So how do you know if your best supplier or customer is about to hit the skids?

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"The key to the castle in luxury goods is access to the best supplier brands, " agrees Michael May, senior analyst at Jupiter Communications.

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"The key to the castle in luxury goods is access to the best supplier brands, " agrees Michael May, a senior analyst at Jupiter Communications.

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"We felt that Suzlon, which was learning to become a global supplier, was the best option for our small, community-based projects, " says David Drescher, vice president of the wind energy group at John Deere Credit.

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Fostering and protecting key relationships, particularly vendor and supplier relationships, and executing best-practice operations is paramount to achieving success.

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And unless he or she is your best friend, why go with your existing component supplier when the Net can find you a cheaper one?

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These supplier support programmes, Matsushita reckons, are the best in the industry.

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For example, IBM, the best-known name in early computing and still the major supplier of technology for business, offers a host of technology solutions including hardware, software, and support.

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