Book Review: Supply Chain Security
Global Supply Chain Security and Management. By Darren Prokop. Butterworth-Heinemann; Elsevier.com; 200 pages; $49.95.
Anyone who intends to enter the realm of supply chains and logistics must read Global Supply Chain Security and Management. Author Darren Prokop brings vast experience in the academic and practical worlds of supply chain management to this book. He goes the extra mile to package a tremendous amount of critical information in a compact volume to produce an easy-to-read narrative and valuable reference guide to these types of global operations.
Not only does the book identify the threats of today and tomorrow, it also provides useful insight on how to combat them. Going beyond the issues of insider/outsider theft and shipping damage, Prokop redefines the threat to include terrorism and natural disasters. He adds key chapters on topics of human and natural threats, information technology, and risk mitigation.
Prokop introduces the concept of game theory in the synergies between players in the global shipping arena, and he explains how a competitive situation may morph into a cooperative one. He points out the dual role that government plays in the global shipping effort—serving as both a policing agent and a supply chain partner. Key take-aways include recent U.S. regulatory decisions, the latest technologies for securing infrastructures, and up-to-date theories and techniques of industrial organization and security.
This book is an excellent tool for faculty and students of security management and supply chain management. Security practitioners in other disciplines would do well to add it to their professional libraries, as well.
Reviewer: Terry Lee Wettig, CPP, is an independent security consultant who served 10 years as director of risk management with Brink's Incorporated. A retired U.S. Air Force chief master sergeant, he is currently a doctoral candidate specializing in organizational psychology. He is an ASIS member.
