1. 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
June 2006

2. Start with a description of reality,
STARTING POINT
Start with a description of reality,
not with the names
June 2006

3. NETS, TREES, CHAINS
Net
Tree
Chain
June 2006

4. TWO DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
Connected Processes, or
Connected Companies
June 2006

5. 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).
June 2006

6. BILL OF MATERIALS PERSPECTIVE
June 2006

7. 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)
June 2006

8. 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.
June 2006

9. CONCLUSION (1)
SUPPLY CHAIN – process perspective from supplier to customer (often static).
SUPPLY TREE – process perspective from customer to supplier (often static).
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10. CONCLUSION (2)
VIRTUAL ORGANIZATION – A distributed company perspective.
VIRTUAL PROCESS – A distributed process perspective.
June 2006

11. 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.
June 2006