For the first time in more than 50 years, the skies over Cuba are opening up to scheduled service from the United States. The two countries signed a deal, officially allowing flights between their borders.

If there had been any doubt as to how quickly the global economic landscape - and the market perceptions of it - can change, it would have been erased by events during August and September 2015. Concerns about the Chinese economy and fretting over the next move by the U.S. Federal Reserve triggered massive global market volatility in stocks, commodity prices, and exchange rates. And that turmoil underscored a critical imperative: leaders of companies operating around the world need to move beyond old views and conventional wisdom as they set global strategies.

Ocean freight rates for cargo moving under contracts on the major East-West routes have seen a sharp reduction since the beginning of the year, according to Drewry's Benchmarking Club, a closed user group of multinational retailers and manufacturers who closely monitor their contract freight rates.