Are You the Weakest Link?
A Valuable Metaphor
Notwithstanding these shifting tides, when someone asks, “What do you do?,” the expected answer would be the job that you have or the business you are in. If you were talking to strategic planners, their next question might be, “What is your value proposition?”
The supply chain concept is a metaphor for a host of “value proposition” relationships among the various elements and actors in a marketplace—which includes you and your company. The marketplace can be global or local, it can exist within the four walls of a printing plant, on an Internet network of servers, or seemingly at random among diverse self-contained links in vertical (e.g., trees to bookstore) or horizontal (e.g., bookstore to discount store) supply chains.
- Places:
- New York
- United States
Eugene G. Schwartz is editor at large for ForeWord Reviews, an industry observer and an occasional columnist for Book Business magazine. In an earlier career, he was in the printing business and held production management positions at Random House, Prentice-Hall/Goodyear and CRM Books/Psychology Today. A former PMA (IBPA) board member, he has headed his own publishing consultancy, Consortium House. He is also Co-Founder of Worthy Shorts Inc., a development stage online private press and publication service for professionals as well as an online back office publication service for publishers and associations. He is on the Publishing Business Conference and Expo Advisory Board.