The Importance of Partnerships in Supply Chain Globalization Summary

The Importance of Partnerships in Supply Chain Globalization
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The Importance of Partnerships in Supply Chain Globalization
Globalization has opened a plethora of opportunities that have revitalized business activities. With the advent of the internet and the ability of organizations to operate beyond various geographical boundaries, the world has opened avenues for the development of trade. Business organizations have taken the strides taken in globalization to expand their customer reach. While internationalization could be an inevitable strategy for some organizations, it is a challenge bearing the simple variations in specific business settings. The supply chain is one of the business aspects that are affected by the change of operations geographically. Occasionally, companies develop partnerships to steer their globalization agenda in various ways. This paper focuses on the importance of partnerships in supply chain globalization. Business managers must understand the internationalization strategy in terms of the nature of partnerships that they need and the specific challenges, including managerial, legal, and competition challenges, that can be addressed through the partnerships.
The Nature of Global Partnerships
Successful management of the supply chain at a global scale demands the development of optimized partnerships. Partnerships within the supply chain at the global level can bear both short-term and long-term benefits to an organization depending on the strategic intent of the parent company (Tannous & Yoon, 2018). There are specific relationships that an organization must consider while venturing into globalized operations. Primary among such relationships are partnerships with suppliers. Suppliers represent the primary partners in which an organization must invest on the global stage. To build strong relationships with suppliers at the global level, the partners should engage in three primary activities, including manifesting a similar vision for the future, bearing a spirit of collaboration, and showcasing timely and honest communication. At a global platform, suppliers are the lifeblood of a supply chain. Engaging such individuals in open communication and execution of activities is necessary.
Businesses also need partnerships with SaaS organizations in their attempt to secure a globalized supply chain effectively. Data has become a driving tool in contemporary supply chain practices. The process of data collection, management of dissemination is akin to the management of ties through the supply chain (Vidrova, 2020). SaaS partners, to that effect, become some of the primary partners to be sought at the global level. Remarkably, an organization that ventures in a global platform cannot pretend to hold all the information about operational trends. At least, such organizations need the supply of data. SaaS vendors offer enterprise resource planning, automation, and data analytics tools that help organizations understand their operations better. Without such information tools, a globalized supply chain becomes impossible to execute successfully.
The other category of partnerships involves the regulatory bodies. In every supply chain environment, there are regulatory bodies that govern the outputs. Such regulatory bodies are government representatives at the federal, state, or local levels (Tannous & Yoon, 2018). Failure to understand the inputs of the regulatory bodies in the supply chain could instill legal troubles in a business organization. It is also notable that regulatory bodies operate differently in different jurisdictions. An organization cannot assume the universality of regulations in every operational setting.
The last aspect of partnerships that globalized supply chain demands are with industry voices. Contemporary businesses operate in a highly dynamic operational environment. Hence, understanding the trends within an industry becomes vital in securing supply chain stability (Moraitakis, Huo, & Pfohl, 2017). With partnerships with industry voices such as the trade press in a specific industry, it becomes easier for businesses to steer their activities through prevalent trends. Organizations develop partnerships that emphasize industry voices to achieve the goal of staying ahead of the industry trends.
Importance of Partnerships
Partnerships in supply chain globalization come with notable benefits in specific elements of business operations. The benefits can be discussed as follows:
Management Issues
The first category of benefits is on large-scale management issues. Supply chain complexity escalates with the growth of the business to a global platform. Organizations must understand that management issues change and become more complex as the organization delves into global operations (Vidrova, 2020). Storage issues, inventory issues, and distribution issues escalate as an organization steers its operations towards the global level. Partners are vital in addressing global management issues. As an organization scales its operations, it needs partners with an insightful understanding of the management issues that they face. Having a strategic partner implies that an organization can easily seek resources, materials, and humans to steer its operations. In most cases, organizations in a new environment cannot manage their resources effectively. That is because they do not understand the needs of their new environment. Also, stakeholders such as new suppliers may not trust a new organization in a new operational environment. Such management challenges can easily be addressed by partners who understand the operational environment. Partners are trusted and can easily wade to steer their organizations into success.
Risk Management
Partners are also important in the management of risks. It is a great risk for an...