A. A supply chain strategy appears in many different forms and varieties; picking the right strategy is the hard part. When deciding on a strategy, the goal is to pick the correct one that will benefit your specific organization and area. There are six different strategy associated with supply chain management: Many supplier, few suppliers, vertical integration, a combination of the two referred to as a joint venture, Keiretsu, and a virtual company (Hiezer). The first couple of the strategies have a company rely heavily on external suppliers for their goods and service. Not necessarily working in conjunction with the organization business strategy, but aggressively compete with other suppliers to gain essentially the right to provide the product on the companies demand. The goal of both these strategies isn’t to foster a long term partnering relationship with the buyer’s organization. The strategy of vertical integration takes on two forms also; a company can either purchase a supplier or work in combination and join resources becoming a joint venture. Vertical integration can be forward taking on more of the distribution action or backwards by produce what was in the past purchased. They can benefit from organization talents by reducing cost, increase quality, and timely deliveries. It being hard to everything well and the large financial commitment are some of the challenges of a vertical integration strategy, for some organization these challenges may force them into a formal partnership with their suppliers. There are several reasons for a buyer to enter into a partnership with their supplier; the key ones would be guaranteed supply and reduced costs. The fifth strategy, known as Keiretsu, is a strategy where the company’s suppliers become part of a coalition. They are interlocked on the bases of relationship and share common stakeholders, there are a