Great Books for Winter Reading

In my prior blog post (Logistics Clusters - a terrific new book by Yossi Sheffi), I reviewed Yossi Sheffi’s terrific new book – Logistics Clusters – which explains how supply chain dynamics are transforming both company competitive advantage, and regional economies. This book is a must-read for all business managers, supply chain service providers, and government officials. It is fascinating, fast-paced, and packed with compelling factual examples.

Three other great books

For additional great reading, I suggest three other books: Reckless Endangerment, Turn Right at Machu Pichu, and The Seven Daughters of Eve.

Reckless Endangerment, by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner is subtitled: “How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Created the Worst Financial Crisis of our Time” – and the book certainly lives up to this description.

It is a gripping narration of the forces that led to the near-collapse of the US economy, complete with a blow-by-blow history and names. The really chilling issue is that most of these individuals are still in power, and history appears to be repeating itself in the current fiscal cliff and budgetary crisis.

Turn Right at Machu Pichu, by Mark Adams is a delightful tale. Adams interweaves the history of Pizzarro’s conquest of the Inca Empire, with the story of Hiram Bingham’s fascinating discovery of the ruins of Machu Pichu, with Adams’ own treks in the area tracing the respective histories and stories. The result is a wonderful amalgam by a great writer. By the way, Hiram Bingham is the Yale professor whose story reputedly formed the basis for the character, Indiana Jones.

The Seven Daughters of Eve, by Bryan Sykes, is an incredibly compelling scientific detective story. In this book, Sykes, a professor of molecular genetics at Oxford, describes his ground-breaking genetic investigations into human origins in a very understandable, compelling style that is hard to put down.

His investigations solve long-standing mysteries ranging from the origin of the polynesians, to the story of global human origins. He traces the development of his pioneering genetic techniques that enabled him to trace the lineage of all contemporary humans back through the shrouds of time to just seven women, whom he calls the “seven daughters of Eve.”

Logistics Clusters - a terrific new book by Yossi Sheffi

Logistics Clusters – Yossi Sheffi’s terrific new book – explains how supply chain dynamics are transforming both company competitive advantage, and regional economies.

Why did Singapore rise to international prominence? Why did Memphis outshine its regional neighbors? Why do competitors win by locating near each other and even sharing facilities? How will the transformed Panama Canal affect commerce on entire continents?

Sheffi answers these questions and more in his insightful and fast-paced book. The book’s focal point is an explanation, with multiple examples, of the power of clusters of supply-chain related businesses. These logistics clusters offer compelling advantages for carriers, for customers, and for regional economies.

The book is a must-read for all business managers involved in operations, supply chain management, and strategy – it systematically shows the decisive gains from locating in a logistics cluster.

The book is a must-read for all supply chain service providers – it details the powerful advantages from participating in a logistics cluster, and conversely the problems that result from failing to take advantage of this essential configuration.

And, the book is a must-read for government officials seeking to turbo-charge their economies and upgrade their labor force in a recession-proof, outsourcing-proof, sustainable manner.

This book is written in a fast-paced style that draws the reader through the fascinating story of why logistics clusters are so important to so many top managers and government officials, what benefits they create for all participants, and how to participate to harvest the value.

This is a very important book that reads like a novel. After all, who else but Yossi Sheffi could tell this fascinating story that starts with Roman-era supply chains, continues with the rise of Singapore and the demise of the Erie Canal, and encompasses the founding of Federal Express, the just-in-time distribution of spinal surgical kits, and the economic transformation of the Spanish Province of Aragon?