Prime Advantage, a buying consortium for mid-sized manufacturers, announced the findings of its 10th semi-annual Group Outlook Survey, revealing financial projections and top concerns of its member companies for the second half of 2012. The majority of surveyed manufacturers report healthy revenue projections, strong hiring and capital spending plans. However, for a small portion of respondents these plans may see delays due to uncertainty about the results of the federal elections.

Ever since Frederick Taylor's early writing on industrial efficiency - followed by the work of Peter Drucker, Alfred Chandler, and others - the modern Western corporation has been managed according to a tightly defined set of rules and norms. A clear corporate strategy calls for earning at least the cost of capital, growing at a higher rate than the overall market, and managing the portfolio to a "logic" - periodically pruning poorly performing businesses. And with Wall Street analysts ready to applaud CEOs for making their numbers or pulverize them for a one-cent per share miss, there is often little opportunity to change course.

Drewry Maritime Research's latest Container Leasing Industry report indicates that the rental container fleet grew by 10.6 percent during 2011, improving on the 9 percent returned in 2010 and giving a compounded rate of 9.5 percent for the two years combined. Up to 9.5 percent is also being forecasted for 2012, as lease demand is again holding up well.

If a retailer really wants to compete with Amazon and the changing realities of today's retail environment, it needs to kill the IT budget, disband the IT Steering Committee and throw away the IT project list. It's time for IT to be moved out from under the CFO's reigns. It's time to let go of the past and start thinking about IT as a business enabler, unleashing its full potential to the organization.

Mike Jones, president of St. Onge Co., explains the value of total landed cost modeling, and how it's affecting decisions to offshore manufacturing activities.

Remember when Motorola ruled the mobile phone business worldwide? And then Nokia did? And then BlackBerry did? And now none of them do? What happened?

Eight corporate teams that demonstrated how their supply chain practices reduced costs, streamlined processes, saved energy, and improved operating efficiencies are finalists in the eighth annual Supply Chain Innovation Award competition presented by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and SupplyChainBrain.

Retailers wrestling with how far they can legally go with tracking shoppers' movements within their stores and in neighborhoods near their stores have been given an unexpected green light from a federal appeals court.

Stanford University's Graduate School of Business will host a one-day conference on socially and environmentally responsible supply chains. Entitled "Shared Value and Supply Chains - Strategies for Success," the event will take place on Oct. 10, 2012 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:20 p.m., and be followed by a networking reception.