This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
In early April, an economic de-globalization nuclear bomb went off, threatening to wipe out decades of globalization and international trade in one fell swoop. This was a system shock (i.e., a system perturbation) of epic proportions. It set in motion a series of actions and reactions in global markets that are just beginning to reveal themselves. It will take us some time to understand the full consequences of these unfolding events.
The late Sir Winston Churchill once stated, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” He was, of course, spot on with that observation. The aim of any strategy is to accomplish a stated goal. Anything that can derail accomplishing a company’s stated goal is a strategic risk. As Henry Mintzberg , the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University in Montreal, has pointed out, “The real challenge in crafting strategy lies
America’s Declaration of Independence famously declared, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Unfortunately, America is becoming a less happy place to live. Last year, the “Gallup World Poll for the World Happiness Report 2024” found that the U.S. had fallen out of the top 20 happiest countries
For most of us, the food we eat relies on the efforts of others. Today, on National Ag Day, we recognize those efforts. The Days of the Year staff writes, “National Agriculture Day is a special moment set aside to recognize the importance of agriculture in our daily lives. This event shines a spotlight on the farmers, ranchers, and all the workers involved in producing the food, clothing, and even the biofuels we rely on every day.
For the past few years, researchers around the world have announced a steady stream of breakthroughs that could lead to the development of powerful quantum computers. Nevertheless, such computers continue to be tantalizingly out of reach. Tech journalist Asa Fitch explains, “Quantum computing remains in its relative infancy. A handful of startups and big tech companies are pursuing it, but industry experts say it will likely take years before practical and powerful quantum computers are wi
On some of the earliest European maps of the known world, the phrase “Here be dragons” can be found. The phrase signified uncharted or dangerous areas where cartographers warned mariners “we don’t know what’s there, so beware.” Dragons are a good analogy for the risks faced by supply chains. No one can say for sure what dragons lie ahead in 2025 for supply chains, but some risks are known.
“The concept of digital twins,” writes freelance journalist Elizabeth Wallace , “has been a game-changer in digital transformation. Theyve provided a virtual mirror to physical assets, processes, or systems and [enabled] unprecedented levels of analysis, monitoring, and prediction.”[1] The concept certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Seldom does one company manage to make a trillion dollars disappear from its competitors’ stock market valuations in a single day. Nevertheless, a little-known Chinese artificial intelligence start-up named DeepSeek did just that and overnight became one of the world’s most famous companies. Journalists Madhumita Murgia , Richard Waters , and Eleanor Olcott report, “Its release of a new AI model, known as R1, upended assumptions about US supremacy in AI and raised the prospect
According to journalist Mark Sullivan , “2024 saw a real acceleration in both the development and the application of [artificial intelligence]. Expectations are high that AI will move beyond just generating text and images and morph into agents that can complete complex tasks on behalf of users. But thats just one of many directions in which AI might move in 2025.”[1] Tracking various directions in which AI might head is critical for today’s business leaders.
Quantum mechanics emerged gradually from theories used to explain observations that could not be reconciled with classical physics. There were numerous individuals who contributed to the field. Building on the technology developed in classical mechanics, the invention of wave mechanics by Erwin Schrdinger and expansion by many others triggered the “modern era” of science beginning around 1925.
For the past few years, the news has been filled with stories about supply chain disruptions, supply chain fragility, and the need for supply chain resilience. A term once prominent in supply discussions optimization isn’t heard quite as often as it used to be. That doesn’t mean optimization isn’t as important now as it has been in the past.
Discussing sustainability in today’s politically-charged business environment is tricky. It shouldn’t be. Sustainability is all about the future — the future of business and the future of the planet. Last year, the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics and the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) published a report entitled The State of Supply Chain Sustainability 2023.
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains and upended the global economy, supply chain experts insisted that supply chain resilience was essential. Back in 2019, Joseph Shamir , Founder of ToolsGroup, wrote, “If the last decade has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected — from extreme weather events to endless political psychodramas to tech startups disrupting whole industries.
Although Christmas still reigns supreme among holidays in the United States, Halloween is gaining ground. According to journalist Francisco Velasquez , Halloween is creeping up on Christmas like a specter in a haunted house. “As Halloween decorations creep onto store shelves earlier each year,” he writes, “America’s spookiest holiday is casting an ever-longer shadow over the retail landscape.
The business environment is getting more complex and uncertain. The team at John Galt Solutions observes, “In today’s economic landscape, uncertainty across the supply chain is inevitable, whether due to the effects of climate change, demand and supply variability, or global unrest. To keep up, supply chain leaders need to continuously make good decisions quickly that consider the ever-changing circumstances, emerging opportunities and disruptions, to improve how responsive and adaptable t
It’s not your imagination if you think holiday shopping starts earlier every year. In the past, holiday shopping season traditionally began on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. In recent years, holiday shopping has creeped earlier in the year. Journalist Ben Kesslen reports a new survey from Bankrate found, “48% of Americans will begin their winter holiday gift buying in October.”[1] The survey found that some shoppers begin even earlier. “Twelve percent of those
Tomorrow, 4 October, is National Manufacturing Day (MFG Day) — which is celebrated annually on the first Friday in October. The day is set aside to honor those who manufacture goods in the United States. According to the Holidays Calendar website , “National Manufacturing Day was created by an official proclamation from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in 2012.
The business landscape is changing at a dizzying pace. As a result, businesses are looking to accelerate their innovation efforts and deploy new technologies that can help create competitive advantages. As I noted elsewhere, “These efforts will be largely focused on the agility gained by reinventing their organizations around the principles of autonomy and intelligence.
In Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 classic movie “The 39 Steps,” Richard Hannay, an unwary Canadian living in London, is caught up in the mayhem following pistol shots fired in a theater. In the ensuing panic, Hannay finds himself holding a seemingly frightened woman who persuades him to take her back to his flat. She tells him her name is Annabella Smith, she is a spy and she fired the shots to create a diversion so she could elude assassins.
According to Kristalina Georgieva , Managing Director at the International Monetary Fund, AI is hitting the global labor market like a “tsunami.”[1] According to Georgieva, AI is likely to impact 40% of jobs globally, and 60% of jobs in advanced economies. She concludes, “We have very little time to get people ready for it, businesses ready for it. … It could bring tremendous increase in productivity if we manage it well, but it can also lead to more misinformation and, of course, mo
In science fiction stories, artificial intelligence (AI) has been portrayed as both a destroyer and a savior of humankind. In the real world, one of the most discussed topics is what affect AI will have on jobs. For example, journalist Will Knight writes, “Forget artificial intelligence breaking free of human control and taking over the world.
An oft-quoted marketing truism is: “People don’t want quarter-inch drill bits. They want quarter-inch holes.” The source of this quote is unclear. The late Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen credited another HBS Professor, Theodore Levitt, as the originator. The staff at Quote Investigator (QI) reports the earliest strong match for the adage occurred in an advertisement in a Somerset, Pennsylvania newspaper in 1942.
Nothing is more important for humankind’s future than food security. That future, however, is at risk. A U.S. government study, authored by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agricultural economists Jayson Beckman , Fengxia Dong , and Maros Ivanic , along with Columbia University climate scientist Jonas Jägermeyr and Kansas State University professor Nelson Villoria , concludes, “A rising global population — with changing diets and an increasing demand for animal-based products, a
When most people think about a business, they don’t often picture the myriad decisions that must be made on a daily basis. However, as Bain analysts, Michael C. Mankins and Lori Sherer , explain, “The best way to understand any company’s operations is to view them as a series of decisions.”[1] Neither do people often think about a business’ supply chain.
A few years ago, Paul Laudicina , Chairman Emeritus of Kearney, asked a profound question, “What’s today’s biggest threat to industry, even to society?”[1] His answer, “I believe the biggest peril we face is losing the positive engagement of the next generation of leaders. I’m talking about the biggest generational cohort, U.S. millennials, and now also their younger peers, Gen Z, who are navigating unprecedented global challenges — from a pandemic to a global recession to clim
Today, in the United States, we’re celebrating National Lemonade Day. The Holiday Calendar staff explains that National Lemonade Day honors young entrepreneurs. They write, “The origins of this holiday date back to the days when kids would set up stands and sell lemonade in order to make some pocket money.”[1] The National Day staff adds that National Lemonade Day is an opportunity “to teach youth about setting up their own lemonade stand and running their own company.”[2] Journalist Dayna
As the world emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic, companies wondered whether consumer behaviors adopted during the pandemic would continue. One such behavior was a notable increase in online grocery purchases. In early 2023, journalist Emily Newton wrote, “Stuck at home, increased numbers of consumers turned to their computers or phones to order groceries from websites like Instacart, or food delivery apps such as Uber Eats, DoorDash or GoPuff.
“Hype is a crucial component to introducing any emerging technology into the marketplace,” writes journalist Peter Fretty. “It draws attention and, in many instances, entices organizations to come out onto the bleeding edge. However, at some point, manufacturers need to move beyond the hype and realize the return on their investment.”[1] In this case, Fretty is writing about the hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI).
The world is becoming ever more complex. And that complexity complicates almost every business activity conducted by consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. As I noted in a previous article, “Most forms of AI utilized in CPG revenue growth optimization systems today cannot account for real-world market complexity. They leverage old linear regression techniques to solve a problem that is non-linear in nature, relying on traditional AI models that optimize one, two, three or four static con
Nearly three decades ago, the world experienced what became known as the dotcom bubble. Many of the start-ups that popped up during that time raised significant amounts of capital, spent it lavishly, and went bust. Economic sociologist Adam Hayes explains, “The dotcom bubble, also known as the Internet bubble, grew out of a combination of the presence of speculative or fad-based investing, the abundance of venture capital funding for startups, and the failure of dotcoms to turn a profit.
Supply chain risk managers have a dilemma. Journalist Thor Benson reports that tuning out bad news might be good for their mental health; however, risk managers know tuning out bad news wouldn’t be good for business. Benson writes, “You’re reading about the horrors of the Israel-Hamas war, and then you’re reading about the horrors of the war between Ukraine and Russia.
Thomas Paine, one of America’s founding fathers, was an immigrant. He arrived from England in 1774, only two years before the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Nevertheless, Paine was a keen observer of social and political history. Prior to the Declaration’s publication on 4 July 1776, Paine published a pamphlet entitled Common Sense.[1] In that document, he wrote “The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.
By land, air, and sea, people and goods move around the planet. Humans, by their very nature, desire to connect and to trade with other humans. Admittedly, the term “trade” has often meant to exploit; nevertheless; most people understand that logistics is what makes the world go round. The staff at Mecalux explains, “Logistics has played a crucial role in the development of humanity throughout history.
Futurist Bernard Marr observes, “As a species, humanity has witnessed three previous industrial revolutions: first came steam/water power, followed by electricity, then computing. Now, we’re in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution, one driven by artificial intelligence and big data.”[1] He adds, “I like to refer to this as the ‘Intelligence Revolution.'” The intelligence revolution is necessary thanks to the enormous amount of data being generated each day an
The eighteenth-century philosopher François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume Voltaire, once wrote, “Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.” The Economist staff believes people still need the opportunity to work. They explain, “Today’s workers have [much] in common with every other soul who has toiled these past 12,000 years.
“Cost is the new king for consumer products and retail organizations,” declares Tim Bridges , an Executive Vice President at Capgemini.[1] And nowhere is that truer than in the grocery sector. Markets correspondent Emily Peck explains, “Every time Americans go food shopping they feel the sting of higher prices, making the grocery store the place where consumers are most regularly reminded about inflation.”[2] In Part One of this article, I discussed how high food prices could affect
The importance of critical infrastructure in maintaining economic stability and mitigating supply chain disruptions is highlighted every time a part of that infrastructure fails — such as the collapse of Maryland’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. That disaster was manmade. Many such failures result from natural events like tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and ice storms.
This week I had a fantastic discussion with Nicole Petallides at Schwab Network about the transformative year artificial intelligence (AI) has had, shifting from early consumer applications to becoming a cornerstone of the industrial landscape. As tech giants race to develop the world’s most advanced AI systems, I note that we’re entering a new era for the economy and workforce, with opportunities ranging from vocational AI roles to PhD-level positions.
Tomorrow (May 22) is National Maritime Day. The staff at the Maritime Administration (MARAD) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) reports, “[In 1933], Congress declared National Maritime Day to commemorate the American steamship Savannah’s [1819] voyage from the United States to England, marking the first successful crossing of the Atlantic Ocean with steam propulsion.”[1] The staff at Days of the Year adds, “National Maritime Day is not necessarily about the ocean
According to science writer Max G. Levy , “Right now, 325 million people are acutely hungry. 35 million Americans don’t know where their next meal will come from. The world’s food systems are uneven, fragile, and only becoming more fragile with the climate crisis.”[1] Levy isn’t alone in his concerns. With more mouths to feed each and every day, global food security remains a serious challenge.
Most people understand that entrepreneurs play an important role in advancing America’s (or any nation’s) economy. The team at AIContentfy note, “Entrepreneurship [is] a phenomenon that fuels innovative ideas, drives progress, and shapes the very fabric of our economy. From Henry Ford’s assembly line revolution to Mark Zuckerberg’s creation of Facebook, entrepreneurs have long been the torchbearers of change.”[1] They then ask the billion dollar question, R
Being called “middling” has traditionally been more of an insult than a matter of fact. It means something is not terrible but it also isn’t great — it’s mediocre. That’s sort of how so-called “middle powers” have been treated historically. Wikipedia explains, “In international relations, a middle power is a sovereign state that is not a great power nor a superpower, but still has large or moderate influence and international recognition.
Recently, Thibaud Molin , a partner at the KYU, told reporters at a press conference, “The world has entered a zone of uncertainty.”[1] His observation applies equally to geopolitical and business environments. In the geopolitical sector, some of the uncertainty comes from the fact that 2024 is an election year. Journalist Kelvin Chan reports, “AI-powered misinformation and disinformation is emerging as a risk just as a billions of people in a slew of countries, including large
An unimaginable amount of food is wasted every year. According to the staff at Recycle Track Systems (RTS), “The world wastes about 2.5 billion tons of food every year.”[1] Would it surprise you to learn that America is the world’s worst offender? The RTS staff reports, “The United States discards more food than any other country in the world: nearly 60 million tons — 120 billion pounds — every year.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 102,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
130 
Let's personalize your content