Page 21 - Logistics News - September - October 2021

B O O K R EVIEW

The New (Ab)Normal: Reshaping Business

and Supply Chain Strategy Beyond Covid-19

In this book, MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi maps how COVID-19 impacted business, supply chains
and society.

uch has been written about COVID-19 products affordably to 7.8 billion human beings. In
victims, how scientists raced to this book, MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi exposes the
M understand the disease and how critical role supply chains play in helping people,
governments did (or did not) protect their citizens. governments and companies to manage that bounty.
Less has been written about the pandemic’s impact The book draws on executive interviews, pandemic
on the global economy and how companies coped as media coverage, historical analyses and themes from
the competitive environment was upended. his books, The Resilient Enterprise (2005) and The
Power of Resilience (2015) to suggest how companies
Civilization depends on supply chains to convert become more resilient facing uncertainty. This must-
the planet’s bounty into products and deliver those read book helps companies and entrepreneurs adjust
to a fast-evolving economic landscape.

The Stage is Set During a Global Pandemic: Part
1, ‘What Happened’, sees how companies fought
to mend the global economic fabric even as the
virus ripped more holes in it. Part 2, ‘Living with
Uncertainty’, shows how companies create corporate
immune systems to quickly manage large-scale
disruptions. The new normal is covered in Part 3,
‘Adjustment Required’, while Part 4, ‘Supply Chains
for the Future’, discovers accelerated trends in
technology adoption.

China was the pandemic epicentre and first
to recover. Part 5, ‘Of Politics and Pandemics’,
explains why reports that companies are
abandoning China do not reflect reality. The
book is about businesses trying to create a better
future, which is emphasised in Part 6, ‘The Next
Opportunities’.

Nimble businesses are using off-the-shelf
cloud computing and mobile apps to level the
playing field between small and large companies.
Research for this book shows that flexibility and L O GI S T I CS NEWS
agility are vital to managing the chaos of the
pandemic and the pivot toward the future. •

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