Explain the importance of promoting honest and open communication between suppliers and customers

What will be an ideal response?

Communication is the formal and informal sharing of meaningful and timely information between firms. Business market managers from progressive firms make it a point to meet with partner firm managers periodically in formal and informal settings to discuss market conditions. By doing so over many years, customer and supplier managers often develop personal relationships and become comfortable sharing critical information. Bridging is the establishment of multiple levels of communications between firms, across functions, management levels, and business strands. Perhaps the most common entails the creation of cross-functional and interfirm teams. By giving the teams a variety of projects to work on and encouraging members to meet with regularity, business market managers give them a common point of interaction and set of mutual tasks. Often, these group activities go beyond the workday to include social activities, such as attending sporting events or participating in golf or tennis outings. Bridging enables both the supplier and customer firms to minimize the detrimental effects of the untimely departure of a key employee.