ARTICLE IN PRESS

Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 309–320

Extending the concept of supply chain:

The effective management of value chains
Abdullah S. Al-Mudimigha, Mohamed Zairib,c, Abdel Moneim M. Ahmedc,*
a
College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
b
e-TQM College, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
c
The European Centre for Total Quality Management, Bradford University School of Management, Emm Lane, Bradford,
West Yorkshire BD9 4JL, UK

Abstract

Supply chain management (SCM) is a major issue in many industries as organisations begin to appreciate the
criticality of creating an integrated relationship with their suppliers and customers, as well as all other stakeholders.
Managing the supply chain has become a way of improving competitiveness by reducing uncertainty and enhancing
customer service. The concept of value chain management (VCM) is becoming quite prevalent in industry. Despite this
popularity, there is little evidence of the development of accompanying theory in the literature. Without theory
development, it is difficult to identify specific hypotheses and propositions, which can be tested, resulting in research
that lacks focus and is perhaps irrelevant. This paper analyses the merits and limitations of SCM and provides broader
awareness of VCM, its critical success factors and proposes a model, which covers four key elements supported by a
drive on agility and speed.
r 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Supply chain management; Value chain management; Best practice management; Real time economy; Critical success
factors

1. Introduction ibility and quality delivery. SCM is concerned with

Supply chain management (SCM) is recognised
as a contemporary concept that leads in achieving
benefits of both operational and strategic nature.
Indeed, by managing inbound and outbound
logistics effectively, organisations can remove
various inefficiencies; introduce consistency, flex-
*Corresponding author. Tel.: 44-1274-234318; fax: 44-1274-
234311.
E-mail address: a.m.ahmed1@bradford.ac.uk
(A.M.M. Ahmed).
URL: http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/management/ectqm/.
smoothness, economically driven operations and
maximising value for the end customer through
quality delivery. The limitations are however due
to the fact that SCM as a concept does not extend
far enough to capture customer’s (end user) future
needs and how these get addressed and further-
more, it does not encompass the post-delivery,
post-evaluation and relationship building aspects.
Generally, SCM is not new; companies have had
to do it for years. Leading companies have
recognised that they must eliminate any inefficien-
cies in their supply chains. The first step in
developing an efficient supply chain is to improve

0925-5273/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2003.08.004
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310 A.S. Al-Mudimigh et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 309–320
the efficiency of disparate internal systems and
processes responsible for managing and coordinat-
ing the interactions in the value chain.
During the period from 1960 to 1975, organisa-
tions had vertical type of structures and optimisa-
tion of activities was focused on functions.
Relationships with vendors were win–lose interac-
tions, and many times adversarial. Manufacturing
systems were focused on materials requirements
planning (MRP). In the timeframe from 1975 to
1990, organisations were still vertically aligned but
several were involved in process mapping and
analysis to evaluate their operations. There was
realisation by a number of these organisations of
the benefit of integration of functions such as
product design and manufacturing. Various qual-
ity initiatives, such as the total quality manage-
ment (TQM), philosophies of Deming, Juran, and
Crosby, and ISO Standards for quality measure-
ment were initiated by many organisations. The
Malcolm Baldrige award and Shingo Prize for
recognising excellence in these and other quality
initiatives were initiated. Manufacturing systems
were focused on MRPII.
Starting in 1990, organisations all over the
world have been experiencing increasing national
and international competition. Strategic alliances
among organisations have been growing. Organi-
sation structures are starting to align with pro-
cesses. Manufacturing systems have been
enhanced with information technology tools such
as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), distribu-
tion requirements planning, electronic commerce,
product data management, collaborative engineer-
ing, etc. (Aberdeen Group, 1996).
Design for disassembly, synchronous manufac-
turing, and agile manufacturing are some of the
new paradigms in manufacturing. There has
been a growing appreciation in many organisa-
tions of total cost focus for a product from its
source to consumption, as opposed to extracting
lowest price from immediate vendor(s) (Turbide,
1997).
There has also been an increased reliance on
purchased materials and outside processing with a
simultaneous reduction in the number of suppliers
and greater sharing of information between
vendors and customers. A noticeable shift has
taken place in the marketplace from mass produc-
tion to customised products. This has resulted in
the emphasis on greater organisational and pro-
cess flexibility and co-ordination of processes
across many sites. More and more organisations
are promoting employee empowerment and the
need for rule-based, real-time decision support
systems to attain organisational and process
flexibility, as well as to respond to competitive
pressure to introduce new products more quickly,
cheaply and of improved quality.
The underlying philosophy of managing supply
chains has evolved to respond to these changing
business trends. The supply chain management
phenomenon has received the attention of re-
searchers and practitioners in various topics
(Brown, 1997; Slywotzky and Morrison, 1997;
Normann and Ramirez, 1993; Sutton, 1998; Abell,
1980; Coase, 1937; Williamson, 1975, 1985; North,
1990; Johnston and Lawrence, 1988; Beech, 1998).
In the earlier years, the emphasis was on materials
planning, utilising materials requirements plan-
ning techniques, inventory logistics management
with one warehouse multi-retailer distribution
system, and push and pull operation techniques
for production systems. In the last few years,
however, there has been a renewed interest in
designing and implementing integrated systems,
such as ERP, multi-echelon inventory, and syn-
chronous-flow manufacturing respectively.
A number of factors have contributed to this
shift. First, there has been a realisation that better
planning and management of complex interrelated
systems, such as materials planning, inventory
management, capacity planning, logistics, and
production systems, will lead to overall improve-
ment in enterprise productivity. Second, advances
in information and communication technologies
complemented by sophisticated decision support
systems enable designing, implementing and con-
trolling strategic and tactical strategies essential to
delivery of integrated systems. The availability of
such systems has the potential of fundamentally
influencing enterprise integration issues (Chandra
and Kumar, 2000).
The concept of value has many definitions
(Zeithaml, 1988; Anderson et al., 1993; Monroe,
1990; Gale, 1994; Woodruff, 1997) but generally
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they are not distinct. Common themes throughout
these definitions are that:
* customer value is linked to the use of a product
or service, thereby removing it from personal
‘‘values’’;
* customer value is perceived by the customers
rather than objectively determined by the seller;
and
* customer value typically involves a trade-off
between what the customer receives (e.g.
quality, benefits, worth) and what he or she
gives up to acquire and use a product or service
(e.g. price, sacrifices).
The creation of value is managed through what
has been referred to as the supply chain (Houlihan,
1987), value chain (Porter, 1985), or customer
chain (Schonberger, 1990), each of which refers to
a series of integrated, dependent processes through
which specifications are transformed to finished
deliverables. Emphasis is placed on the integration
of activities while focusing on increasing value for
the customer.
To manage value, one must recognise the
distinction between ‘‘price’’ and ‘‘worth’’. Price is
assigned to goods and services at a level to attract
customers and profit from their sale, whereas
worth reflects the buyer’s view of the price as it
relates to the perceived benefits, or functions and
attributes, of the product or service. When worth
equals or exceeds price, the customer is likely to
buy the product or service. Because pricing is an
attempt by the seller to assign a particular dollar
amount to a customer’s perceived value of a
product or service, pricing strategy is critical.
Traditional methods of setting price based on cost,
probability, and demand are consequently giving
way to determining price based on the customer’s
perceived value of the attributes of a product or
service (Kortqe and Okonkwo, 1993; Berry and
Yadav, 1996).
Pricing strategy is one element in an organisa-
tion’s effort to manage customer value. A more
overriding concern lies in the ability of the
organisation consistently either to:
* create improvements in the product or service
that increase the buyer’s sense of its worth; or
311
* reduce production costs throughout the
chain.
2. Value chain and the real time economy
It is widely acknowledged that in the era of the
Internet, speed, agility and value creation are the
most critical components of modern competitive-
ness. Indeed, it is the availability of planned
information that distinguishes good competitors
from the bad ones. This is because decisions are
made quickly, inventories are no longer necessary
and the customer is replenished on a regular,
continuous and uninterrupted basis (Tapscott,
1997; McGuffog and Wadsley, 1999). In other
words, information provides real time for com-
munication and real time transactions thereby
making the principle of developing relation-
ships with the customers much easier than ever
before.
This therefore begs the question, as to whether
organisations that has in the past, found it difficult
to compete effectively is going to embrace the
modern concepts of VCM and invest significantly
in IT. So that they too, can manage in real time
and develop closer working relationships with
their customers. If this is to happen it is clearly
evident that they have to adhere to the following
two challenges:
(a) Re-engineer their supply chain capability.
This would mean that the supply chain would
have to focus on all the activities that get
the chain of raw materials into an operation
that runs smoothly and is delivered economi-
cally for the end customer. In other words,
value chain analysis would have to look at
every step from raw materials to the eventual
end user, right down to disposing of the
packaging after use. The end goal of supply
chain management is to deliver maximum
value to the end users for the least possible
cost.
(b) Is to ensure that supply chain is extended to
provide VCM. VCM is the model concept
where supply chain becomes only a sub-set.
VCM is concerned with managing integrated
information about product flow, all the way
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from suppliers to end-users. In order to reduce
defects in inventories, speed the process,
achieve time to market and improve customer
satisfaction. VCM is concerned primarily,
with the customer from start to finish.
3. Achievable benefits
There are numerous benefits to be accrued from
adopting the principles of VCM. These are
classified as organisational, economical and stra-
tegic competitive benefits. First and foremost,
VCM provides organisations with the opportunity
to develop their value proposition. In other words,
they have to identify their core competencies and
position themselves in the market place, according
to their strengths and competitive abilities.
Secondly, VCM provides organisations with the
opportunity to establish chains that create value
and drive out cost and bring in customer needs and
wants. In other words, it is about developing
synergy levels and seamlessness, between the
various activities involved in converting the
customer needs into tangible outputs.
Thirdly, it is about creating customer focus and
through a continuous, uninterrupted relationship
with the customers, information can flow both
ways and, therefore, create focus which is so
necessary in a modern business environment, that
requires organisations to move speedily, to be
flexible and agile.
The other benefits of VCM include the devel-
opment of partnerships with suppliers and with
other stakeholders. Indeed, technology enables
organisations to network on a wider scale and
ensures that the customer is better served. Cost
advantage is another benefit, which can be accrued
from focusing on the customer in a value creation,
value added manner. Optimising activities and
establishing the inter-dependency between the
various processes can drive out costs out through
quality improvement and through optimisation.
Agility is a must in a modern business environ-
ment, indeed the ability to innovate, to be
responsive, flexible, cost effective, is the only way
to distinguish between various competitors
(Sheridan, 1993; Greis and Kasarda, 1997). Lastly,
the ability to manage the network through the
information flow, the knowledge base and the
databases that customers, suppliers and other
stakeholders can access, will enable firms to
compete effectively.
4. Best practice case studies
This section explores two applications of VCM
principles in the retail sector and healthcare. Both
cases advance the importance of focusing on an
end customer, ensure that the pre-requisite is
defining customer needs and wants and the flow
throughout the chain through the translation of
those needs and wants into a valuable output,
rather than focusing on the flow of products
and services that are not clearly defined. The
analyses of these cases are based on Dumond
(2000) theoretical framework, which illustrated in
Fig. 1.
The framework advocates that managers,
through the organisation’s mission and strategy,
create the organisational system that facilitates the
use of process management. In turn, the use of
process management practices create and maintain
an organisation culture that supports value man-
agement and the ability continuously to improve
the organisation’s processes, products, and ser-
vices to enhance customer success. Feedback
mechanisms throughout the organisation continue
to fine-tune the organisational system and pro-
cesses. By focusing on the key elements of value
management, a company can develop a stable
customer base and become an integral part of their
continued success, thereby developing a competi-
tive advantage.
In value management, one of management’s
primary duties becomes that of developing and
maintaining an organisational system in which
value can be continuously created. Management
must develop training programs to upgrade levels
of competence; work with employees to provide
appropriate reward systems; share control and
information; and empower employees. It is essen-
tial to use the potential of computers and cross-
functional information systems to enable an
organisation to go flat, reduce response time, and
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Organizational
System

Training

Job Design Organizational

culture
Interface
Organization relationships Process Customer
Mission and Management Success
Strategy Performance
measurement
sysrem Continuous
improvement
Information
systems

Key
Causal Direction Feedback Mechanism

Fig. 1. A proposed theoretical framework for value chain management.

Fig. 2. The concept of VCM in ARLA foods.

allow managers to be closer to the customer,
because closeness to the customer appears to
provide management with the information to
support and maintain their change efforts (Anon-
ymous, 1995).
In effectively managing the supply chain to
create value, perhaps the two most fundamental
changes that managers will have to make are:
(1) the shift from the directing of functions to that
of ensuring the smooth flow of processes;
and
(2) the transition to a flatter, more responsive
form of management.
The focus of management becomes one of
creating a process-oriented organisation with the
primary purpose of serving the customer with
ever-increasing quality, faster response, lower cost,
and greater flexibility.
4.1. Case study A: ARLA foods
ARLA is a supplier of milk and dairy products
to supermarkets in the retail sector. It has a vision
of applying the full concept of VCM as illustrated
in Fig. 2. As a starting point, ARLA seeks to
modernise its supply chain with a focused vision
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314 A.S. Al-Mudimigh et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 309–320

CUSTOMER METHOD &

QUALITY Aral
Vision & WAYS OF
PEOPLE &
Mission WORKING
PROCESSES

Supply Chain strategy

ARLA Advantage
CUSTOMER
CULTURE QUALITY
PEOPLE &
PROCESSES
EMPOWERMENT

Fig. 3. ARLA framework for VCM.

on brand that create sustainable competitive

advantage through internal excellence innovation Process
Process Mapping
Mapping andand
ptimisation
O
Optimisation
and external offering.
In order to do this ARLA has developed the
following framework shown in Fig. 3.
As shown in Fig. 3 above, ARLA has an
integrated framework, which brings together the
business vision and mission with ARLA advan- Process
Process Mapping
Mapping andand
ptimisation
O
Optimisation
tages. This component looks at shaping the
culture, by focusing on three propositions. The
first is the customer. The second is quality. The
third is people. This third component was achieved
through harnessing people’s energies and deliver-
ing a corporate empowerment. Process
Process Mapping
Mapping andand
ptimisation
O
Optimisation
The ARLA house seeks to achieve the following:

* To take the business to a new level in

developing internal supply chain efficiencies
and integrating demand with supply execution
and in improving profitability. Process
Process Mapping
Mapping andand
ptimisation
O
Optimisation
* To create customer focus, which is consistent
and continuously and that will be delivered Time Frame 3 years
through understanding and delivering customer
Output– delivery of enterprise to
requirements, establishing consistent measures
of success and producing innovation in service, enterprise model
as well as product. Fig. 4. ARLA road map to VCM.
* Setting best practices in the dairy industry and
that will be delivered through the most effective
delivery process and through visibility of to work in partnerships for the purpose of
process and costs, through a supply chain and building a future for the organisation.
finally through E-enabled supply chain princi-
ples. Commitment from top management there- Fig. 4 illustrates the road map put together by
fore, is to engage the whole of the organisation the ARLA top management team. It is a 3-year
in developing supply chain excellence. To use plan with the end output to deliver enterprise-to-
various means and methods of modern manage- enterprise using value chain model. This would be
ment will enable ARLA to achieve the goal and done through 4 distinctive phases.
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Phase 1: Process mapping and optimisation,
while looking and scrutinising all these activities
and at all the levels within the organisation.
Phase 2: To implement process with design and
to introduce the key elements of supply chain
development, again through scrutinising value
added activity.
Phase 3: ‘‘The Supply chain transformation’’:
To integrate and start to apply the ethos supply
chain and value chain.
Phase 4: ‘‘The Supply Chain Enabling’’: To
automate with IT and produce the enterprise-to-
enterprise value chain model, through Internet
based principles.
4.2. Case study B: Leicester Royal Infirmary
This case study is based on the business process
re-engineering approach that Leicester Royal
Infirmary has adopted, to create a focus on the
patients and, therefore, deliver a new organisation,
which subscribes to the principles of VCM (Fig. 5).
It all started with a simple question ‘‘If we didn’t
have a hospital in our city and we needed to build
a new one, what would it look like?’’ The result of
this blank sheet of paper approach has lead to
fundamental re-engineering of all the activities
undertaken within the hospital. To focus on
patients needs, wants and patients satisfaction.
As shown in Fig. 5, the principles of VCM in
this case study are described as:
To capture customer’s needs and the flow of
patients within the hospital system. It was
established that patients come via two routes,
one is the emergency route and the other is a
planned entry route, through referrals from the
GPs. The challenge here was to establish close
working relationships with GPs and to educate
GPs on the referral process. More importantly, to
get them to work closely with the senior manage-
ment team of Leicester Royal Infirmary, on
ensuring that quality and service is delivered and
patients are seen on time. They called this principle
the ‘‘single visit principle’’.
The second route is the emergency entry and
again, using the fundamental approach of single
visit approach. Patients are, therefore, catered for
through one visit, by having all their needs
315
attended to, without disruption, without frustra-
tion and without asking them to make another
appointment unnecessarily. This process was well
supported because the IT technology has enabled
Leicester Royal Infirmary to build protocols with
the GPs and to ensure that clinical services are
offered to GPs. Information and advice on the
care of their patients is also made available.
In addition to this, the re-engineering approach
has produced the seamless chain, where clinical
support services, such as diagnostic services and
pharmacy, theatres, are all geared towards looking
after the patient in a synchronised fashion. In
order to close the loop, Leicester Royal Infirmary
has, therefore, produced a protocol to follow up
on patient’s progress through their GPs and
provide feedback on the quality of service pro-
vided. What has made this possible is the free flow
of patient information and the innovativeness
which was enabled by thorough knowledge of
patients, their history, the effectiveness of the care
provided and, therefore, enabling the teaching and
research process, which is fundamental to quality
improvement in health care provision.
In all, these case studies, have something in
common and that is that in order to produce an E-
based value chain approach to delivering quality
services, the fundamental point was to re-engineer
the structure of the organisation and to enable
each sub-activity to focus on the customer and
more importantly, to link the various activities
together. So in other words, getting rid of bottle-
necks, getting rid of hierarchical structures, ensur-
ing that communication flows freely both ways
and delivering a dedicated focus on the customer,
seem to be pre-requisites for achieving with value
chain management concepts.
5. VCM critical success factors
It is however, not easy to adopt the principles of
VCM and to accrue the benefits which are
promised in various bodies of the literature. For
instance, a recent survey undertaken by Ernest and
Young (Harnan, 2000) seems to demonstrate that
there are many challenges that organisations are
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Fig. 5. Principles of VCM.

facing, which need attending to, if the promised with value chain concepts and, unfortunately, it
benefits are to be delivered. seems that not many organisations can claim to be
very effective at using the VCM principles and
5.1. Challenge 1: Value chain optimisation optimising their performance in this sense.

This area, as Fig. 6 illustrates, demonstrates that
technology is the least factor of concern. However,
many organisations that have participated in this
survey, agree that price pressures for modernising
is one of the challenges that they are facing.
5.2. Challenge 2: Value chain performance
In relation to this question the various respon-
dents have been asked to report on how they
perceive the performance of their organisation
5.3. Challenge 3: Value chain strategy
As Fig. 7 demonstrates, one of the critical
problems that many organisations are facing in
their inability to put together a value chain
strategy, which is systematic and based on their
future requirements. Most organisations seem to
be starting this process, but do not have it
crystallised and well documented already. Further-
more to the question on the effectiveness of value
chain strategy, it goes without saying that because
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Technology incompatibility

Lack of trust

Corporate Philosophical
Differences
Small Cos
Knowledge/Training Large Cos
All
Lack of VCM Leadership

Poor Communication

Price Pressures
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Fig. 6. Major barriers to value chain optimisation (Hernan, 2000).

IN
DEVELOPMENT

Small Cos
NO IT
Large Cos
Integrated
Integrated
All
Infrastructure
Infrastructure
YES

0 20 40 60 80
Partnership
Fig. 7. Formal value chain strategy (Hernan, 2000). Approach

Process
Process
Management
Management
they do not have systematic value chain strategies Philosophy
Philosophy
in place, the assessment of their value chain
strategy is somehow not very complementary. VCM
Vision
Vision
5.4. Challenge 4: Value chain information sharing

As to information shared with value chain

partners, it is very interesting to note that most
of the respondents acknowledge that their organi-
sations still share information which relates to the
transactional side and which focus on aspects
related to the product, rather than information
which looks at strategy and the long term vision of
their partners. Figs. 6 and 7, demonstrate that
when it comes to customers, the information
shared is again to do with products and services,
rather than the strategic aspects and the sales
forecasts. Similarly for suppliers, the information
that is shared willingly tends to be related to
products and services and the least shared
information is on strategic aspects and sales order
aspects.
Fig. 8. VCM best practice road map.
5.5. Challenge 5: VCM road map
This proposed road map, based on extensive
review of the literature and current experiences
with principles and value chain management, has
mainly four key pillars and places emphasis on the
importance of agility and speed, Fig. 8.
5.6. Pillar 1: VCM vision
Organisations that seek to achieve excellent and
sustainable performance standards, using value
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chain principles will have to put in place a value
creation, a mission/vision, based on extensive
knowledge of the customer. Furthermore, they
have to engage high leveraging capabilities
of the organisation and which deliver their
value proposition. Thirdly, they must use infor-
mation and knowledge as the most valuable
resource and this is more pertinent in a digital
era, where real time decision-making is vital for
competitiveness.
5.7. Pillar 2: Process management
It is very important, as it has been illustrated
with the previous case studies, that processes are
analysed, core activities of organisations are
established, optimisation is delivered across the
board, using modern tools, such as business
process improvement, business process re-engi-
neering etc. Processes are surrounded with mea-
surement to ensure that the improvement
is delivered and cost effectiveness is established
and the value added is quantifiable. Further-
more, process management will ensure that
processes are controlled to provide consistency
and seamlessness and finally process management
delivers effective management in a controlled work
environment.
5.8. Pillar 3: Partnership approach
It is essential for organisations in the modern
business context to work through partner-
ships. VCM is based on the notion that partner-
ships are possible, so a strategy for enterprise
relationships has to be put in place. Collabora-
tive commerce has to be evidently visible
through free sharing of information and the
mutual leveraging of various capabilities. Thirdly,
organisations have the chance to improve
their overall capabilities by enabling preferences
and priorities of customers that can be addressed.
Fourthly to ensure that the network supply
continues to generate customer value and
deliver consequential benefits for all parties
concerned.
5.9. Pillar 4: IT integrated infrastructure
The integration is a must if value chain is going
to happen, and in an E-based environment IT
integration has been established as one of the key
challenges. It is therefore imperative that organi-
sations facilitate the expansion of enterprise
knowledge, by ensuring that information technol-
ogies are improved and optimised and by produ-
cing real time understanding of production
processes, consumer demands and the activities
of the various sub-processes that are essential for
the value chain principle, but also which can be
queried at any point in time.
5.10. Pillar 5: Agility and speed
Agility is a consequence of various evolutions
since the 1970s (Greis and Kasarda, 1997).
Organisations at that time tended to focus
more on cost. This shifted to quality in the 1980s
and speed became a pre-requisite in the 1990s.
Agility is essentially trying to customise mass
customisation, by personalising the delivery of
value through the provision of services and
products to each customer around the globe. With
IT and the Internet, this challenge can be made
feasible.
6. Conclusions
This paper has looked at the broad aspects of
the value management concept, and tried to
illustrate the applications through two different
case studies. Finally, the paper has put together a
proposed road map, which organisations contem-
plating the introduction of these modern princi-
ples, can adhere to, if they wish to optimise their
performance and remain competitive, in a real
time economy age and digital age. Fundamentally
the paper has established that at the heart of value
chain management, are the needs of customers, the
importance of delivering value on a consistent
basis to customers and consumers and the
importance of developing relationships through
continuous information flow, continuous focus
and the ability and agility of organisations to
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continuously replenish those wants and needs in a
timely, quality, cost effectiveness and innovative way.
The other aspect that was highlighted in the
paper is the importance of focusing on processes
and identifying core critical activities within
organisations that have high leverage abilities,
which can enable organisations to define their
value propositions. Through highlighting one of
the key surveys in the field of value chain
management, it has been established that there
are two aspects that need to be taken into account.
One of them is the importance of having a clearly
defined value chain strategy, that is deployable and
that can be monitored on a regular basis and that
can deliver the wishes and levels of ambitions of
any organisation concerned.
The other aspect that has been highlighted is the
importance of focusing on partnerships. Indeed,
one of the conditions for the effective application
of Value Chain Management is a clear emphasis
on co-operation and collaborations. This therefore
requires a new organisational mindset and a new
way of behaving when it comes to sharing
information. This is particularly the case when it
comes to aspects on future strategic planning,
business growth and development plans, invest-
ment inventions and the direction that the business
is planning to take in the future.
Aspects such as these are so critical for partners as
they affect their ability to plan, to commit resources
and to gauge their own strategies so that mutual
leveraging takes place and value added is rendered at
an optimum level from all sides concerned.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank those who
contributed to this research work particularly the
valuable comments came from the reviewers of this
paper, which added value to its content and made
it a good reference in this area of research.
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