Managing Business Relationships

No company can be an island in today′s business environment. All firms are locked into a complex network of relationships with their suppliers, customers and other business partners. The management of these relationships is a critical task on which a company′s very existence depends. Over the past twenty years, members of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group have carried out many wide–ranging studies into the problems of managing business relationships in different international markets. Its "interaction approach" has become a generally accepted paradigm for those seeking to understand the dynamics of business markets. Managing Business Relationships encapsulates the teaching, research, consulting and writing experience of the IMP Group. The book begins by providing the reader with a better understanding of the reality of business markets and the nature of strategy within them. It then goes on to examine the different types of business relationships, such as those between a company and its suppliers, customers and distributors. The book also explains how technology affects these relationships and can be used to achieve competitive success in them. Finally the conclusions give a clear outline of the relationship tasks and questions facing the "thinking manager", whether in marketing or purchasing. Managing Business Relationships uses the IMP Group′s research to explain the importance to a company of its network of alliances and how the interdependencies between companies can be managed. It stresses the need for a different approach to business strategy, to marketing and to purchasing and this makes it vital reading for students of business marketing at the MBA and final year undergraduate levels, and for managers in business marketing, purchasing and retail supply chains.