Where Does My Stuff Come From?: The Powerful Economics Behind Global Supply Chains - Hardcover

by Willy Shih (Author)

Almost nothing is made where you think it is

Where Does My Stuff Come From? reveals the complex international supply networks behind products Americans use daily, from chocolate chips and computer chips to athletic shoes and frozen fish. Written by Willy Shih, a Harvard Business School professor with 28 years of hands-on experience at IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Eastman Kodak, this accessible guide demystifies global supply chains through everyday products.

Shih examines why so many goods get made far away, who actually makes them, and what it costs you. Why do my cashew nuts say they came from Vietnam when they were actually grown in West Africa? What do Henry Ford and lifestyles of the Chinese Communist Party have to do with making iPhones? What do Ozempic and beer have to do with laundry detergent? Things come from where they do for a variety of reasons, and this book will help you understand the economic logic behind it all.

Readers will also discover:

• The brand on the label usually doesn't tell you who actually made the product
• Why 'just make it in America' is harder than it sounds
• How tariffs and industrial policies can have an outsized influence on where things are made
• The tension behind reshoring, high-paying jobs, and having a wide choice of inexpensive products

Ideal for consumers who are curious, business professionals navigating trade disruptions, or anyone trying to make sense of today's trade debates, Where Does My Stuff Come From? provides clear context for understanding how global supply chain decisions shape everyday American life and purchasing power.

Front Jacket

Where Does My Stuff Come From? traces the international supply networks behind products Americans use daily--chocolate chips and computer chips, athletic shoes and frozen fish, prescription drugs and pickup trucks. Willy Shih, a Harvard Business School professor who spent 28 years in industry at IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation, Silicon Graphics, and Eastman Kodak, explains how these networks work through the products themselves: what's in them, who makes them, and how they reach your shelf.

Why do my cashews say they came from Vietnam when they were grown in West Africa? What do Henry Ford and the lifestyles of the Chinese Communist Party have to do with making iPhones? What do Ozempic and beer have to do with laundry detergent? Why is the price of hardwood grown in New England set in China?

The answers follow a consistent economic logic--of scale, specialization, labor costs, trade rules, and geography--that shaped where things get made long before most of us thought to ask. Shih lays out that logic in plain language, drawing on factory visits and interviews with the people who grow, make, and move the things we buy.

By the end, you'll read labels differently. You'll know why "Made in" tells you less than you think, what globalization has delivered and what it has cost, and what it would take--in money, time, and skill--to make these things closer to home.

Back Jacket

PRAISE FOR WHERE DOES MY STUFF COME FROM?

"Willy Shih lays out the principles that shaped modern global production: why manufacturing clustered where it did, why some capabilities are so hard to move once they leave, and why decisions made decades ago now carry consequences for national security and economic resilience. He explains without oversimplifying. Whether you are a policymaker weighing industrial strategy, a business leader rethinking sourcing, or a citizen who wants to understand what happened when the shelves went empty in 2020, this book gives you the on-the-ground picture you need."
--GINA RAIMONDO, 40th U.S. Secretary of Commerce

"I have spent my entire career in manufacturing, and I still learn something new every time I walk a factory floor. Reading Willy Shih's book felt much the same. He talks about complex systems the way people who make things do. No jargon. No theory for its own sake. Just a clear explanation of how these systems work and why they matter. If you have ever wondered how the thing in your hand got there, read this book. You'll never look at a store shelf the same way again."
--REVATHI ADVAITHI, Chief Executive Officer, Flex

"Willy Shih has a rare ability to take the enormous complexity of global supply chains and make it understandable, relevant and engaging. Willy explains not only how goods move around the world, but how economics, technology, trade policy and geopolitics continue to reshape global commerce."
--GENE SEROKA, Executive Director, Port of Los Angeles

"Professor Shih is the exceptionally rare scholar of globalization who has spent a career living it in practice rather than just musing on blackboards about how it should work in theory. The stories in this book provide a better economics education than the typical PhD seems to have received."
--OREN CASS, Chief Economist, American Compass

"Few people understand the systems, capabilities, and decisions that shape who wins in global competition the way Willy Shih does. This is far more than a book about supply chains. For business leaders, policymakers, and anyone seeking to understand where competitive advantage truly comes from and how to sustain it, this book is essential reading."
--TOM POLEN, Chairman and CEO, BD

"Willy Shih's book is no doubt the best book on supply chains in recent years. The lessons that the book provides are a must-read for supply chain professionals, business leaders, and I venture to say, the general public."
--HAU LEE, The Thoma Professor of Operations, Information & Technology, Emeritus

Author Biography

WILLY SHIH is the Robert & Jane Cizik Baker Foundation Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, where he has taught for 20 years. Prior to HBS, he spent 28 years in industry at IBM, Digital Equipment, Silicon Graphics, Eastman Kodak, and Thomson SA. Willy's expertise is in manufacturing, supply chains, and product development. He has written for the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Forbes, and the Nikkei Asian Review.