Supply Chain Analysis & Consulting

Your Next Perfect Employee or Job Is Waiting

January 21, 2015

SupplyChainBrain

SupplyChainBrain and JobsInLogistics have joined forces in 2015 for the specialized purpose of:

China Is Africa's Biggest Trading Partner, But Not Its Largest Investor

January 21, 2015

The Economist

China has become by far Africa's biggest trading partner, exchanging about $160bn worth of goods a year; more than a million Chinese, most of them labourers and traders, have moved to the continent in the past decade. The mutual adoration between governments continues, with ever more African roads and mines built by Chinese firms. But the talk of Africa becoming Chinese - or "China’s second continent", as the title of one American book puts it - is overdone.

If Government Permits It, Cuba Could Be in For Technology Awakening

January 21, 2015

Computerworld

Cuba is on the threshold of getting, potentially, a massive technology upgrade, thanks to a U.S. decision to ease economic sanctions. But this tiny island nation needs a lot of work.

Seven Best Practices to Follow for Smoother Software Implementations

January 20, 2015

Christopher Springer, Director of Operations, QuestaWeb Inc.

Across my career, I've participated in scores of software implementations for companies ranging from SMBs to industry giants. Some have gone exceptionally well, while others have encountered delays. Each effort has served as a learning experience, offering insights and lessons learned about the characteristics "smooth" projects share – and the pitfalls to avoid.

How to Capture New 'Value' Segment in Medical Devices

January 19, 2015

McKinsey

The growing demand for products that are "good enough" and competitively priced has pushed medical-product manufacturers to develop strategies to attract and retain this new segment of customers.

More Retail Executives Ask How They Can Respond to Cyber Breaches

January 19, 2015

FierceRetailIT

A cyber crime occurs every 18 seconds, but few companies are developing proactive plans to deal with a security event before it happens. Involving executives, including a company's board of directors, is imperative for retailers to mitigate the damage from a breach.

Are Chinese Companies Beginning to Lose Some of Their Global Clout?

January 16, 2015

BCG Perspectives

Ever since Chinese companies began going global in force a couple of decades ago, their impact on worldwide business has been hard to overstate. By combining low cost with massive scale, and by taking full advantage of a huge domestic market, companies based in China have disrupted and transformed industries from telecommunications equipment to solar panels. Will that leadership continue?

Financial Literacy, Diplomacy, Patience Are Keys to Making Supply Chain Leaders Effective

January 16, 2015

Logistics Viewpoints

The key attributes for supply chain leadership are patience, diplomacy and financial literacy. And this is a very rare combination of skills.

EU-Canada Free Trade Agreement Expected to Boost Already-Huge Trade Volume Between the Partners

January 16, 2015

BIFA

Trade between the European Union and Canada is already very strong – and growth is expected to continue as a result of an historic new trade agreement now being finalized in Ottawa, according to the British International Freight Association. The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is said to be Canada’s most ambitious trade initiative, broader in scope and deeper in ambition than the North American Free Trade Agreement.