Change happens. It always has and it always will; the only variable is its rate and degree.

Today, supply chain professionals are facing challenges that have been brought on by several important changes. Some have been building momentum for years and we've seen them coming. Others have happened with little or no warning and have profoundly changed every aspect of our daily existence. Some, perhaps most, fall somewhere in between.

Each of these changes requires companies to reassess how they do business now and in the future:

• The advent of the Internet, which has quickly become the dominant medium for communications, transactions, and information, has changed the business world, and will continue to do so in ways we cannot yet imagine. Companies that don't recognize how the Internet is changing the rules of the marketplace and fail to respond appropriately run the risk of being left behind, never to catch up.
• The same can be said about supply chain management. Seldom has a new business practice so profoundly changed the way companies go to market. Companies are integrating all of their activities in the supply chain, from cradle to grave, as a way to differentiate themselves and gain a competitive edge. To ignore this change is to risk your ability to remain competitive.
• The economic downturn mandates that companies identify short-term strategies for weathering the storm. The recession's depth and the rapidity with which it developed continue to baffle economists, not to mention the rest of us. Whether we understand it or not, we all must make dramatic changes in our business approaches compared to what we were doing just a year ago.
• The events of September 11 struck hard at an already limping economy and pushed it into a full recession. To put it simply, the sun rose on a profoundly changed world on September 12, and determining precisely what those changes mean is still many months, if not years, away.

These and other changes have led us into one of the most challenging times in the business history of our nation. It should come as no surprise, then, that the discipline of change management has surged to the top of many companies' list of priorities.

According to author Stephen R. Covey, successful change management is based on how well people and companies focus on a set of core principles. "Principles are like lighthouses," he says. "They do not move. You can totally, absolutely depend upon them."

A well-defined set of principles, Covey continues, will provide the foundation that companies will need to prevail in these challenging times. "The more you can build that which does not change, the more you can operate effectively," he says. "If you can get oriented and focus on those things which do not change, you can deal better with those things that do."

Now, perhaps more than ever, companies must stay focused on the basic principles that have guided their successes in the past and will continue to guide them in the future. Things like price, value and customer service will continue to determine who wins and who loses.