The year 2014 will see the debut of the Triple E, first of a series of at least 20 containerships to be operated by Denmark's Maersk Line, each with a capacity of 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Few could have imagined this behemoth at the dawn of containerization in the mid-1950s. (Malcom McLean's Ideal X carried only 58 boxes.) In the ensuing decades, containerships grew steadily in size, as operators sought to squeeze the most out of their investments. When ships became too wide to fit through the Panama Canal, builders doubled down. Between 2008 and 2015, average ship size will have risen from 6,000 TEUs to more than 11,000 TEUs, according to Lars Jensen, chief executive officer and partner with SeaIntel Maritime Analysis. Maersk's Triple Es will dwarf them all.

When organizations turn to the web to offer their suppliers and/or joint venture partners direct access to services and business processes to reduce costs and speed up processing, a virtual organization emerges.

Analyst Insight: The rapid growth of internet retailing is creating serious challenges for supporting retail and wholesale distribution operations. The good news is that growth rates for e-commerce are significantly exceeding expectations for most companies. The bad news is that there are some very stressed distribution operations behind the scenes that are having difficulty keeping up with sales. - Marc Wulfraat, president, MWPVL International Inc.