Buyer-Centric, Seller-Centric and Independent B2B

¶ … buyer-centric, seller-centric and independent B2B models as defined in the case are actually the first generation of exchanges that Merle Hinrichs, founder and CEO of Global Sources will encounter as he seeks to capitalize on the electronic enablement of buyers and suppliers throughout the Asian region. Global Sources is seeking to capitalize on the strength of their content, yet will find that in the world of electronically enabled buyer, seller, Industry Sponsored Markets (ISM) and Independent Marketplaces, there will over time be an abundance of competition. During the timeframe of this study the industry is moving so rapidly that Mr. Hinrichs' analysis in Exhibit 4 is comparable to a blurred snapshot rather than a clear, high resolution image of the market. With that allegory in mind, the costs and benefits of each of the exchanges has he has defined them are analyzed. One critical point emerges however from this analysis which will be touched on after the costs and benefits analysis; only those exchange architectures that enable business processes while allowing buyers and sellers to remain independent will survive. That is a critical take-away from this entire case, and while Mr. Hinrichs and his teams have crafted an exceptional portal strategy that is quickly maturing to a full exchange due to added functionality, without a clear, defining process-based target that resonates with businesses, Global Sources will find increasing competition from just competing on content or website enablement alone. With these thoughts in mind, here is an analysis of the costs and benefits of each type of models or exchanges. First, the buyer-centric model that is based on a market maker, who by definition is instrumental in defining an industry, for example a Wal-Mart, Intel or Cisco, anchors this exchange structure. Cost, primarily accrued by suppliers in pursuit of procurement relationships with market makers, include re-vamping their systems if necessary to provide real-time price and availability, and second, paying for system connectivity and integration to the exchange itself. In some cases these types of buyer-centric models also required a yearly subscription fee as Ariba had subsequently done for example for all buyer-centric exchanges they had created (Karpinski, 2000). The benefits of this model primarily accrue to the buyer or market maker in the form of very aggressively priced products and also suppliers whose primary focus is in creating new solutions to the market maker's problems. The fact that buyer-centric models force price and availability competition for the buyer, in addition to serving as the impetus for many different suppliers to accelerate their product development strategies in an attempt to land a contract with the buyer are the two of many benefits to a buyer using this model. This concept of a buyer-centric model, like Figure 4 in the case study, is more of a blurred image than one that is crisp and focused. Buyer-centric models face rapid consolidation when price, availability and time-to-market are the only differentiating factors. In sequent generations of exchanges, clearly the buyer-centric processes will be consolidated into more comprehensive platforms supporting far more valuable and complex business processes (Zahay, Handfield, 2004).

Supplier-centric marketplaces or models as defined by Global Sources during this period, and while the company has defined them as portals and exchanges, they are actually a hybrid of these as they lack support for end-to-end business processes during the time period of the case study. There are many costs associated with supplier-centric models including infrastructure, content management, and integration of content management systems and the continual improvement of search functionality. There are also costs associated with supplier-centric portals from the standpoint of qualifying purchases, managing orders and completing transactions all online. Supplier centric models then have two very significant costs in integrating all of their content together and presenting a unified and navigable experience to customers on their website, as they have in many cases forced them there to purchase supplies, as the case study mentions. There is also the cost per transaction online, which needs to be continually monitored to ensure it is as cost effective as presumed given it is electronically enabled. The two major benefits of this model include using advanced guided selling, content management, and personalization options online to guide customers to purchase higher-margin products, thereby generating higher levels of profitability over time. There is also the benefit of not having to contend with a distribution channel and pay a percentage of the sale to channel partners as a result. Supplier-centric models also have the ability to create cross-channel promotions and realize the potential of multi-channel management by integrating their Web-based selling efforts with other selling channels as well.

Independent B2B models have many potential benefits and are the structure that Mr. Hinrichs put Global Sources into in the context of the case study. The greatest costs of this are the continual refreshing of content, and this includes using the many processes, initiatives and strategies mentioned in the case study for capturing content from manufacturers. Global Sources did a very commendable job in the context of the case study in automating product catalogs for their manufacturing customers, many of which still today, in 2009, lack basic Internet connectivity and the ability to automate product catalog functionality. An additional cost is the continual development of professional services, both from an investment and continual operations standpoint. For these two costs however there are significant benefits. First, Global Sources have been able to achieve the role of trusted advisor within the manufacturing companies who have come to rely on them for lead generation, with the case study stating an impressive 80% of their marketing budgets are allocated to Global Sources as a result. Second, there is benefit of the annual annuity-based revenue stream Global Sources has continued to perfect with the services they offer. Back in 1991 with the introduction of the TMX Exporter application which sold for a one-time free of $80,000 and an annual recurring fee, Global Sources found the concept of an annuity revenue stream one that would subsidize the development of entirely new initiatives. The fact that in 2000 the company also began charging monthly fees further underscores how the concept of annuity revenue streams as the basis of financing new growth began to be seen as a hedge against recession and economic contraction of markets. While the case study never explicitly makes this point is certainly implies it by this strategic move by Global Sources.

Of these three models, buyer-centric faces the most severe challenges based on the point made earlier with regard to business processes. The other two models included in this question have the potential to scale to support business processes critical to buyers and suppliers, yet the buyer-centric one does not. Further, buyer-centric and supplier-centric will over time be consolidated precisely due to this process orientation into strategic sourcing and procurement exchanges (Karpinski, 2000).

2.Global Sources' mission statement is found on page 4 of the case. Identify three major strengths that can allow Global Sources to accomplish this mission. Given the factors you identified, how strong is the company positioned to attract investors? Support your position.

In defining the mission statement as becoming "the essential infomediary and business-to-business market maker for volume buyers and sellers worldwide" Merle Hinrichs, founder and CEO of Global Sources for the first time defined a mission statement that was based more on electronic enablement of business processes and less about the company's content management legacy. This was a major shift for the company who has already created an online B2B marketplace, private buyer catalogs, private supplier catalogs, and a connecting (integration) platform and a transaction platform.

Three major strengths the company has that will allow it to accomplish this mission are first its methodology for the collection and publication of content. This has turned into a lead generation program for their customers as well, with the case stating that it is typical for small and medium enterprises to allocate up to 80% of their marketing budgets just with Global Sources for this task. It is comparable to the use of Google AdWords today by many small and medium-sized businesses that routinely spend a comparable amount on this low-cost paid search program of Google to generate click-thrus to their landing pages and websites. Given the methodology being stable and the data collection process being aligned to the needs of small and medium businesses located throughout Asia, Global Sources has a strong point of differentiation relative to the many other content-based exchanges that will emerge in the coming years. A second major strength is the company's extensive knowledge of manufacturers and supply chain networks throughout Asia and how they are all interrelated. This is invaluable knowledge that cannot be easily acquired by competitors. The combination of their unique content collection and management methodology in addition to the growing expertise they have with Asian manufacturers presents the foundation of value that is underscored by their third strength, an increasing level of IT and technology sophistication in the area of content management and supply chains. These three strengths of their content methodology, depth of expertise in the Asian manufacturing sector, and commitment to being a leader in electronic enablement and IT form a defensible competitive position. As a result, the company is well positioned to attract investors.

In supporting the contention that Global Sources is well positioned to attract investors based on the three unique strengths of a scalable content collection and management methodology, expertise with the Asian manufacturing community and that communities' unique needs and requirements, and an emerging strength in electronic enablement and IT, the following points need to be kept in mind. When these three factors are combined, the potential exists for Global Sources to move beyond just being a provider of content management services to leads for Asian manufacturers on the one hand, and sourcing, procurement and buy-side contacts for companies globally on the other. Taking into account the aggregation of all these factors together could easily lead to the monetization of their technologies and their resale in addition to the creation of online services for other supplier networks and exchanges as well. In the current timeframe of social networking-dominated development cycles and the need for scalable architectures, Amazon.com and the launch of their Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2), Simple Storage Service (S3), and Dynamo platform (Vogels, 2009) provide an example of what Global Sources could potentially do with the collection of technologies they are fine-tuning based on the constraints of content collection and management on the one hand and the need for scaling to meet the needs of Asian manufacturers on the other.

Second, Global Sources is well positioned given their triad of strengths mentioned to all redefine the entire exchange-based arena. As they have an extensive amount of content already, this would be possible to do rather quickly. When this strategy is considered, Figure 4 in the case study is shown to be more of a blurry image than a high resolution image of the market. In addition to looking across the five key success factors that are included in the case study, Mr. Hinrichs also needs to consider the following strategy as well that capitalizes on the three strengths mentioned. Offering a Portal Platform that includes a Web-based interface, identity management and personalization, content management, data integration and analytics could be the low-end offering of Global Sources' strategy of monetizing their systems and content. At the high end, Global Sources could offer an Exchange Platform would have all the modules of the Portal in addition to a Process Integration Engine and Transaction Engine. The Transaction Engine already in fact exists in the order management application Global Sources originally created in 1989. As Global Sources lands clients for these two solutions, value-added services could also be sold for streamlining clients' finance and logistics workflows, defining strategies for ensuring adherence to compliance initiatives including Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and others, in addition to launching an aggregate supplier rating application as well. Creating this services-based strategy will transition Global Services out of what will become a highly competitive content management-based exchange market and into portal and private exchange development and services. Presuming the company continues to mature in these areas they will be significantly more profitable than if they stayed only in their current business.

3.Identify the critical success factors for any company competing in an online B2B marketplace. Briefly describe each with an explanation of why or how each is critical to a company in this industry. There are more than the five listed in the case. For example, Liquidity & Profitability are two dimensions of one factor: financial strength. Limit your list to no more than eight factors. Prepare a Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM)* using Global Sources, Alibaba and VerticalNet. What is your conclusion about Global Sources' competitive position?

The following are the critical success factors for companies competing in the online B2B marketplace in the timeframes of the Global Sources case study. These factors form the basis of the Competitive Profile Matrix shown in Figure 2. These factors include the following. First, there is the financial strength of the vendors, and included in this definition are their ability to be self-funding from operations and the propensity they have to generate outside funding from venture capital on other sources. Second, the ability to generate unique, differentiated content of value to enterprises is a key critical success factor that defines the relative market positions of competitors in the exchange market in the timeframes of this case study. The fact that other exchanges are focused on shared transactions and even experimenting with auctions as Covisint is during this time period (Schwartz, 2000) shows the breadth of exchange-based business models occurring. Integration expertise at the process level is the third critical success factor, and this deliberately stands independent of information technology (IT) as integration at the process level between buyers and suppliers forms the basis by which these types of electronically enabled platforms for nurture learning and knowledge generation over the coming years. The Network Effect (Funk, 2009) that is critically important for any exchange to attain critical mass, is enabled through interprocess communication. For this multiplicative effect of communication to lead to greater efficiencies throughout the entire exchange, there has to be accurate, reliable process integration at the foundational level of the exchange. That is why process integration deserves to be a separate critical success factor. The fourth critical success factor is expertise in supply chain management, specifically measuring supply chain competency and influence in the context of the specific industries they serve. This is a highly differentiating factor in the B2B marketplace arena during the case study's timeframe in addition to later. Consider how B2B marketplace entrants with high supply chain competency and high influence are the most focused on collaborative processes first, and also have the most advanced IT platforms as well. Conversely Global Sources finds itself with relatively low supply chain competency and high supply chain influence, therefore giving them strength in external interchanges and giving them a document-centric strategy during the time period the case study is evaluating. There are B2B marketplaces with low supply chain competency and low supply chain influence, and they are characterized by an intensive number of external connections, are very message-centric in their approach to defining the value chains, and have a core competency in sell-side processes and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). B2B marketplaces in this quadrant of the supply chain competency/supply chain influence model have connectivity as their core strength overall. The last of the four segments of the quadrant, where are those B2B marketplaces that have high supply chain competency and low supply chain influence. B2B marketplaces that fit into this quadrant are those that are entering this market based on their e-commerce capability, and as a result have strong process skills het lack the ability to provide collaborative workflows which are critical for any B2B marketplace to scale. The following table compares the competitive dynamics of these four areas of supply chain competency vs. supply chain influence and illustrates why this is a critical success factor for B2B marketplaces.

Figure 1: Comparing Supply Chain Influence and Competency: B2B Marketplaces

High

Supply Chain

Competency

Low

Supply Chain Influence

Low High

Context-driven

External-interaction

Process-centric

Dominated by e-commerce vendors

Collaboration

External Compliance

Competitive leadership

Advanced Platforms

Support for Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

Connectivity

External Connections

Message-Centric

Sell-side or sales channel focused; Electronic Data Interchange

Content

External Interchange

Document-centric

Enterprise Applications dominated

Dominated by Legacy & Homegrown Systems

Difficulty of real-time process integration

When the dynamics of the B2B marketplace are taken into account from the perspective of the above matrix, it is clear that the last critical success factor, Information Technologies (IT) expertise, only plays a partial, not complete role in the success of any B2B marketplace. Over time the role of IT will become subordinate to process expertise as B2B marketplaces become more process- and supply chain centric than IT centric. Scalability attributable to IT is in the context of the case shifting from being a differentiator to being a requirement. While not explicitly stated it is inferred from the direction of competitors in the case. The sixth and last factor is the ability of a B2B marketplace is the affinity of each company compared to sustain their unique relationships with manufacturers in their specific regions. Global Sources has been able to do this and has begun the transformation inside their company of transitioning away from content and towards process, beginning with the lead generation workflows and processes small and medium businesses rely on to generate business. The result of this analysis is the B2B Marketplace Key Success Factors Analysis as shown in Figure 2: B2B Marketplace Key Success Factors, Competitive Profile Matrix.

Figure 2: B2B Marketplace Key Success Factor Analysis

Competitive Profile Matrix

Key Industry Success Factors

Weighting

Alibaba Rating

Alibaba Weighted

Global Sources Rating

Global Sources Weighting

VerticalNet Rating

VerticalNet Weighted

Financial Strength

15%

6

0.9

6

0.9

3

0.45

Unique, Differentiated Content

20%

6

1.2

7

1.4

5

1

Integration Expertise (process based)

15%

4

0.6

6

0.9

6

0.9

Supply Chain Management (competency & influence)

18%

3

0.54

5

0.9

4

0.72

IT Expertise

15%

5

0.75

7

1.05

4

0.6

Localized Expertise with Mftrs. In a specific region

17%

7

1.19

8

1.36

4

0.68

Totals:

31

5.18

39

6.51

26

4.35

The conclusion is that Global Sources is very well-positioned to dominate this marketplace, and to accomplish the company must pay attention to the dynamics for supply chain influence and competency, moving into the Collaboration quadrant. The strengths of localized expertise with manufacturers in a specific region and the unique differentiated content the company has contribute to their aggregate score of 39 and a weighted average of 6.51, which is significantly above Alibaba (average score of 31, weighted average score of 5.18), who lacks supply chain management competency. Specifically defining Alibaba in the context-driven quadrant in the matrix shown in Figure 1 due to their e-commerce functionality dominating their business model brings down their total score in the Competitive Profile Matrix. The lowest performer in this comparison is ironically the one who has laid claim to content as their most potent differentiator early on. VerticalNet, who the case study mentioned as financially struggling, will go through turmoil due to their financial performance and eventually shift their business model to be a consortia exchange, comparable to Covisint (Beldona, Raisinghani, 2004). Also ironic is the fact that VerticalNet begins with one of the most pervasive content creation and management methodologies in the industry, only to fall victim of attempting to create highly targeted and verticalized portals and exchanges without the ability to scale. Over time their content lost value and became message-centric and soon the company fell into the Connectivity quadrant of Figure 1. The net result was a significant reduction in staff and the new failure of the company to achieve venture capital (Sargent, 2005). VerticalNet emerges from this case study as a cautionary tale of what happens when a B2B marketplace or exchange attempts to grow broadly when its underlying systems do not allow for the breadth of coverage required. Yet for Global Sources, there is the potential to continue to change with the market, concentrating on collaborative platforms as shown in Figure 1 and embracing business processes as a result.

4.Hinrichs basically faces three options: remain independent, buy a competitor or form an alliance. Identify the trade-offs involved with each option, keeping in mind the material provided in Chapters 3-5 of the text, then recommend and support a course of action.

In assessing if Global Sources needs to remain independent, buy a competitor or form an alliance it is essential to first consider strategically where the company is going based on the three core strengths mentioned previously. These include an exceptional content collection and management methodology, expertise with manufacturers throughout Asia, and an evolving strength in automation and IT. When all of these factors are taken together, the logical progression for the company is to strongly consider monetizing their strengths in these combined areas. The concept of creating Portal Frameworks and Exchange Platforms would give Global Sources entrance into an entirely new market segment, once that would further differentiate them from the many content-based exchanges which will inevitably entire the B2B market. One needs to just consider Dow Jones, Thomas Register and the many other content-based B2B services companies in existence at the time and their same perception of exchanges as a viable extension of their businesses.

What Global Sources also needs to realize is that their strategic objective of becoming a globally scalable provider of portals and exchanges needs to define which specific aspects of building out this service on their own, acquiring a competitor, or creating an alliance are pursued. In order to make these decisions, a framework is first needed. Figure 3: Global Sources Pro Forma Collaborative Platform Product & Services Strategy is the recommended framework for determining when it is best to build the technologies in-house and stay independent, which to acquire a competitor for, and which to form alliances in order to gain access to key solutions, systems and technologies.

Figure 3:

Global Sources Pro Forma Collaborative Platform Product & Services Strategy

In the context of their build-out strategy to be a global provider of electronic enablement solutions for portals and exchanges, remaining independent entails building out the entire stack of technologies shown in Figure 3 on their own. There are key components in this framework that the company has a natural affinity for, including Identity Management, Content Management and Transaction Engine (as evidenced by their development of a distributed order management system in 1989). The question of whether to build their own Web-based User Interface, Data Integration, Analytics, and Process Integration layers of this model is dependent on their ability to capitalize on their lessons learned from serving Asian manufacturers. It is feasible that Global Sources would be able to create a Web-based user interface given their expertise during the time period of the case study in setting up catalogs and also creating websites for manufacturers. There is also the potential for them to create data integration suites of applications, based on their experiences creating integrated content management systems. This area of data integration however is quite involved and complex when it comes to interlinking content in multiple languages and dialects, and over time may exceed the company's ability to attain full independence. The next two factors, Analytics and Process Integration, are by nature more enterprise-wide in scope and implementation, and would require partnerships or the acquisition of a competitor to build these areas out. These are the technological aspects of becoming a globally scalable competitor in electronic enablement. To summarize from a technological standpoint, acquiring a competitor does not make sense as a strategic priority for any level in the proposed Pro Forma Collaborative Platform Product & Services Strategy as Global Sources does not have the programming and development expertise to keep pace with the rapid changes in these areas. Instead alliances specifically for the areas of Analytics and Process Integration are critically important for Global Sources to attain the strategic objectives as defined by their mission statement. Alliance partners for Analytics specific to global procurement including Ariba, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and several other smaller vendors need to be considered. For the Process Integration layer of this proposed model, Oracle/BEA Systems, TIBCO, who excels at the area of Business Process Management (BPM) in financial services would be excellent, or IBM with their FileNet platform would all be suitable for this area of the Global Sources strategy. Purely from a technology standpoint, Global Sources will not be able to remain independent and still attain the objectives as defined in their mission statement.

From a content management standpoint, Global Sources needs to continually focus on how to add information and data sources that will give them the opportunity to own an end-to-end business process if they are to survive for the long-term. Mr. Hinrichs needs to concentrate first on expanding his content-centric business model away form being a repository of data to being an enabler of end-to-end business processes. This is critically important for interlinking the content and services strategies as well, as the lessons learned in enabling end-to-end business processes with content will also serve to define which content the company should develop independently, acquire or form alliances to gain. The specific end-to-end business process of order management needs to be the foundation that Global Sources concentrates on in terms of growing their content management business as a result. The front-end process areas of order management including quoting and pricing, with the former area being well-defined already by the content creation and management methodology Global Sources has in place. The area of pricing is critically important in the order management process, and for Global Sources to fulfill its strategic vision for both businesses, they need to seriously consider the acquisition of both the technology and the content in this area. Beginning with technology, Model N, Vistaar, or Zilliant all have technologies that can scale to provide the support needed to make pricing a viable part of the overarching order management process. For the pricing data itself, Global Sources will need to translate their lessons learned using their methodology for content collection and management into one suitable for pricing collection, management and optimization. It will not be enough to merely capture and report pricing in the context of quoting workflows, the real value-add for Global Sources will be in optimizing pricing and interpolating the best possible deals for their buyer clients globally. This integration of pricing data obtained through their own uniquely developed methodology and the use of optimization software will further provide Global Sources with greater dominance and value delivery in the distributed order management workflows of their clients. As can be seen from this approach to creating more value from a process-centric growth path that concentrates on distributed order management, it does not make sense to go after acquisitions for content alone; acquisitions need to be focused on creating and injecting more value into the distributed order management process over time.

Realizing that in the timeframe of the case study and through the ensuing years it is foreseeable that Global Sources will face more competitors that are purely based on content, it is imperative they adopt a competitive strength in a key process area. The unmet needs of small and medium businesses globally are automating their transactions; in fact that is the only aspect of many business relationships many can agree on. This transaction-centric approach to defining their business model, capitalizing on content while also offering a portal and exchange-based series of applications and services, needs to be all anchored in the unmet needs of the world's small and medium-sized manufacturers. In the timeframe of the case study, Global Sources has literally stumbled into lead generation as a business process of value to these customers. Deliberately seeking to be an exchange capable of enabling transactions through the development and fine-tuning of a distributed order management process expertise is critically important. The trade-offs involved with the decision to remain independent are clear when analyzed both from the technology build-out needed to attain their stated mission statement. The have strength in three core areas they can build on. Their approach to purchasing a competitor needs to be more guided by their value-add of the new service of portal and exchange services and less by attempting to compete on content alone. The real battle is for owning a specific process in the market that businesses rely on, not being just a dominant producer of content. Finally in terms of alliances, Global Sources must concentrate on the technologically contributing ones first to propel themselves into entirely new businesses. Over time the company needs to consider alliances, not acquisitions, for content aggregation that will support and strengthen their ownership of the distributed order management process.

5.If business functions in a pluralistic society, the various players, or interest groups, must be identified, and they are referred to as stakeholders. Once the stakeholders are identified, a business's economic and social responsibilities to each can be determined." List Global Sources' most important stakeholders and say why they are important. (Worth 25%)

As Global Sources acts as an exchange and has the potential to be monetize their internal systems providing portal and exchange services to other industries in the process, the company has a wide spectrum of stakeholders. The most critical are the customers who are from small and medium businesses throughout Asia, who rely on Global Sources as their primary means of lead generation. These customers also require Global Sources to provide support specifically for their sales cycles as well, including support for tradeshows and other selling events too. The content capture and management process within Global Sources can potentially made even stronger by incorporating partners that will enhance and strengthen the value of their services for Asian manufacturers, who are one of the primary customer bases. A secondary customer base of buyers, located globally, who rely on Global Sources as a means to complete supplier qualification and initial Request for Quotation (RFQ) is part of the reciprocal series of processes the company provides for its buyer segment group of customers. The buyer segment is one that relies on being able to also track multiple RFQs, creating their own taxonomy or structure to them as well. This is a stakeholder segment has high expectations for being able to manage a very high volumes of RFQs across multiple product lines. While Global Sources refers to this as a sequential, often manual process, the reality is that buyer-side stakeholders require an automated approach to delivering RFQs that gives them the ability to manage up to a few hundred at a time, especially in those organizations with sales over $100M a year. Instead of having to build their own systems to manage RFQs, including structuring, organizing and following up on them, many of the larger organizations relying on Global Sources as a service would like to standardize RFQ management with the company. This is exemplified in the rapid ramp-up for Ariba and their buy-side portal (Karpinski, 2000). As buy-side procurement will continue to gain in prominence within the B2B marketplace (McCluskey, 2002) the buyer segment of the Global Sources customer base is critically important. In addition to the revenue implications, as this is the segment that drives the adoption of marketing and lead generation for suppliers, the buyer segment is a valuable source of new product innovation as well. The innovative aspects of the buyer segment need to be managed exceptionally well however. This includes creating Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs to gain greater insight into the buyer-side segment (Brandt, 2008) and also creating and continually maintaining customer advisory councils as well. A customer advisory council concentrates on bringing together the CEOs and leaders of key customers with the senior management and CEO of Global Sources to discuss how better the company can stay in step with their needs. The ability to translate the unmet needs and concerns of key customers' top management into strategic plans is critical for the development of future services and strategies.

In addition to the need to base innovation on the unmet needs of both supply-side and buy-side customers, Global Sources has the explicit requirement of providing exceptional levels of transparency to their customers as to how transactions are accounted for, leads generated and escalated, and how the entire process is defined financially from a service change standpoint. In short, Global Sources has the implicit responsibility of providing a high level of transparency and ethics to its customers (Elia, 2009). Ethics must transcend only the required disclosures by law however; for ethics to be effective in generating and sustaining trust, they must be focused on accountability and transparency (Murphy, Bruce, 2003). Only by taking this approach will Global Sources be able to become a trusted advisor to the customer segments that form the basis of their business model, both from a services standpoint (Czerniawska, 2005) and also from a transaction perspective as well (Urban, 2005). Ethics then, while required by law to be in compliance with, can actually be turned into a competitive advantage by pursuing the role of trusted advisor. This is critically important for Global Sources in their management of this stakeholder audience.