018, etc.) makes a case for distinguishing supply chain risk management from general risk management in banking and financial organizations. The author explains why supply chain risk management is a crucial business process that ensures corporate stability and minimal disruption from rare but potentially disastrous events. Vander Straeten reviews and synthesizes much of the existing literature on the topic, and a lengthy bibliography supports the book’s detailed presentation of supply chain risk management research. The volume establishes the theoretical frameworks the author uses throughout the text, including the major difference between supply chains in service industries and those in enterprises that produce tangible goods (“Service supply chain deals with flow of information, capacity, and cash”). He then explains the various components of supply chain risk management, including service-level agreements, resilience, metrics, and the role of capital. After laying the groundwork for its arguments, the book contends that supply chain risk management should be an integral part of planning in the financial sector. According to the author, “Four primary external risk factors are driving the need for improved supply chain resiliency: (i) the demand-driven nature of today’s markets; (ii) environmental compliance; (iii) globalization; and (iv) increased market velocity.” Vander Straeten details why and how business leaders should incorporate this process into their strategies. Best practices for managing and responding to risks are also presented. The text is informative but extremely dense and most appropriate for readers with knowledge of financial and banking practices, although it does attempt to define the many specialized terms and concepts necessary to understanding the book. Readers will find that the author is extremely knowledgeable about the subject and has produced a volume based on substantial research. He makes a compelling case for an approach to risk management that acknowledges the unique position of the service industry supply chain, distinguishing it both from supply chain management for physical goods and the operational risk management that is part of a financial institution’s regular business processes. The prose is often clear and direct (“When the disruption has happened, KPIs can also be useful in monitoring the impacts and taking actions”; “Investment in risk management is designed to avoid something happening, rather than to make something happen”), but there are limitations. While the book is highly illuminating, it addresses its concepts primarily in general terms and is less effective at providing concrete examples of how the ideas it covers can be implemented in practice. There are few specific instances of how to manage risk in the service supply chain. This is one work where the addition of anecdotes—either stories of real companies instigating new procedures or case studies of fictional scenarios—would have made it a more useful tool for those looking to make risk management decisions. In addition, the volume would benefit from further editing, including cutting some repetitive sections. Vander Straeten has a tendency to repeat himself in detail—often word for word—at paragraph length (for example, the discussions of “mega-disasters...tsunami” on pages 21 and 110).
A thorough and enlightening exploration of the importance of supply chain risk management that needs more examples for readers.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Value4Risk LLC
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Effectively sobering. Suffice it to say that Pop Warner parents will want to armor their kids from head to toe upon reading...
A maddening, well-constructed tale of medical discovery and corporate coverup, set in morgues, laboratories, courtrooms, and football fields.
Nigeria-born Bennet Omalu is perhaps an unlikely hero, a medical doctor board-certified in four areas of pathology, “anatomic, clinical, forensic, and neuropathology,” and a well-rounded specialist in death. When his boss, celebrity examiner Cyril Wecht (“in the autopsy business, Wecht was a rock star”), got into trouble for various specimens of publicity-hound overreach, Omalu was there to offer patient, stoical support. The student did not surpass the teacher in flashiness, but Omalu was a rock star all his own in studying the brain to determine a cause of death. Laskas’ (Creative Writing/Univ. of Pittsburgh; Hidden America, 2012, etc.) main topic is the horrific injuries wrought to the brains and bodies of football players on the field. Omalu’s study of the unfortunate brain of Pittsburgh Steeler Mike Webster, who died in 2002 at 50 of a supposed heart attack, brought new attention to the trauma of concussion. Laskas trades in sportwriter-ese, all staccato delivery full of tough guy–isms and sports clichés: “He had played for fifteen seasons, a warrior’s warrior; he played in more games—two hundred twenty—than any other player in Steelers history. Undersized, tough, a big, burly white guy—a Pittsburgh kind of guy—the heart of the best team in history.” A little of that goes a long way, but Laskas, a Pittsburgher who first wrote of Omalu and his studies in a story in GQ, does sturdy work in keeping up with a grim story that the NFL most definitely did not want to see aired—not in Omalu’s professional publications in medical journals, nor, reportedly, on the big screen in the Will Smith vehicle based on this book.
Effectively sobering. Suffice it to say that Pop Warner parents will want to armor their kids from head to toe upon reading it.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8757-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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