If ever there was a year for financial and revenue management to come to the fore, then 2009 is that year. It's a year which will witness a vacillating, near schizophrenic, model of cost containment and revenue growth, driven by tentativeness, innovation and acquisition.

The green imperative is expanding into virtually all walks of life and all facets of the economy. Demonstrating green credentials is increasingly a minimal stakeholder expectation and business risk management factor, and is shifting from an order-winning to an order-qualifying attribute. Swallow that carbon pill! A whole swath of additional environmental expectations may well be just around the corner, as well as a whole new way of looking at "green" and the environment.

Despite an ongoing freight recession in 2008, third-party logistics service provider revenues grew an estimated 5.5 percent to $128.7bn.