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The supply chain can and should be a strategic differentiator, but too many companies are missing the strategic opportunities it offers.

Customer demands on manufacturers and retailers are increasing relentlessly. Spurred by the Internet's “click it and get it” value proposition, a growing number of consumers and business buyers want customized products, convenient ordering, and rapid fulfillment. Delivering against these rising expectations is not easy, however. This is especially true for traditional or incumbent companies that have additional cultural obstacles to overcome. Companies have mastered the challenges of speed, convenience, and reliability and are gaining competitive advantage.

The traditional supply chain starts with components, which are assembled and pushed through distribution channels in the hope that someone will buy them. A value net, by contrast, starts with customer priorities and aligns the company operations and supplier relationships to satisfy real customer demand. Value flows to the customer, who receives a faster, more reliable, convenient, and tailored offering. Value flows to the suppliers, who have a more accurate reading of real demand, and value flows to the company managing the network, in the form of a differentiated competitive position, which generates greater profits and market capitalization.

This chapter addresses the challenge of designing and executing educational curricula to develop global leaders, especially focusing on how they work with and influence people. Today’s global managers are expected to master an ever-expanding range of knowledge and skills, and educators are faced with the challenge of preparing them to be as effective as possible. We argue that educators must combine multiple methods carefully to achieve their objective. The chapter illustrates how to mix concepts, data, projects and behavioral exercises to help global managers develop team and leadership skills. The processes we outline are designed for students in undergraduate, MBA and Executive programs.

In the preceding two sections of this volume, we have examined some of the foundations of global leadership as well as cross-cultural perspectives. In this section we examine some of the processes, practices and developmental issues surrounding global leadership. As noted in the introduction to this volume, the placement of chapters in one of the three sections was somewhat arbitrary since all three sections are interrelated. The chapters in this section – by Elaine B. Sloan, Joy F. Hazucha and Paul T. Van Katwyk; John Hofmeister and Sarah Parker; and by Don D. Davis and Janet L. Bryant – could easily have been included in the Foundations section. The chapters by Joseph J. DiStefano and Martha L. Maznevski and by Linda E. Laddin could easily have been included in the Cross-Cultural Perspectives section. As we review these chapters, we will draw attention to the interrelationships with the other two sections.

A new marketing paradigm called “one‐to‐one marketing,” or “relationship marketing,” shows promise as an innovative alternative to mass marketing. This one‐to‐one approach uses advanced information technology to give an enterprise the ability to develop relationships with individual customers.