The Supply-Based Advantage: How to Link Suppliers to Your Organization's Corporate Strategy

If you perceive your suppliers as merely providers from whom you must extract optimum cost savings, they will likely view you in kind. To make the most of your relationships-and more crucially, to develop significant competitive advantage over those organizations that don't-you must place the same care into your supplier-facing activities that you do into your customer relationships. Only then will you build the shared successes that will lead to long-term partnerships based on mutual, not separate, goals.