Wall Street really does appreciate companies that are supply chain leaders. That's according to a study by Accenture and two leading universities, Stanford and INSEAD. Companies seen as supply chain leaders "were found to have a market capitalization compound average growth rate of up to 26 percentage points above the industry average growth rate," says the report.

"For many businesses, the supply chain is a tremendous opportunity area, yet many companies continue to do business as usual, looking only to shave additional costs from their existing operations," says William Copacino, managing partner for Accenture's global supply chain group.

He notes that the best supply chain companies use key supply chain capabilities to execute business strategies. Constant innovation, even creating new infrastructures, is also key to success.