INSEAD’s new book examines how humanitarian logistics and business supply chain strategies can be effectively integrated to create lasting social impact
In this new era where organisations’ corporate social responsibility programmes have become a business imperative rather than a public relations effort, many companies turn to humanitarian organisations to contribute with their capacities and capabilities. In their book, ‘Humanitarian Logistics,’ Rolando Tomasini, Research Group Leader at the INSEAD Social Innovation Centre’s Humanitarian Research Group, and Luk Van Wassenhove, Henry Ford Chaired Professor in Manufacturing and Academic Director of INSEAD's Social Innovation Centre, take a detailed look at humanitarian operations and the collaboration between private companies and humanitarian organisations.
Based on seven years of extensive research and close collaboration with humanitarian partners - including United Nations agencies, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (to name a few) – and private companies, the authors identify areas in which collaboration between the two sectors can help to improve responses to humanitarian crises. Topics addressed in the book include:
- The importance of supply chain management in disaster relief
- Building blocks for disaster preparedness strategies
- Key issues in coordinating response operations with multiple partners
- The importance of transparency and accountability in the supply chain
- The challenges and importance of information and knowledge management for humanitarian organisations
- Corporate social responsibility in the humanitarian sector
- Steps and risks in setting up a collaborative effort between the humanitarian and private sector to support disaster preparedness or response
Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the World Food Program, comments: ‘As the UN's lead logistics organisation, WFP has a responsibility to look for benchmark practices both in the traditional humanitarian community but also in the private sector. However, humanitarian logistics are very different from private sector logistics, but we can learn a great deal from each other, as this book amply demonstrates.’
Van Wassenhove and Tomasini lead INSEAD’s Humanitarian Research Group which identifies best practices in disaster preparedness, response coordination and inter-sector collaboration. The dedicated team of researchers, doctoral students and faculty have developed 30 cases studies, 15 articles, several reports, an MBA elective
and an executive education programme for humanitarian agencies. The Humanitarian Group is one of six research areas within INSEAD’s Social Innovation Centre which seeks to develop new business models and market-based mechanisms that deliver sustainable economic, environmental and social prosperity.
‘Our research strives to develop humanitarian logistics as a science that further enables the development and sustainability of public-private partnerships,’ said INSEAD professor Luk Van Wassenhove. ‘Increasingly, businesses’ social impact will be a measurement of success and our book underscores the importance of creating an environment of shared learning.’
For more information about the book or INSEAD’s Humanitarian Research Group, please visit: http://www.insead.edu/humanitarianlogistics
About the Authors
Rolando Tomasini is Research Group Leader at the INSEAD Social Innovation Centre’s Humanitarian Research Group. He joined INSEAD in 2002 to do work on humanitarian logistics and humanitarian private partnership (Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Private Partnerships). Through his secondments, research and consulting projects with different humanitarian organisations in the field and head offices, he has produced several case studies, articles, reports and lectures on the subject. His material is widely used for teaching at business schools all over the world.
Professor Luk Van Wassenhove holds the Henry Ford chair in Manufacturing at INSEAD while serving as the academic director of INSEAD's Social Innovation Centre. His recent research focus is on closed-loop supply chains and disaster management producing several award-winning case studies and articles on both subjects. He publishes extensively in Management Science, Operations Research, The International Journal of Production Research, The European Journal of Operations Research and in many other journals. He also regularly consults for major international corporations.
