Blogs

Blogs

unintended side effects

Blogs, Trends

Pay for your own butler!

After a huge peak in 2020, online retail’s share of total retail sales seems to have stagnated at around 13-15% in the major European countries and the USA. It is a similar picture for online …

anthill

Blogs, Trends

It’s the bullwhip, stupid!

In August, China published disappointing trade figures showing that both imports and exports had fallen more sharply than economists had expected in the month of July. However, these figures came as absolutely no surprise to …

anthill

Sustainability, Blogs, Trends

The costs of Scope 3

“Who’s going to pay for decarbonizing the supply chain?” was the title of a recent article on a supply chain website written by an experienced US journalist (and how very American of him to immediately …

anthill

Blogs, Trends

Strategic trends

Many companies around the world are currently in the midst of a strategic repositioning. The choices they make will determine whether they survive the coming decade of innovations, uncertainties and changes, or will be obliterated …

anthill

Blogs, Trends

AI in fulfilment

According to economists at banking giant Goldman Sachs, ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots will put 300 million jobs at risk worldwide. 18% of all full-time jobs could end up being automated – and …

unintended side effects

Blogs, Trends

One supplier or several?

Many supply chain executives have been able to prove their worth since the early 2020s, during disruptions including factory shutdowns in China, the obstruction of the Suez Canal, the shift to online shopping (and back …

unintended side effects

Blogs, Trends

The growing battle for space in logistics

The Dutch province of North Brabant recently decided to temporarily suspend the construction of new large-scale distribution centres in most of its locations, and dozens of counties have imposed similar moratoriums in the USA. In …

anthill

Blogs, Trends

River of demand

We’re not living in an era of change, but in a change of era. This has been the firmly held belief of Jan Rotmans, Professor of Transition Studies and Sustainability at Erasmus University Rotterdam, for …

anthill

Blogs, Trends

Silicon-sur-Seine

Does investing in tech start-ups have a future right now? Alarm bells are ringing in the US financial media following a 25% drop in investment in Silicon Valley to US$7.2 billion in the last quarter …

unintended side effects

Blogs, Software, Trends

The key to success lies in operations

In the space of one week, Amazon and Microsoft announced layoffs affecting 20,000 people. This sent shockwaves in Seattle, a city that has been living in a tech bubble for the past decade or so. …