Network advantage

Authors: Henrich Greve, Tim Rowley and Andrew Shipilov

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Reviewer: Ann McLaughlin, business services director at APS Group 

The first plus point about Network Advantage is that this is a highly readable book – not just a serious academic text. You can pick it up, browse a few pages and then leave it for a day or two; so easily digested on a daily commute.

Secondly, it’s peppered with international case studies from across numerous industries – technology, aviation, insurance etc. making it accessible and relevant to a wide audience.

Network Advantage addresses the importance of taking a long, hard look at the partnerships and networks that companies form – on average about 4000 a year are created, so we all invest a lot of time and effort in creating these alliances – and yet over 50 per cent of them fail.

Generally, managers can be a bit myopic and blame the failure on individual partners, when what they should be doing is analysing their overall network of alliances and resources to see how they can combine and exploit these to create competitive advantage.

The book is interesting from a strategic perspective in terms of how you can create the best type of alliance for your organisation, based on its relative strengths and weaknesses and the type of sector you’re in. Do you need a hub-and-spoke network (best suited to firms that need to innovate in dynamic industries)? Or would an integrated network be better to share information and mobilise forces? Would a hybrid alliance work best for you – a mix of the two types?     

Fundamentally though, I don’t see this book being directly relevant to a ‘typical’ B2B marketer. It’s better suited to senior execs, corporate strategists, supply chain specialists and MBA students.

It’s fascinating for those marketers who like to keep on top of corporate strategy, but really offers few ideas that you would take out of your marketing toolkit on a daily basis.  

Star Rating: 3/5


 

 

    

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