This is the complete executive's guide to driving sustainable competitive advantage and mitigating risk in today's complex supply networks. Two of the field's leading consultants show senior managers how to apply advanced strategic sourcing to significantly improve your supply chain's efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability.

Drawing on their cutting-edge research, Yusen Xia and Walter L. Wallace help you go beyond mere cost-cutting and contract management to redesign and orchestrate your entire multi-tier supply chain. Wallace and Xia present powerful case studies and lessons from UPS, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Shaw Industries, and other pioneers. You'll learn how to:

Bring together the multiple business disciplines whose work impacts sourcing and procurement
Use strategic sourcing techniques to create a more sustainable supply chain
Integrate the use of emission permits into your strategic sourcing programs
Manage procurement when the cost of raw materials fluctuates widely
Effectively utilize financial hedging in strategic sourcing
Deepen your understanding of contemporary buyer-supplier relationships
Implement strategic lead-time management
Increase visibility as a way to become more demand-driven
Take advantage of recent advances in e-sourcing and e-procurement
More effectively manage risk and uncertainty in your supply network
Make better outsourcing/insourcing decisions in global supply chains

If you're a senior manager who wants to transform sourcing and procurement into a key competitive differentiator, this book will help you deliver the goods.