Books

The Power of Resilience: How the Best Companies Manage the Unexpected

In "The Power of Resilience," Yossi Sheffi explores how global supply chain disruptions require companies to build corporate resilience and risk management processes. Through case studies including Intel's response to the 2011 Japanese tsunami, Professor Sheffi demonstrates how companies can emerge stronger from disruption by balancing growth with advanced risk management.
Cover art for book The Power of Resilience

How the Best Companies Manage the Unexpected

A catastrophic earthquake is followed by a tsunami that inundates the coastline, and around the globe manufacturing comes to a standstill. State-of-the-art passenger jets are grounded because of a malfunctioning part. A strike halts shipments through a major port. A new digital device decimates the sales of other brands and sends established firms to the brink of bankruptcy. The interconnectedness of the global economy today means that unexpected events in one corner of the globe can ripple through the world's supply chain and affect customers everywhere. 

In this book, Professor Yossi Sheffi shows why modern vulnerabilities call for innovative processes and tools for creating and embedding corporate resilience and risk management. Sheffi offers fascinating case studies that illustrate how companies have prepared for, coped with, and come out stronger following disruption -- from the actions of Intel after the 2011 Japanese tsunami to the disruption in the "money supply chain" caused by the 2008 financial crisis. 

Sheffi, author of the widely read The Resilient Enterprise, focuses here on deep tier risks as well as corporate responsibility, cybersecurity, long-term disruptions, business continuity planning, emergency operations centers, detection, and systemic disruptions. Supply chain risk management, Sheffi shows, is a balancing act between taking on the risks involved in new products, new markets, and new processes -- all crucial for growth -- and the resilience created by advanced risk management.

The Power of Resilience (Trailer) - Yossi Sheffi

Trailer for Professor Sheffi's book, The Power of Resilience: How the Best Companies Manage the Unexpected, released October 2015.

Endorsements

“Yossi Sheffi displays a wealth of knowledge about large global enterprise in The Power of Resilience that is unprecedented. Senior executives will gain unique insights and manage much more effectively having read it.”
—Frederick W. Smith, Chairman and CEO, FedEx Corporation

 

“Yossi Sheffi is one of the most inventive and comprehensive thinkers in the supply chain and resiliency spaces. His latest book is a must-read for organizations hoping to leverage the strategic competitive advantages that resiliency and preparedness provide.”
—Chris Sultemeier, Executive Vice President, Logistics, Walmart

 

“Supply chains—logistics, transportation, and shipping—have been around throughout history, but never before has the supply chain been such an integral part of business. Yossi Sheffi does a great job of explaining why that transformation has taken place and the implications for doing business in the twenty-first century with the speed of challenges and risks facing our supply chains today.”
—Matthew K. Rose, Executive Chairman, BNSF Railway Company

 

“The Power of Resilience is a brilliant book that should be read by all business leaders in order to capably manage risks and create growth in the new global economy.”
—Hau L. Lee, Thoma Professor of Operations, Information, and Technology, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

 

“Resilience building is as critical as risk management for organizations operating in a dynamic global economy. This book is timely and important because it enables business leaders to grasp, conceptually and contextually, the power of resilience.”
—Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum

Book Reviews

FEMA

Private Sector Resilience: It is All in the Supply Chain

Dr. Yossi Sheffi's PrepTalk, “Private Sector Resilience: It is All in the Supply Chain”, explains the modes of failure in supply chain networks, explores new ways to think about disruptions, and showcases a General Motors case study on the complexities of supply chain management.

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MIT Sloan Management Review

Sustainability: Economy, then Environment, MIT Sloan Management Review, May 2009.

The director of MIT’s Engineering Systems Division and Center for Transportation and Logistics explores how the economic crisis pushes back matters of environmental sustainability—and how it doesn’t.

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Recommendation

Interdependencies within and between national economies make global and national systems – like financial networks or the world’s food chain – increasingly susceptible to disruption. A factory fire in one corner of the globe might create a supply chain domino effect – halting production of finished goods worldwide. MIT engineering instructor Yossi Sheffi warns that a breach of environmental standards by an obscure, deep-tier supplier might threaten the reputation of firms further up the chain. getAbstract recommends his forward-looking overview to leaders and risk managers – especially in large firms – who are building the response capability to deal quickly and effectively with disasters and disruptions.

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Supply Chain Management Review

The Power Of Resilience: A Q&A with Yossi Sheffi

Yossi Sheffi talks about his new book, The Power Of Resilience: How The Best Companies Manage The Unexpected, and how the best companies are balancing the risks involved in new products, new markets, and new processes—all crucial for growth—and the resilience created by advanced risk management.

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Supply Chain Matters

Supply Chain Matters Book Review: The Power of Resilience- How the Best Companies Manage the Unexpected

From time to time Supply Chain Matters will feature book reviews which we believe would be of value and a learning asset to our extended global supply chain management community of readers.

In this particular posting, we share our review of: The Power of Resilience, How the Best Companies Manage the Unexpected. The author, Yossi Sheffi, is a well-known thought leader among the global supply chain management community serving as the Elisha Gray II Professor of Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. He has authored a number of previous books including: The Resilient Enterprise: Overcoming Vulnerability for Competitive Advantage and Logistics Clusters: Delivering Value and Driving Growth. Professor Sheffi was gracious to this blog by previously contributing a guest commentary related to his Logistics Clusters book.

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UPS Longitudes

The Power of Resilience, UPS Longitudes, November 2015. 

Business Book

The Power of Resilience, Business Book, June 2016.

MIT Sloan Management Review

12 Essential Insights for Managing With Resilience

As the COVID-19 outbreak continues to impact global business, a collection of our most popular articles offers managers advice on supply chain resilience, leading remote teams, and risk management.

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Plant Engineering

Coronavirus’ effect on supply chain varies by industry, according to expert

Supply chain concerns depend on the industry according to an MIT expert on the topic. While food availability is not a major concern, the lack of critical medical supplies is and needs to be addressed quickly.

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McKinsey Global Institute

Risk, Resilience, Rebalancing in Global Value Chains, McKinsey Global Institute, August 2020. 

Opentext

What is supply chain resilience?, Opentext, October 2020. 

Blue Crux

The Rise of Resilient Supply Chains, Blue Crux, November 2020.

Get in touch

Professor Yossi Sheffi is available for interviews, Q&As, expert commentary and byline articles, author events, and other public speaking engagements.