Products and services are the result of the complex interaction of many individual value creators. Every enterprise has business connections with other participants of the supply chain suppliers, service providers, end customers. Supply chain management is the radical orientation of all activities along the value-added chain towards customer benefit. The individual links of the supply chain typically are legally independent entities looking for the respective optimum for their companies. It is a fact, however, that the total of many individual optima does not guarantee an overall optimum output. This is precisely where Supply Chain Management sets in: coordination along the whole supply chain to improve the overall performance and the overall costs to the benefit of everyone involved.

Ernst Kurzmann:Main author and project driver. Freelance management consultant, business trainer and lecturer in the fields of internationalisation, logistics and supply chain management. The basis of his work is decades of economic and scientific practice in renowned international corporations such as Unilever, Alcatel or PepsiCo and universities, technical colleges and adult education institutions in German-speaking countries. He studied International Management at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and holds an Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Graz/Austria. His main interests are in the fields of management theory, the theory of cooperation and collective intelligence (swarm intelligence).Johannes-Paul Fladerer:Johannes-Paul FladererStudied behavioural biology and pharmacy at the University of Graz. He has been intensively involved in behavioural biology and ant research for a number of years and holds lectures and seminars about swarm intelligence and management. His main interest is the behaviour and chemoecology of leafcutter ants. Now he is teaching as senior lecturer at the University of Graz.