Innovation is required if the U.S. is to regain the level of productivity that it enjoyed toward the end of the 19th Century through the mid-20th Century. However, innovation by itself is not enough. Just as our parents and grandparents adopted electricity, the automobile, credit cards and airplanes in the period from 1870-1950, businesses and organizations of the 21st Century must embrace change.
This past month, non-asset-based third-party logistics companies took a big leap forward in their fight to join the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), one of our nation's leading supply chain security programs. The Department of Homeland Security approved port security legislation that includes creating a pilot program for non-asset-based 3PLs to participate in C-TPAT. The pilot program will give entry to C-TPAT to five 3PLs for one year.
Before Jeff Piccolomini joined Henkel Corp. in 1997, he was dubious about corporate efforts to address environmental concerns - a "typical skeptical CFO," as he puts it. A CPA by training and a longtime finance executive, Piccolomini wasn't accustomed to dealing with the kind of green goals that the German-owned personal-care company had set in motion, such as reducing carbon emissions.