In the recent MDM Webcast, Operating for Profit: The Coming Revolution in Supply Chain Finance, Jonathan Byrnes, senior lecturer at MIT and author of “Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink,” said companies need to take advantage of a new approach to their supply chains that can grow profitability and tighten relationships with customers. Here’s a summary of the webcast, now available on-demand or on DVD at www.mdm.com/operatingforprofit.

Imagine what your competitor could do in terms of customer service that would be your worst nightmare.

Jonathan Byrnes, senior lecturer at MIT, posed this scenario to attendees of the recent MDM Webcast, Operating for Profit: The Coming Revolution in Supply Chain Finance. When he’s asked his students in the past, he said the answer from many has been a competitor finding a way to provide service that made a customer or vendor better off in ways their companies could not.

Companies can in fact accomplish this before a competitor beats them to it, he said. “Supply chain management today can have ...