Regional parcel carriers can fill an important market niche for many shippers, says Mark Magill, director of business development at OnTrac. By specializing in next-day deliveries within specific and often large geographic regions, these carriers can offer greater flexibility, faster transit and lower rates, he says.

The number one imperative for North American shippers continues to be cost reduction and cost containment, which means that logistics providers must analyze and scrutinize operations more diligently than ever in order to find such opportunities, says Jeremy Haycock, president of Damco North America.

Managing the risks imposed by suppliers and third-party service providers has become increasingly difficult and expensive. At the same time, the risks imposed by these relationships keep on getting larger and more costly. Yet procurement and risk personnel are expected to do more with less.

The term demand driven has become vogue again, but what does it really mean? And, should it be taken one step further to orchestrate bidirectionally market-to-market in market-driven value networks? Or will companies stumble on the path by mistakenly implementing supply-centric processes and calling them demand-driven initiatives?

Benoit Reinards of Flanders Investment and Trade explains why global retailers like Nike have made Flanders their hub for distribution throughout Europe and beyond.

Organic products were a luxury with little market to speak of when Ibrahim Abouleish founded Sekem, Egypt's first organic farm, in Cairo in 1977. The years Sekem spent honing sustainable cultivation practices paid off, though, in 1990, when it moved into growing organic cotton. Organic produce was entering mainstream Western stores then, and worldwide demand for all things organic began to surge.