The Blessing and Curse of Global Sourcing and Supplier Management
P.J. Jakovljevic - August 6, 2007

As discussed in The Gain and Pain of Global Retail Sourcing, for anyone who has not spent the last several years in hibernation or stranded on a remote island, it has become apparent that several market-driving forces have come together to create a "perfect storm," one that makes control of the supply side more important to the overall business success than ever before. Some of these driving forces include globalization (the prospect of new potential markets, but at the price of growing competition), sourcing in low-price and low-wage countries (and even outsourcing of some, if not most, manufacturing or service operations), and continuous cost pressures (that is, ever shrinking margins)...