1 The supplier association described above eventually collapsed. What factors do you think might have led to this collapse? A major supplier of digital telecommunications systems, which we shall call ‘Cymru’, had established a successful manufacturing plant in Wales. The European region had been restructured into five customer-facing divisions, which would provide major customers with a single point of contact for integrated solutions. This would in turn focus operations by key account, and boost Cymru’s commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. Cymru’s major customer was TELE, a national telecommunications service provider. Following deregulation of markets in Europe, TELE started to buy telephone handsets in the global market at prices that were well below those of Cymru. A twoyear contract was replaced by a four-month contract, and call-off quantities became much more uncertain for Cymru and its suppliers