What’s missing from company strategies, Cooper says, is a lack
of understanding about the dynamic nature of supplier relation-
ships. He cites the analogy of a major league baseball team, whose
owners must look beyond the current roster of players in order to
excel. The best franchises pay close attention to their minor-league
affiliates as a constant source of new talent. “Really successful teams
also have a scouting system,” he says. “They don’t wait for potential
players to come to them.”
Manufacturers, by the same token, should be continually assess-
ing the pool of potential suppliers. They need to ensure the steady
availability of backups for failing vendors, as well as create alterna-
tive sources of critical products or raw materials. Single-sourcing
might yield the best price, but it’s smart to have an existing relation-
ship with a “B” supplier should your primary partner bow out for
any reason. What’s more, by having those options at hand, compa-
nies can keep the pressure on their existing suppliers to maintain
quality at an acceptable price.
A New Certification for Global Business Managers
It might seem like just another test, but the Certified Global Business
Professional qualification can yield big benefits for those who
achieve it, as well as the companies that hire them, according to
Chris Schrage, instructor at the University of Northern Iowa.
The Certified Global Business Professional certification was created by a group of North American educators for small businesses
involved in international trade. The idea, says Schrage, “was to provide accreditation so employers and people working with individuals in industry actually have a body of knowledge they can count
on.” They receive a designation much like that for professionals in
disciplines such as accounting.
Exams for the certification were first given in 2005. The number
of participants has grown steadily since then. Many individuals
associated with the U.S. Department of Commerce and various
world trade centers have taken the test and qualified, Schrage says.
She took it in 2005, following a month of preparation. Much of
the information was already part of her course material. “You just
don’t walk in and take the exam and pass it,” she says. “You do
have to prepare.”
The exam lasts three hours and consists of 150 questions. The
material is based on four areas of knowledge: trade finance, global
management, global marketing, and supply chain and logistics. Those
who receive the certification possess a knowledge base equivalent to
someone who has worked in the industry for two years, Schrage says.
They will have a good understanding of the key documents and
processes involved in international
trade, including Incoterms, the global
sales terms published by the International Chamber of Commerce.
Schrage recommends a number of
ways that universities can help candidates to prepare for the exam. The
courses put them through practice tests
and draw on textbooks with all of the
relevant information.
The certification bestows an additional level of professional credibility
on those who possess it, Schrage
says. “Companies have seen the value
of those students [coming] into their
workforce as entry-level positions.
Their training period and learning
curve is shorter.” Some businesses are
already inquiring up front about
whether job seekers have passed the exam, she adds.
The Supply Chain’s ‘Brave New World’
Some of the developments foreseen by Aldous Huxley in his classic 1932
novel have come to pass, but others haven’t. Rocky Newman, professor
of supply chain management at Miami University’s Farmer School of
Business, says that some of the things that Huxley got wrong have a
direct bearing on the structure of global supply chains today.
How is the classic Huxley novel relevant to supply-chain management? Mostly in its depiction of how not to build a supply chain, Newman suggests. Huxley imagines, not without tongue in cheek, a future
religion built around the pioneering automotive tycoon Henry Ford.
But Ford’s wildly popular Model T was distinguished by its lack of
choices for the consumer. There was but one design and one color:
black. The rigidity of that marketing strategy guaranteed that assembly
of the cars would be a relatively simple matter. Ford could own the
entire supply chain, from raw materials to finished product.
But what happens when the consumer wants more? Successful
supply chains today need to accommodate a huge number of variations on a given product. The dominant makers of cars, computers and
furniture, to name but a few industries, have managed to customize
their products to satisfy the individual consumer. A whole new uni-
