An Introduction to Global Supply Chain Management: What Every Manager Needs to Understand

The problems during COVID made everyone aware that today’s global business environment relies on supply chains 24/7.

Although most managers and executives are not chain experts, they must know and understand the key aspects of supply chain management to make the best daily decisions for their business. Many textbooks cover numerous details and theories about supply chains. However, it has been said that everything that is taught in business school is theory…until you must make payroll.

Both authors have made payroll in various businesses. Thus, this text removes the details and is focused on an executive overview of the key aspects of Global Supply Chains that every businessperson needs to know to continually succeed in their business and make payroll.

Dr. Edmund Prater is a professor of global operations and logistics at the University of Texas at Arlington. He received his PhD, MSIE, and MSEE from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He became interested in global supply chains when he started and ran an import/export firm in Russia in the 1990s. He has taught and consulted in Southeast Asia and Europe for over 20 years. Most recently, he completed a fellowship with the National Academies of Sciences. As a Jefferson Science Fellow, he worked at the U.S. State Department in the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs.

Dr. Kim Whitehead is an associate professor of Quantitative Management at Anderson University in Anderson, South Carolina. She received her PhD in Management Science from the University of Texas at Arlington, her MBA in management from Florida State University, and a BBA in accounting from Georgia College and University. At Anderson University she created successful undergraduate and graduate programs specializing in supply chain management. Previously, she spent over 20 years in the consumer products industry and was the chief financial officer for a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of branded consumer products.