This book complements the other Excellence in... titles, for example, inProcurement, in Supplier Management, in Supply Chain Management, inInventory, in Freight Transport, Services Procurement and in WarehouseManagement.The real fact today is that we do actually live "in a global village" where manycountries' former self-sufficiency has now moved onto a global stage. We can nowfind that distance impacts from local sources can soon grow into global problems.Witness for example, the increased price of steel around 2005 and the economicrecession that started in the USA in 2008, which by early 2009 had adverselyaffected most global trade.Managing supply, demand and consumer markets from global perspectivestherefore involves dealing with constant change and increased volatility. It also requires a new understanding of culture and different ways of doing things. No longer are organisations able to assume their national values; new processes can be enforced, or are going to be automatically adapted globally.We explore, in this book, how to manage such differences practically.