Those idle cranes in the Port of Oakland's Outer Harbor stand as mute testimony to the changes that are roiling container ports and terminals today.

When it comes to vetting suppliers, playing by the numbers might well be the best way to go.

Halal and vegan labels are set to grow by a compound annual rate of over 5 percent between 2015 and 2020, translating into $13bn and 708 million additional sales, respectively, according to Euromonitor International, which has just launched its Ethical Labels database.

It's human nature to look for certainty. We believe that if we can predict the future with perfect certainty, then we will react and prepare accordingly. As such, we tend to put all our planning effort into making better predictions. The problem is that after we invest considerable effort predicting one aspect of a future event, lots of uncertainty remains.