In negotiating, you can be self-defeatingly muscular or benign, says Kate Vitasek, on the faculty of the Center for Executive Education at the University of Tennessee. Or you can be credible. That's a lesson supply chain managers can learn from Professor Oliver Williamson.

The truck driver shortages of 1983 and 2004 could be dwarfed by what's coming by 2012, in the view of Tom Nightingale, chief marketing officer at Con-way. New hours-of-service rules and CSA 2010 are doing nothing to help that situation. Still, there are ways to prepare for the crunch.

Leo Lin, chief financial officer of Monster Cable Products, involves himself in every aspect of the company's supply chain, most notably its sales and operations planning process. Here, he offers some tips on how finance executives can break down traditional corporate silos.

Even in a recession, companies aren't standing still. Geoff Sisko, senior consultant with Jack Kuchta LLC, talks about the steps that can be taken now to prepare businesses for economic recovery.