Until 2001, the world of supply chain management, especially in retail, had been driven by what we call the "push system," a very linear and slow-to-move-forward process. This approach, historically in retail, has been driven by an antiquated "middleman & merchandising" model involving "The Show", followed by design, material planning, production, then pushing product to stores, in anticipation of a "one season" market. A process fraught with risk to the bottom line. -Gregory L. Schlegel, Founder, The Supply Chain Risk Management Consortium, Executive-in-Residence, Center for Supply Chain Research, Lehigh University

Some might call renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement a solution in search of a problem. Other might say it’s a necessary updating of the 23-year-old pact. One Canadian attorney specializing in international trade law calls it "a mess."

Forget about trying to stop ransomware from infecting your computers. It’s a losing battle.

Over the past decade, businesses have accumulated a sea of data on their operations, customers and business practices. Businesses have attempted to consume this data to drive effective business solutions with limited success. We are at the precipice where solutions seamlessly consume traditional data and merge it with unstructured data to cohesively drive business planning and execution. -M. Scott Moon, Principal, Tompkins International

Picking the right metrics for your supplier relationship should not be about simply buying into the latest benchmarking data. Rather, it should be about aligning the right metrics for the purpose. For quality metrics, pick what is the "best fit," not the "best practice." This is especially important for strategic, long-term supply chain relationships. -Kate Vitasek, faculty member, University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business Administration; author of six books on the Vested business model; and Karl Manrodt, Professor of Logistics at Georgia College. He is the co-author of seven books and numerous academic articles.