A long, long time ago, in a land not so far, far away, a world existed where logistics was linear: Pangaea. On this supercontinent, moving products from China to the United States, door to door, was simple. The goods would move over the road, heading southwest from lands where people spoke Chinese and stopped when people spoke American.
With $12bn in brand revenue, Ralph Lauren was facing the challenge of coping with rapid growth, both at the wholesale and retail levels. Complicating matters were the apparel leader's broadly diverse customer base, geographic coverage and product array.