Professor Kenneth Preiss SMART BUSINESS NETWORKS; SUPPLY CHAINS or TREES; VIRTUAL ORGANIZATIONS Same Thing or Different? Professor Kenneth Preiss Ben Gurion University Beer Sheva, Israel 84105 Telephone + 972 8 6477097 preiss@bgu.ac.il June 2006

Start with a description of reality, STARTING POINT Start with a description of reality, not with the names preiss@bgu.ac.il June 2006

NETS, TREES, CHAINS Net Tree Chain preiss@bgu.ac.il June 2006

TWO DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES Connected Processes, or Connected Companies preiss@bgu.ac.il June 2006

PROCESS PERSPECTIVE Bill of materials perspective: Each subassembly has several components. From customer to suppliers we see a tree. Each supplied component has one destination. From supplier to customer we see a chain. (Presume none-commodity items). preiss@bgu.ac.il June 2006

BILL OF MATERIALS PERSPECTIVE preiss@bgu.ac.il June 2006

VIRTUAL ORGANIZATION A distributed multi-company effort that looks to the outside as if it were a real company or organization. ( A distributed single-company is a real company and does not (today) require a special name) preiss@bgu.ac.il June 2006

COMPANY PERSPECTIVE Corporation A sells to B. Corporation B sells to A. Corporation A competes with B. Corporation B competes with A. Corporations A and B cooperate. preiss@bgu.ac.il June 2006

CONCLUSION (1) SUPPLY CHAIN – process perspective from supplier to customer (often static). SUPPLY TREE – process perspective from customer to supplier (often static). preiss@bgu.ac.il June 2006

CONCLUSION (2) VIRTUAL ORGANIZATION – A distributed company perspective. VIRTUAL PROCESS – A distributed process perspective. preiss@bgu.ac.il June 2006

CONCLUSION (3) SMART BUSINESS NETWORK – A company perspective. A network (not a tree or chain) because I can be a customer to my customer, etc. All relationships hold simultaneously. preiss@bgu.ac.il June 2006