The idea of connecting Europe and Asia with a uniform freight railway system recently took another step forward. Representatives of 37 countries signed a joint declaration on rail transport a few weeks ago. The declaration “could pave the way towards negotiation of a unified railway law (URL) making rail freight transport first between Asia and…
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Tim Cook doesn’t want Apple to lose billions of dollars in sales, nor does he want rivals to gain market share in the lucrative Chinese consumer electronics market. This irrefutable fact means that Cook, Apple’s CEO, will do all that he can to keep Chinese consumers happy, and if taking the unusual step of publishing…
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Opponents of the SEC's conflict metals rule are citing the opinions of regional experts who say that the SEC rules do not advance Dodd-Frank Section 1502's objective of weakening armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and have caused a de facto embargo of Congolese minerals. Section 1502 was meant to address unrest…
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There's a general uneasiness about the level of security in the supply chain. (Take our new poll to give us a better sense). Some of this uneasiness surrounds the information chain that exists between you and your supply chain partners. (See: Supply Chain’s Information ‘Black Hole’.) Another aspect of the anxiety comes from what we…
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Imagine you're driving through a mountainous region. On your right is deep gorge with a spectacular river at its bottom. On your left is a steep cliff. Risk on the right is minimized because of a sturdy barrier, but on the left, you're never quite sure whether a boulder might get loose and come crashing…
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The scope and quality of data that enterprises collect and access in their supply chains, and how they leverage that data to optimize their supply chains, differs significantly from one enterprise to the other. On a recent day, I had conversations with a few OEMs and reviewed one particular inventory report that were all insightful…
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As we move through time, we are facilitating that movement with the latest technologies. We know the faster we go, the sooner we will get to wherever we are going. And faster travel leaves less time for sightseeing as things whiz by us in a blur. We can say we are traveling to our particular…
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The requirements of the US Securities and Exchange Commissions conflict minerals regulation begin to kick in this year. In this blog, we're giving you an overview of the online resources available where you can learn more about whether and how to comply with the rule. In August 2012, the SEC adopted a regulation that requires…
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Last week we covered two views concerning leadership for working women. (See: How Working Women Cope: To Lean In or Not.) Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer at Facebook, recently published Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead to encourage women to aspire to executive leadership roles. In Part 2 we look at ways…
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When I was writing about the case of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: APPL) losing an appeal in Mexico over the use of the iPhone name against Mexican telecommunications company iFone, I thought that if Apple submitted to paying iFone what it was asking for (the 40 percent of its iPhone’s sales in Mexico), other companies would…
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