The lesson for multinational corporations is "beware—you tend to get the supplier arrangement you bargained for", whether suppliers are based in Dongguan City, Delhi or Düsseldorf. Multinationals need to seek out arrangements where suppliers are rewarded not only for driving down costs but also for driving up product quality and innovation.

Recent research by Bain has shown that companies that best addressed the issue of accountability in the value chain had two things in common: the CEO took responsibility personally because he or she saw it as a matter of corporate values and made sure that all employees felt empowered to resolve problems as they arose.

The questions every CEO should ask are: a) do I have balanced measures for employees on the front lines or are they biased towards cost management (and what have I done lately to reward the whistleblower who speaks up for quality?); and b) am I getting the one-dimensional suppliers I deserve because I pound them down on costs rather than create a true partnership? In the long term, the best relationships will be built upon mutually beneficial expectations, not inspections.

The writer is a partner at Bain & Company.