The motivation to write this article is rooted on the inspiration I had while I was on my way back home from school. While some students endeavour to make new connections to widen their academic career opportunities, some others believe they can single-handedly make a forest. Although some students aspire to network amongst themselves and beyond, others assume this aspect of life is so irrelevant. Siemens (2005), theory of connectivism supports the perception that a networked association is of immense importance in maintaining a collaborative linkage to promote information sharing and communication. But the question is; of what benefit is networking on academic pursuits of students?

Stenken and Zajicek (2009), recommend that the core aspect of developing any career of which academic is the bedrock, is possessing the skills to explore and utilize opportunities as they emanate. Exploring these opportunities requires taking some sort of risks, taking some bold steps and sometimes requesting for a lot more than has initially been offered. Networking is the formal and informal relationships between groups of individuals in order to foster excellent career of which Goza and Ryabov (2009), agree that peer network can greatly influence the academic outcomes of individuals. Although some studies suggest that peer networking pose a negative influence on the performance of students however, the above authors agree that there are positive connections between networking and academic success like acquisition of good grades, honors, studying hard and future working career.

It is apparent that most academics overlook their colleagues who are committed networkers however, they fail to acknowledge that connections are very paramount for a successful academic career too. It is noteworthy that being intelligent and studious is not sufficient enough to attain a great academic height as well as potential work careers. Apart from high academic performance, good human relationship and cooperation, networking also determines the course of future professional careers. For example, upon acquiring a doctorate degree, valuable performance in the form of writing, submitting articles for publications, conferences and networking to a larger extent determines if an aspirant will secure a professorship position. Despite the overwhelming benefits of academic networking, most academicians are still oblivious of these great benefits.

Over the past years, commercial sector has witnessed a tremendous improvement in organising events to promote networking however, in academia most individuals have shown minimal interest to this very pertinent aspect of life. The point is that being connected and carrying out research in a symbiotic union boosts one’s possibility of reaching a spectacular height in life. But a major concern is that some individuals are of the opinion that networking and building relationships appears too crafty and intrusive into other people’s affairs. But this is a misguided opinion and to a larger extent, holds no water. Honestly, networking and collaboration with others both locally and internationally is highly invaluable for any student who aims to broaden his or her career.

If you want the outer world to learn more about you, your skills and area of professionalism, then there is great need to sharpen your networking skills so as to widen career opportunities. This supports Yu et., al. (2010) statement that networking amongst academicians is a great avenue for obtaining information, sharing knowledge, rendering support and becoming socially acceptable which in return, leads to higher level of performance proficiency, self-esteem and actualisation.

Getting acquainted with fellow academicians especially the leading ones, can be quite intimidating. Some researchers and lecturers are already used to working independently and just the idea of working mutually or going public does not sound appealing at all to them. They strongly believe in themselves that they can achieve it all, all on their own.

Since this article is targeted at encouraging academicians to network with each other, the way-forward is rooted on Isaac Newton’s (1675), statement thus; “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants“. To this effect, academicians ought to endeavour to stand on the shoulders of giants so as to see further. Both mentors, lecturers, supervisors, director of studies and examiners are already giants for a great start to see further. They are already experts, experienced and in a better position to help boost student’s career thus the need to establish and maintain a healthy relationship with them.

Academic networking spans beyond face to face communication and presently, social media has shown an immense advancement in the manner people associate with one another. According to McLoughlin and Lee (2008), social software tools have created an enhanced platform for learners to deeply relate and engage with their peers, colleagues, instructors, experts and the community at large. Through these social platforms, people can create, share and grow knowledge either through photos, emails, messages, publications and online bookmarks. Although these medium of information exchange encourage personal expression of views, it also boosts social propagation of active support, assistance and cooperation by allowing comments, reviews and discussions by members of like-minded community members sharing resources.

With the availability of online social networking, several digital platforms have been allocated specifically to academia for scholarly practices (Jordan 2014). Academic social network sites such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, About.me, Scribd and reference sharing sites such as Bibsonomy, Zotero, Mendeley, CiteULike and ISSUU allow scholars to upload their works in a graceful format for online viewing and publication of their research works. With millions of users across the globe, these significant platforms promote scholarly communication, networking, academic information sharing and connection with one another. Thus it is highly imperative to recognize the part these social platforms play and the advancement they can present to the field of academic careers. This supports Dawson (2008), opinion that an individual’s position in the social network climate is symbolic of their level of adaptability within the academic atmosphere which determines the level of support needed by such individual for future academic career advancement.

For academic networking to be effective, scholars must be willing to adopt the give and take philosophy, precept of reciprocity, ample time for relationship building, realizable goals, synergistic mindset, skills improvement, involvement in academic activities, involvement in publications and attendance to conferences. Through these avenues, the contacts built while networking can help connect individuals to the right person that will move them forward and give them the right direction for a brighter future.

REFERENCES

Dawson S. (2008), A Study Of The Relationship Between Student Social Networks And Sense of Community, Educational Technology & Society, International Forum of Educational Technology & Society (IFETS), issue 11, vol. 3, p.236.

Goza F. and Ryabov I. (2009), Adolescents Educational Outcomes: Racial and Ethnic Variations in Peer Network Importance, Journal of Youth Adolescence, issue 38, pp. 1264-1265,

Jordan K. (2014), Online social networks and networked academic identity. In: Internet Research 15.0 Doctoral Colloquium Daegu, South Korea, p.19.

McLoughlin C. and Lee M. J. W. (2008), The Three P’s of Pedagogy for the Networked Society: Personalization, Participation, and Productivity, International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Vol. 20, No. 1, p. 17.

Newton I. (1675), Wikiquote, Accessed online; {http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton}, Date {14/12/2014}.

Siemens G. (2005), Connectivism: A learning theory for a digital age, International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, issue 2, vol. 1, Accessed online; {http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm}, Date {14/12/2014}.

Stenken J. A. and Zajicek A. M. (2009), The Importance Of Asking, Mentoring And Building Networks For Academic Career Success – A Personal And Social Science Perspective, p.542.

Yu A. Y., Tian S. W., Vogel D. and Chi-Wai Kwok R. (2010), Can Learning Be Virtually Boosted? An Investigation Of Online Social Networking Impacts, Computers and Education, 55 (4), pp. 1494-1503.

Over the past decades, there has been increasing quest about the topic supply chains whereby greater number of publications and journals were created to analyse and discuss the topic, issues and challenges facing supply chain management. It is pertinent to emphasise that supply chain is a very demanding topic in the business environment.

The recent advancement of computer technologies, advanced production of technologies, transportation and telecommunications has accelerated the globalisation of markets and businesses. As a result of this, industrialised countries turned into multinational and embarked on another adventure for new areas of efficiency, effectiveness and cost savings (Haksever and Render 2013) .

During the course of this adventure, Burgess et. al., (2006) supported that a whole lot will be gained through consolidation, coordinating and rationalising the flow of goods, services and information in their supply chains.

Moreover, for this to be a success, firms within the supply chain category must collaborate, unite and comply with the competitive terms as the success of the company relies on the performance of the supply chain.

It is apparent that the noticeable development of the 1980s and 1990s was the transformation in customer’s hopes and utilisation habits. These days, customers expects variety of quality products offered at a cheaper price and the customisation of those products they intend to buy.

So far, these expectations have been boosted and extremely accomplished to a large extent through the accessibility of the internet and World Wide Web whereby customers can easily purchase what they want from the comfort of their house or anywhere at anytime and then having the goods delivered to their doors.

This advancement in the purchasing habits have made manufacturers and companies very much reliable on their supply chains for customer’s maximum satisfaction and to remain competitively advantageous.

Coyle et al (2009) define supply chain as a system that comprises of those activities, organisations and facilities connected in the value-­adding conversion of inputs (raw materials, land, capital,parts and supplies) into outputs (finished products, goods) and then delivered to the end users or customers.

As a result of this, Bidgoll (2004) suggests that companies no longer rely on themselves, rather must collaborate with customers’ customers and with suppliers’ suppliers to coordinate their activities, an approach that led to the area of supply chain management.

Seifert (2003) suggested that effective supply chain management is a component of efficient consumer response, a management idea that deals on how to vertically collaborate in retailing and manufacturing industries with the sole aim of ensuring maximum customer’s satisfaction.

Industries in the supply chain include; the suppliers, intermediaries, customers, logistics and transportation providers. It is therefore the management of various activities involved in sourcing, procurement, transformation and logistics management.

According to Haksever and Render (2013) supply chain management comprises of the planning and management of all the activities involved in identifying, purchasing, transformation and all logistics management activities.

Apparently it integrates supply and demand management within and across businesses into a united and high­ performing business operating model across sales, product design, finance, information technology and marketing zone.

Basically, it comprises of sourcing, transformation and logistics whereby sourcing identifies the raw materials, transformation transforms the raw materials into finished products and logistic transports the products from the production site to the utilisation point.

Having discussed distinctly the supply chain management, a question that carefully needs to be addressed is, ‘How can supply chain performance be measured?’ and a related question is ‘What strategies are adopted by industries to boost supply chain performance?’.

Rangaraj et al (2009) agreed that the performance of a supply chain is the outcome of the various procedures and rules that coordinate different demanding sectors of the supply chain. Companies spend huge amount of money to upgrade their supply chain performance using mechanised systems, process re-­engineering and employee’s facilitation (Douglas, 2004).

Many aspects and objectives evolved with the aim of boosting supply chain performance and competitiveness which exercises positive effect if these procedures and objectives are put in place.

Supply chain performance basically is measured when industries meet up with certain criterias such as; maximisation of resilience, total quality improvement,, inventory minimisation, employed fixed assets reduction, delivery performance goal, and customer service optimisation.

Sayed (2013) suggests that supply chain performance must be measured at every stage of the chain so as to balance short term goals of cash flow,,viability, flexibility and profitability.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) must be a key focus in evaluating the performance of the supply chain network. Moreover, considerable attention must be paid towards buyer-­seller relationship, not only the aspects of performance but on the wholistic financial performance as well (Cousins et al., 2008).

REFERENCES Bidgoll, H. (2004), The Internet Encyclopedia, Vol 3 John Wiley & Sons, Inc USA. P390.

Burgess, K., Singh, P., J. and Koroglu, R. (2006) Supply Chain Management: a Structured Literature Review and Implications for Future Research, International Journal of Operations & Production Management Vol. 26 No. 7, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, p704.

Coyle, J., J., Langley, C. J., Gibson, B. J., Novack, R. A., and Bardi, E. J. (2009), Supply Chain Management: A Logistics Perspective, 8th edition, South Western Cengage Learning USA. pp.10­-20.

Douglas, M. (2004) The Eight Essential Supply Chain Management Processes, Supply Chain Management Review. pp. 20­-24.

Haksever, C., and Render, B. (2013) Service Management: An Integrated Approach to Supply Chain Management and Operations,Pearson Education, Inc Publishing Press, Upper Saddle River New Jersey USA pp. 81­-100.

Rangaraj, N., Raghuram, G., and Srinivasan, M., M. (2009) Supply Chain Management for Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases, Tata McGraw­Hill Publishing Company Limited New Delhi. pp91­93.

Sayed, H., E. (2013) Supply Chain Key Performance Indicators Analysis, International Journal of Application or Innovation in Engineering & Management (IJAIEM) Vol. 2, Issue 1, p209.

Seifert, D. (2003) Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment: How to Create a Supply Chain Advantage, Amacom Publishers USA. p3.

Supply chain according to Harland (1996), comprises of the various activities involved in the conversion of goods from the raw state to the final state for consumer usage and consumption. This process of goods conversion as supported by McCormack and Kasper (2002), involves planning, design, and regulation of the flow of material, information and finance along the supply chain to satisfy customer’s needs. However, the globalisation of markets and liberalisation of economies has culminated in the growing competitiveness and volatility in the present day market. This has intensified the need for companies to engage in supply chain process evaluations and improvements through demand forecast accuracy for efficient business performance (Nenni et., al. 2013).

Demand forecasting is essential for maximum customer satisfaction in supply chain processes (Giannakis and Croom 2004). It is a process of knowing what quantities of products are needed at what place and time. Many techniques of demand forecasting are in use today, however the exponential smoothing and moving average are the two popular time series methods of forecasting (Ibrahim and Dauda 2012).

In modern day businesses, firms have assembled structures for sourcing of raw materials, conversion of materials into finished products or creating services, storing and evenly distribution of same products to customers and consumers (Krajewski, 2002). Organisation’s supply chain is liable for its achievement or losses that has resulted in the need for a proper regulation and coordination amongst supply chain associates (Lockamy, A. & McCormack, K. 2004). Over the past years, in an attempt to advance the long-term efficacy of the supply chain, Madhani (2013), agrees that many organisations have collaborated with other supply chain members for efficiency. This concept has resulted in achieving maximum customer satisfaction and company’s profitability.

Veiga et., al. (2010) agree that the accuracy of a company’s demand forecast has a direct impact on the services rendered to consumers, the actual cost of the supply chain and the level of safety stock units (SKU) thus for a company to remain successful, necessitates a high level of accuracy during forecasting which revolves around products, time, geographies, medium and characteristics. Forecasting is a key management performance tool for the fulfilment of customer expectations on delivery, however the success depends on demand information created by inventory policies of the downstream phase in the supply chain process (Reiner and Fichtinger, 2009). Nonetheless, information varies across the supply network based on the needs of businesses for timely replenishment of products and there is need to explore ways to modify, renovate and restructure the complete network so as to accurately utilise available information to forecast products demand for maximum customer’s satisfaction.

While supply chain management is widely adopted by retailing companies, the aspect of accurate demand forecast is still questionable and less understood (McCormack and Kasper 2002). Accurate demand forecasting is problematical in the sense that there are still likelihood of tension and downturn to firms who struggle to remain competitively positioned. They face challenges of converting their operations from a static to a dynamic platform within interconnected roles across enterprise supply chain and this undertaking is very complex because supply chain management encompasses managing of many frame-work, establishing strategically inclined capabilities not only within the company itself, but also among other firms that are members of their value-adding networks (Lockamy, A. & McCormack, K. 2004).

Consumer’s demand characterised by both growth and seasonal influences present a very difficult forecasting problem due to the fluctuating demand patterns (Fildes and Hastings (1994). There are comprehensive forecasting techniques available for predicting the future demand for higher supply chain performance but researchers have proved that some of these techniques pose various problems during forecasting (Benkachcha et., al. 2013). All forecasts depend on previous sales history hence stringent and rigorous routine monitoring and maintenance is required to ensure that forecasts are authentic.

According to Madhani (2013), there is a significant relationship between effective supply chain management and efficient customer response, a management idea that deals on how to collaborate in retailing industries with the sole aim of ensuring maximum customer’s satisfaction. Industries in the supply chain such as suppliers, intermediaries, logistics and transportation providers must communicate and interact properly to ensure meeting up with customer’s expectations effectively (Simatupang & Sridharan 2006).

Companies become dependent on each other and must collaborate in supply chain network to coordinate their activities. Mentzer et al., (2000) agree that limited attention has been rendered towards obtaining the features that represent different areas of collaboration. This according to Min & Yu (2004), highlights why it is important to understand the aspect of collaboration which if neglected can lead to distortion in information sharing and inappropriate replenishment of products that lead to inefficiencies and low supply chain dynamics (Ahmad & Ullah 2013).

Ismail and Abu (2013) found out that making accurate estimates is very vital to both forecasting and all productive system as they form the basis of planning and estimating the quantity of goods customers will consume however, the growing and changing customer’s needs appear to make it difficult to accurately predict demand. A key concern is whether customer’s needs are accurately predicted, sourced and delivered at the right time. However, it is important to highlight that for a company to remain competitively superior, requires identifying the right market signals through demand sensing capabilities so as to provide steady supply of needed products at the right place and at the right time thereby creating an effective response (Veiga et., al. 2010).

According to Lunenburg (2012) demand forecast is the background of all planning as it gives estimates of future expectancies. Over the past years, different forecasting techniques have been established and applied to the practical problem of forecasting with varying level of success (Benkachcha et., al. 2013). Most companies admit that they have a comprehensive historical demand database which they use for forecasting, but the fact still remains that these records display sales histories and not demand histories (Veiga et., al. 2010).

Apparently, to forecast for future demand, one ought to reinforce the sales records with predictions of demand lost. The concern thus is, what quantity of products would have been sold when a company is out of stock? Researchers have proved that forecasting of future demand will identify the quantities of products to be sourced, procured, processed and shipped (Matthew et., al. 2013). To remain competitively advantageous, most companies no longer wait for customers to demand for products before they react, hence they tend to predict and plan for future demand and act promptly as the customer’s needs and orders arises.

Demand forecast is very vital since the process involved in transforming raw materials to finished goods and shipping them from suppliers to end users can be time consuming hence the need for efficient planning (Lunenburg 2012). Accurate demand forecasting is increasingly proving difficult to companies due to noisy data, new products, non-availability of history data, shorter product life cycles, changing seasonal patterns, varying customer demand and increased product variety (Veiga et., al. 2010).

These issues have rendered the demand pattern unpredictable, but forecasting is highly important as it boosts the competitive advantage of a firm and encourages savings as a result of inventory investment for decision making and planning, but Chase (1997), suggested that customer’s demand can be estimated through a set of causal factors such as commodity price, seasonality, advertising, costs and sales promotion. Patil et., al. (2012) supported this statement by identifying that many factors such as time, resources, advertising, promotions, unusual weather conditions, price changes, events, price, vacations, public holidays, input and output components ought to be considered as they can positively or negatively affect the accuracy of a forecast.

REFERENCES Ahmad, S. & Ullah, A. (2013) Driving Forces of Collaboration in Supply Chain: A Review, Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, Vol. 5, No. 7, pp. 40-42.

Benkachcha, S., Benhra, J. & El Hassani.H. (2013) Causal Method and Time Series Forecasting model based on Artificial Neural Network, International Journal of Computer Applications, Vol. 75, No.7, p. 37.

Chase, C. W. Jr., (1997), Integrating Market Response Models in Sales Forecasting, Journal of Business Forecasting. Vol. 2, p. 27.

Fildes, R. and Hastings, R. (1994) The Organisation and Improvement of Market Forecasting, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol. 45, No.1 pp.2-12.

Giannakis, M. and Croom, S. R. (2004), Toward the Development of a Supply Chain Management Paradigm: A Conceptual Framework, Journal of Supply Chain Management, Vol.40, No.2, pp25-30.

Harland, C., M. (1996) Supply Chain Management: Relationships, Chains and Networks, British Journal of Management, vol. 7, Special Issue.

Ibrahim L. K and Dauda U. (2012) Modeling Monthly Rainfall Time Series Using ETS Space and SARIMA Models, International Journal of Physics and Mathematical Research, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 11-13.

Ismail, Z. and Abu, N. (2013) A Study On New Product Demand Forecasting Based On Bass Diffusion Model, International Journal of Mathematics and Statistics, Vol. 9, No.2. pp.84-85.

Krajewski, L. (2002) Reflections on Operations Management Research, Journal of Operations and Technology, Organisation Science, Vol.3, pp. 381-396.

Lockamy, A. & McCormack, K. (2004) The Development of a Supply Chain Management Process Maturity Model Using the Concepts of Business Process Orientation, An International Journal of Supply Chain Management, Vol. 9, No. 4, P. 272, 276.

Lunenburg, F. C. (2012) Human Resource Planning: Forecasting Demand and Supply, International Journal of Business Management Administration Vol. 15, No.1, pp4.

Madhani, P. M. (2013) Making a Conceptual Framework for Supply Chain Management and Marketing Integration, Journal of Management, Vol. 11, No.3, pp55-60.

Mathew, A., Somasekaran E.M & Jenson J. E. (2013) Demand Forecasting For Economic Order Quantity in Inventory Management, International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Vol. 3, Issue 10, p.1.

McCormack, K. and Kasper, K. (2002), The Extended Supply Chain; A Statistical Study, An International Journal, Emerald Publisher, Vol. 9, No. 2. pp. 133-135.

Mentzer, J.M., Min, S. and Zacharia, Z.G. (2000), The nature of inter-firm partnering in supply Chain management, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 76 No. 4, pp. 549-551.

Min, H. & Yu, W. (2004) Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment: Demand Planning in Supply Chain Management, The Fourth International Conference on Electronic Business, pp58-60.

Nenni, M. E., Giustiniano, L. & Pirolo, L. (2013) Demand Forecasting in the Fashion Industry: A Review, International Journal of Engineering Business Management, Special Issue on Innovations in Fashion Industry, pp1-3.

Patil, D.P., Shrotri, A.P., and Dandekar, A.R. (2012) Management of Uncertainty In Supply Chain, International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering, Vol. 2, Issue 5, pp. 303-305.

Reiner, G., and Fichtinger, J. (2009) Demand Forecasting for Supply Processes in Consideration of Pricing and Market Information- International Journal of production Economics, vol. 118, Issue 1, P1.

Simatupang, T. M. & Sridharan, R. (2006) An integrative framework for supply chain collaboration, International Journal of Logistics and Management, Vol. 16, No. 2, p.258.

Veiga, C. R. P. D., Veiga, C. P. D., Duclós, L. C. (2010) The Accuracy of Demand Forecast Models as a Critical Factor in the Financial Performance of the Food Industry, Future Studies Research Journal, Vol. 2, Nos. 2, pp.84-88.

Starting and finding a blog niche is a vital aspect but yet an initial huddle that several new bloggers face. Based on recent discussions I had with some bloggers, it appears that the main problem of blogging is how to bring communicate one’s thoughts and ideas consistently so that the audience can understand, appreciate and pick itself.

Writing is hard but yet an integral part of mankind. Histories couldn’t have existed without writing and there won’t be any future without the act of writing! As bloggers, we derive joy in writing and “creating stories out of nothing” just to keep the world informed and lubricated.

But some questions to be answered are;

Can all writings be regarded as informative?

How constructive and critical is one’s writeup?

How can someone’s writeup positively or adversely affect another individual’s life?

These questions ought to be considered while writing…….

To be a good writer necessitates absolute concentration, inspiration, brainstorming and reflective thinking. Most bloggers find the above questions very intriguing but yet these questions need to be answered for a hitch-free blogging.

If you are conscious of creating a successful and profitable blog site, you will definitely have to write down your ideas, read what others have written in the past, and reflect on your topic very often. The call to action is that you will invest countless number of hours to get to your destination.

Studies reveal that not all writeups are informative thus the need for individuals to ascertain their information source for accuracy. For a writeup to be informative, it must be constructive, critical, focused and readable.

People are faced with very busy life schedules and no one wants to spend time reading irrelevant or non-comprehensive articles. But a major concern is how to approach this issue? Will you start writing down any idea that comes to mind and assume that people will like it? Or will you carefully research your idea and see previous writeups on the topic so as to constructively structure your content and make it fascinating?

Thanks to internet, which has provided easy access to information. It can be difficult to ascertain if people will like one’s content however, google keyword research appears to be the solution. With google keyword search, a writer can easily establish the number of people searching for a particular topic in the search engines, and you can use it to compare your ideas with various searchable topics to gauge people’s interest.

Honestly, when I started blogging, I found it quite challenging putting down my ideas in a very constructive manner. However, with brainstorming, google keywords and knowledge share with great bloggers, I am presently improving on the later. I tried both, but I recommend and believe that the latter is the best option.

Bloggers are storytellers who “create stories out of no stories”! All bloggers should aim to write constructively, critically and credibly to attract audience, inform audience and positively affect people’s lives.

“Writers are power steerers with the ability to change the world”.

The advancement of human resource functions has altered organizational activities, employee’s attitudes and their manager’s reactions towards them. Motivating and retaining efficient employees remains a crucial assignment that lies on the ability of the management to identify possible factors that can motivate employees to boost performance (Batchelor, 2010).

This research aims to analyze the impact of motivation on team performance in a multicultural workforce, with the possible factors that can enhance such. Johnson et al., (2005) suggest the need to increasingly motivate employees so as to exploit knowledge, due to increasing dynamism of organizations.

Working with people from diverse culture is complex, hence the need for organizations to acknowledge employee’s motivational level and also information about their culture and perceptions (Halverson and Tirmizi, 2008).

Management should therefore acknowledge that motivating employees increases performance and organizational success. In other to strategically attract, motivate and keep the right employees, managers should identify employee’s expectations from their jobs and regularly evaluate their level of motivation (Sims, 2007).

Read more on this topic here and please do not forget to leave your comment regarding this piece of work, as this will greatly enhance my future write-ups. Many thanks

The present day market is marked by several uncertainties and unrests that appear to remain ever increasing due to certain prevailing reasons. Moreover, the ever dynamic customer’s demand in virtually all the industrial sectors seems to be increasingly elusive more than ever recorded in the time past (Lockamy & McCormack 2004).

Having established the above fact, a pressing question is; why are there uncertainties and unrest in the present day market? Could this be as a result of the globalisation of markets, or as a result of the growing liberalisation of economies? Apparently, these economic conditions to a larger extent as supported by (Nenni et., al. 2013), have culminated in the growing competitiveness and volatility in the modern market hence, have heightened the need for organisations to engage in supply chain process evaluations and advancement through efficient and effective supply chain processes for superior business performance. This supports Harland (1996) research that agrees that supply chain incorporates many angles, which requires lucid concepts for proper understanding.

So what is supply chain? A supply chain is a system or structure of activities, organizations, people, information, and resources involved in transforming raw materials into finished goods and then transporting them from the manufacturers to the end-users (Anna 2006). So literally, a supply chain is how a product gets from where it was manufactured by the manufacturers to where it will be consumed by the consumers.

This process of goods transformation as supported by McCormack and Kasper (2002), requires planning, designing, and regulation of the flow of material, information and finance along the supply chain to ultimately satisfy the ever-changing customer’s needs. When one envisages of all the products sold at the markets, online stores, supermarkets and shops, companies somewhere in the world produce them. However, a vital concern is how do these products most effectively move from the point of production to the final point of consumption? Researchers suggest that supply chains have become a vital segment of the international business prospect for decades hence the ultimate need for efficient and timely circulation of goods that stream across the entire supply chains (Gereffi & Lee 2012). A supply chain therefore involves all the activities and systems that either directly or indirectly deals with customer’s demands such as sourcing, transforming, processing, supplying, transporting and consuming.

To achieve these goals, businesses have assembled structures for sourcing of raw materials, conversion of materials into finished products or creating services, storing and evenly distribution of same products to customers and consumers (Krajewski, 2002). Organisation’s supply chain is liable for its achievement or losses that has resulted in the need for a proper regulation and coordination amongst supply chain associates (Lockamy, A. & McCormack, K. 2004).

Over the past years, in an attempt to advance the long-term efficacy of the supply chain, Madhani (2013), agrees that many organisations have collaborated with other supply chain members for efficiency. This concept has resulted in achieving maximum customer satisfaction and company’s profitability. Throughout the entire supply chain, timely and accurate information on basic status reports and operational metrics such as demand, supply, inventory, forecasts, production, procurement, logistics, shipment plans, work in progress, yields and backlogs ought to be easily accessible by the main supply chain members for effective planning and re-planning purposes. Thus, there are utmost needs for proper management and timely updates to the parties utilising the data.

The quest to satisfy the rising requirements of supply chains led to the advent of supply chain management. In the 1980s, supply chain management (SCM) was established to address the need of consolidating the indispensible business processes from consumers through the suppliers that provide information, products and services which add value to customers and the various companies stakeholders. The brain behind SCM is that organisations and companies associate themselves in a supply chain network by interchanging information about varying market conditions, variations and production abilities.

According to Madhani (2013), there is a significant relationship between effective supply chain management and efficient customer response, a management idea that deals on how to collaborate in retailing industries with the sole aim of ensuring maximum customer’s satisfaction. Industries in the supply chain such as suppliers, intermediaries, logistics and transportation providers must communicate and interact properly to ensure meeting up with customer’s expectations effectively (Simatupang & Sridharan 2006).

Companies become dependent on each other and must collaborate in supply chain network to coordinate their activities. Mentzer et al., (2000) agree that limited attention has been rendered towards obtaining the features that represent different areas of collaboration. This according to Min & Yu (2004), highlights why it is important to understand the aspect of collaboration which if neglected can lead to distortion in information sharing and inappropriate replenishment of products that lead to inefficiencies and low supply chain dynamics (Ahmad & Ullah 2013).

Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals agree that supply chain management involves the timely planning and management of all the activities involved in sourcing, transformation, procurement, transportation and circulation of products to the end-users. These processes necessitate proper coordination and collaboration amongst the supply chain network such as intermediaries, suppliers, service providers and customers. Basically, supply chain management is considered to be a business philosophy that addresses all facets of business activities with the aim of working consistently with both customers and suppliers to remain competitively advantageous.

Having established what supply chain is all about, many might think that this business area is a hitch-free one. Studies have it that managing supply chains in the present-day competitive world are becoming increasingly challenging. With the increasing demand and supply uncertainties, globalisation of the market, market competitions, varying product life cycles, technological complexities, non-compliance of supply chain network and logistics issues have led to greater exposure to insecurities in the supply chain (Christopher et.al., 2002).

Product and technology life cycles have lessened significantly and competitive product additions make life-cycle demand difficult to forecast. Previously, competitions in many industries have been largely dependent on key assets, scope and investments with the capacity to utilise these assets however, Day (1994), support that competition is presently dependent on the intellectuals, skills and capabilities expressed through organizational processes.

Moreover, the susceptibility of supply chains to the growing upheavals and disruptions has greatly increased. These disruptions are not only dependent on natural disasters, wars and strikes but also dependent on the changing business strategies. Many companies have encountered various challenges in their supply chain due to changes in their business models such as difficulties in sourcing of raw materials, adoption of lean practices, adoption of agile practices, the migration to outsourcing and the tendency to minimise the size of the supplier base.

Integrating successful supply chain management scheme leads to a new cadre of competition in the international market. Here, competition is no longer dependent on company versus company level but on a holistic supply chain network thus, if all the relevant information is available to the participating parties then there will be proper optimization of the entire supply chain rather than sub-optimization based on a local activities. This will lead to effective production and distribution that can reduce costs and generate a more lucrative final product for higher sales and superior results for companies.

Conclusively, for organisations to remain competitively superior in the present day dynamic market ought to develop strategically aligned capabilities not only within the company itself, but also among the organizations that are part of its value-adding networks. Also, how can companies efficiently determine what their customers need at a certain point so as to competitively remain superior? According to Ahmad & Ullah (2013), building a long-term close customer collaboration plan is advantageous in making things fall into place.

This minimises the risk and chances of customers choosing other cheaper suppliers as a result of the established benefits derived by the customers such as just-in-time delivery, lower quality control cost and high quality products.For all these processes to be satisfactorily accomplished, efficient supply chain strategies utilising data must be established to attend to the changing needs of the market and then aligning them with technology to deliver maximum customer satisfaction while concurrently delivering the greatest share value to the shareholders.

This supports Cousins et al., (2008) contribution that considerable attention must be paid towards buyer-seller relationship, not only the aspects of performance but on the holistic financial performance as well.

Responsive Supply chain (RSC)which is very vital for success in the global supply chain network that incorporates all the activities of managing a company to address the challenges of supply chain is very vital for competitiveness (Fang Du et., al. 2009). Here, market intelligence and knowledge is utilised to exploit meaningful opportunities in a very competitive and volatile market.

Companies ought to be proactively responsive to any changes in the market by capitalising their strength on such changes to create new concepts and opportunities hence increasing customer’s satisfaction and performance of the company. Strategic planning is a strategy that considers the long-term plan of a company in mapping out acceptable operational and business policies and procedures. Fang Du et., al. (2009) support that information Technology plays an important role in the supply chain network as global competition has pushed companies to elect extended Enterprise in the supply chain framework. Such ERP systems include; Oracle, SAP tools which to a larger extent has contributed immensely in responsive supply chain and must be put in place for communication improvement and continuous flow of goods and products along the value chain (Gunasekaran et al 2006). Christopher & Lee (2004), suggest that participating supply chain parties should adopt an improved end-to-end visibility which boosts confidence in accordance to the quality of supply chain information for competitiveness.

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