Business is moving toward a model of empathy for a partner's organization and its goals, both commercial and fiscal, says Michael J. Stolarczyk, president of Kontane Logistics. A long-term, solid relationship built on that kind of collaboration ultimately pays off for all concerned.

In negotiating, you can be self-defeatingly muscular or benign, says Kate Vitasek, on the faculty of the Center for Executive Education at the University of Tennessee. Or you can be credible. That's a lesson supply chain managers can learn from Professor Oliver Williamson.