Challenges come from the external environment in which organizations operate and from continuous (incremental change) and discontinuous change (breakthrough-innovation). Globalization and its impact upon markets, organizations, individuals, industrial change and innovation influence the strategies that managers are able to select, structure and implement. Changes in attitudes, however influenced, shape the ways in which organizations structure their supply chains and the ways in which they develop relationships underpinned, for example, by information communication technologies, and attitudes towards environmental, ethical, ecological and equitable considerations. These influences are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1

The major business challenges for organizations developing supply chain strategies raised throughout this text have identified a number of critical factors that may be summarized and themed around the following capabilities to manage: value, volume volatility, velocity, variety, variability, visibility and virtuality. In order to develop strategic capabilities in these areas, organizations need to look at the ways in which they interact with customers at every level and view these challenges from a customer perspective. Customers expect value and suppliers need to anticipate and identify what customers value in order to supply a bundle of goods and services that equate with value in order to exchange money for products. Value in exchange, use and over time may be important to the customer. This is the value challenge. Customers nowadays are seldom prepared to purchase quantities suppliers would like to supply, at a time determined by the supplier, in standard form, with non-standard performance a highly probable outcome.