Integrated business planning is a process that does exactly what its name implies-it brings together fragmented strands of strategic, financial and operational planning and performance management.

As manufacturers seek to source quality goods at the lowest cost, supply chains that were once confined to a single country or continent have stretched around the world. Managers have become adept at addressing recurrent risks—frequent, low-impact incidents such as demand fluctuations or supply delays that affect efficiency. However, they have devoted less energy to designing supply chains that prevent or mitigate the impact of disruptive risks such as labor strikes, political unrest, regulatory shifts, and natural disasters. These events can have severe and lasting repercussions on operations, so manufacturers would do well to devise strategies that alleviate this risk.

Green is much more than an environmental imperative or social responsibility cause – it's an essential strategy for savvy businesses looking to differentiate and grow the bottom line. And it's important to every aspect of business, starting with manufacturing.

To drive robust supply chain performance, many companies put one individual in charge, either a chief operations officer (COO) or a chief supply chain officer (CSCO). With the right leadership agenda these positions can make a major impact on performance. In some organizations, however, the appointment of a COO or CSCO may unintentionally lead other senior executives to view the supply chain as "somebody else’s problem."

Sometimes an industry simply can't move forward without changing and embracing more sustainable business models. Consider America's apparel industry.

Many a company has a "customer first" approach, and improvement methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma start with the "voice of the customer". So what is the point in trying to solve modern-day business problems with ethnography methods that many people still exclusively associate with anthropology?