Value Drivers

Supply Management, Apr 23, 1998 by Lonsdale, Chris

Value Drivers

Author: Mark Scott

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Price: L19.99

This book, written by a one time management consultant, presents itself as "the manager's framework for identifying the drivers of corporate value creation".

What is actually received by the reader is an amiable, if rather unremarkable, stroll through the best established principles of business management. For example, Scott considers how firms can be structured, discusses ways in which segmentation can be usefully applied and uses the principles of Porter's five forces model.

Some useful points about business are found at various stages of the book. Scott addresses the issue of switching costs when discussing buyer-supplier relationships and raises some interesting points about the alignment of core skills with the value chain. However, the useful observations are lost in a book dominated by pretty standard fare.

The backbone of the book is a section on core competencies which, given that Prahalad and Hamel are featured in the bibliography, one expected to be influenced by their ideas. This did not seem to be the case, however, and the section is really very broad, divided into sections on financial strategy, human resource strategy, etc.

There is evidence in this book to indicate that Scott and his friends at WPP Group plc - for whom he works and which is endorsing the book know a great deal about business. After all, as he points out in the introduction, WPP turns over $2.8 billion per annum, so they must know something. The problem is that, in my opinion, many of Scott's more interesting points are not fully developed, leaving the reader with a rather standard text.

The result was that I was left asking myself who the book is actually aimed at. It is not innovative and intellectual enough to appeal to those attracted to such tomes. On the other hand, it is too long and detailed to be considered a business briefing or management guide.

Furthermore, although there is a bibliography at the back, the ideas in the text are often not cited. There is the odd comment saying that certain ideas are mostly associated with certain writers but there is no systematic referencing. This seems to be quite common in this type of book but, from my experience, it does mean that it will not be particularly useful to business students either.

For me, despite the many excellent points made in the book, it is ultimately disappointing - not least because of what it claimed for itself. Indeed, the part of the book that I would direct readers to first is the bibliography. Here the classic articles by Porter, Hamel and Prahalad, and Kaplan and Norton, to name but a few, are listed. It is perhaps these articles rather than this book that will offer the reader the greater insight into business management. SW

Chris Lonsdale

Centre for Business Strategy and Procurement