Born two or three years after the invention of the World Wide Web, and just 12 or 13 years old when the invention of the smartphone changed everything, the latest cohort of millennials just graduated from college last spring. Now they are entering the workforce, where they will be joining their "digital native" predecessors, who already make up more than half of the workforce. And they are even more immersed in the technology and culture of the internet than their forerunners were.

The recall of a single food ingredient can have massive implications for manufacturers and retailers, ranging over multiple supply chains.

Amazon has about 30,000 Kiva robots scuttling about its warehouses across the globe. Dave Clark, the retailer's senior vice president of worldwide operations and customer service, estimated the addition of the bots reduced operating expenses by about 20 percent.