Innovation of the Year: Disruptive technology products must get to market faster than ever, and a product innovation center at Flextronics reconfigures the supply chain to do just that. Runner-up: Sears Holdings Corp. Finalists: Intel, Fast Logistics, Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council

Getting your finished goods to customers damage-free is key, but it never hurts the bottom line to do that cost effectively and in an environmentally friendly manner. Intel accomplished all of that by changing how it packaged its products.

The shift to online retailing over the last five years finally caught up to and overran U.S.-wide delivery capacity during last year's holiday season. According to Forrester Research, online retail sales will grow by an additional 60 percent over the next five years. This kind of sea change has stretched the ability of physical networks to keep up and the shortage of drivers had further exacerbated this situation. Instead, technology has become more important to meeting retailers' holiday delivery challenges by helping to improve the productivity of existing resources and offer a greater array of delivery services being demanded by consumers.