E-commerce offers artisans an opportunity to capture international markets. But how can they become an even bigger part of global trade?
What comes to mind when you think of handmade goods? Perhaps you remember a trinket you bought during a trip to the beach, a piece of furniture made of indigenous materials or traditional art from a luxury store. These days, artisanal is its own category. The artisan economy has boosted trades like woodworking and weaving, […]
Pitting economic concerns against environmental challenges is hardly a zero-sum game.
Some 90 percent of the world’s goods are transported by sea. Ships also account for about 3 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Furthermore, this GHG figure could grow by a minimum of 50 percent and perhaps as much as 250 percent by 2050 if no action is taken to curb emission levels. Projected […]
The private sector can leverage its influence and reach to highlight the unmet needs for women across supply chains.
As Melinda Gates put it in a speech at the 2016 Women Deliver conference: “We can’t close the gender gap without first closing the data gap.” Throughout history, women have often been uncounted and therefore invisible, and increasingly, the international community is taking notice. Organizations, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the OECD, UN Women, Women Deliver and the World Bank, have […]
Looking for your next great read? We've got a few (dozen) suggestions for you.
Whether your weeks ahead contain travel, vacations or just longer and lazier days than usual, our list of recommendations from TED speakers has books for all moods, activities and tastes. When you want to understand why we humans do what we do 1. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely (TED Talk: Our […]
Innovation is a company-wide endeavor, supported from top to bottom by systems, structures and a culture that nurtures transformative ideas.
Andrew Corbett
| Harvard Business Review
The Post-it note. Facebook’s “like” button. The Sony PlayStation. These products are all held up as legendary examples of the power of intrapreneurship – entrepreneurial creativity and innovation within large, established organizations. Since the term was coined in the 1980s, intrapreneurship has been sold to companies as a catchall solution for fostering innovation. It’s been promoted […]
Crafting meaningful narratives that reshape the way we think, feel and act is the utmost strategic leadership challenge.
Tomas Casas Klett
| University of St. Gallen
Sebastian Buckup
| World Economic Forum
When Jack Ma, China’s iconic business leader and founder of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, spoke at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in 2017, the corridors were packed with ministers, business leaders and journalists eager to hear from him. How would he evaluate the 2016 U.S. election results and President-elect Donald Trump, whom he had […]
This Toronto Uber driver has maintained a 4.99 rating after driving nearly 5,000 passengers. When I climbed into his car, I found out why.
Neil Pasricha
| Fast Company
I’ve probably taken an Uber two or three times a day for the past couple years. And every time I idly check the driver’s rating and number of rides. I’ve found even pretty high marks usually mean good but not great service. 4.5? Get ready for loud GPS directions. 4.7? Messy trunk with no suitcase […]
Making sure the learning environment in your business never goes stagnant.
Workplace learning isn’t a one-time event that you can launch and then move on to other things. Like most worthwhile initiatives, it requires ongoing care and maintenance if it’s going to provide lasting value. As U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue said in his 2018 State of American Business address: “We need […]
The first step in making cancer a manageable condition is translating biological information into usable data.
As a former trauma coordinator for Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, I know what it’s like to be on the front lines of patient care. It was perhaps most personal when my cousin was diagnosed with bone cancer. As a patient in the hospital in which I worked, I watched as doctors tried everything they knew […]
How artificial intelligence will revolutionize customer engagement.
Andrew Busby
| Retail Reflections
Siri, what’s the weather like in New York this week? Alexa, play playlist, jazz classics, in the living room. Just a few years ago, you would have wondered what on earth I was talking about with these two statements. However, now you’re likely very familiar with this type of conversation. Artificial intelligence (AI) has in […]
How a culture of collaboration and volunteerism is driving a new – and more effective – approach to sustainability.
For nearly two years, UPS and the drone maker, Zipline, have collaborated on roughly 150 deliveries per day of life-saving blood to 21 transfusing facilities located in the western half of Rwanda. More recently, the campaign has expanded to deliver basic medications, vaccines and medical supplies to all 12 million people across Rwanda. To launch […]
This company is finding new, fast ways to spot hidden flaws in 3D-printed parts – with technology seamlessly embedded in assembly lines.
Tomas Kellner
| GE Reports
The land that is now the state of Ohio spent millions of years beneath a sea teeming with prehistoric aquatic life, making it fertile ground for today’s fossil hunters. One particularly rich area is a limestone and shale hillock just outside Cincinnati called Trammel Fossil Park. Every day, amateur archaeologists equipped with hammers and buckets […]
Today’s supply chains are so complex that even the summer doesn’t offer a break from risk and uncertainty.
Kelly Barner
| Buyers Meeting Point
As we enter the summer months, professionals all over the globe start to prepare for one of the slowest times of year. Some people take extended, multi-week vacations or sabbaticals while others work shorter days or leave early on Fridays. This personal downshift might make it easy to assume that our supply chains are also […]
Businesses can help grow African economies, create more job opportunities and export more products to the continent’s markets.
As Vice Chair of the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA), I am pleased to be co-leading the private sector contingent of a U.S. Department of Commerce delegation to Africa to learn about and discover new opportunities for U.S. businesses to partner, invest and grow across the continent. Led by the Secretary […]
Here are four ways for Mexican suppliers to keep their current customers while attracting new ones.
Mexico might not be the first country that comes to mind when one thinks about industrial buyers and global trade, but smart manufacturers realize e-commerce is creating plenty of opportunity in one of the world’s largest exporting countries. Roughly 95 percent of Mexican buyers have purchased products directly from manufacturers – up from 74 percent […]
With our allies, we’ll go far in ensuring equality for all.
Beck Bailey
| HRC Foundation
Looking back over the past two decades, America’s workplaces have become decidedly more inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) employees. The demand for an engaged, productive and talented workforce requires that companies attract and retain workers across the broad spectrum of diversity. Today, a company cannot afford to leave a talented worker […]
From infrastructure investments to transparent supply chains, these innovations on the horizon could benefit us all.
Jahda Swanborough
| World Economic Forum
Sometimes the news about our environment can feel a little monotonous. We read the same old headlines about how important the environment is, how the situation is getting worse and how we (whoever that is) need to do something about it. In that spirit, here are six big ideas that could create a more sustainable […]
For Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, high-end products need not come with a high carbon count.
Christian Galichon
| Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton
The issues of urban access, congestion and pollution affect us all – even retail luxury brands. Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), for example, is changing its business model to meet two of the 21st century’s greatest challenges: e-commerce and urbanization. Christian Galichon, LVMH Sourcing’s director of purchasing coordination, thinks about these logistics conundrums every day. […]
Major European cities have become a testing ground for the next phase of city delivery.
UPS Chief Information and Engineering Officer Juan Perez talked Monday about the future of our network – how we are integrating technology to connect the facilities, fleet, drivers and information systems fueling a more sustainable global network. From disrupting our industry – and ourselves – with our new technologies to overhauling our approach to city […]
Take a closer look at how UPS is bringing the global smart logistics network to life.
In 2017, UPS aligned its technology and engineering functions into one organization and named Juan Perez its Chief Information and Engineering Officer. Perez leads a team of UPS engineers and IT professionals who are laser-focused on building the company’s smart logistics network of the future. Read his thoughts below on how innovation and sustainability became […]
The journey to purpose is not a tactic. If not authentic, customers will see right through your feel-good message.
Mark Bonchek
| Harvard Business Review
Cara France
| Harvard Business Review
Six years ago, Harvard’s Michael Porter and FSG’s Mark Kramer made the bold statement that shared value – the idea that the purpose of a company is to achieve both shareholder profit and social purpose – would “reinvent capitalism.” They encouraged companies to go beyond corporate social responsibility and integrate social impact into their competitive strategy. Since […]
Leaders in all walks of life would be wise to adopt a philosophy of radical inclusion.
Ori Brafman
| University of California Berkeley
Retired Gen. Martin Dempsey, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Berkeley professor Ori Brafman come from very different backgrounds. One is a 41-year veteran of the U.S. military, the other a 41-year-old liberal academic. But they share a common passion: helping people develop new forms of leadership for the modern age. In […]
How innovators, investors, managers and policymakers can come together to make change.
Michael Lenox
| Fast Company
Aaron Chatterji
| Fast Company
Can business save the Earth? The answer depends on a broad system of forces – forces that generate new inventions, successfully commercialize new products out of these inventions, provide capital to support commercialization and scaling and provide value to a wide number of customers. Each of these forces is driven by the idiosyncratic ingenuity and […]
The future of the physical store isn’t about purchases. It’s about events, experiences and brand associations.
Claire McCamley
| University of Huddersfield
Rarely a week goes by without news of a household high street name shutting up shop or closing stores. The rise of online shopping, or e-commerce, is widely blamed for the demise of traditional retail. Yet people are spending more money than ever – just not on the high street. In many ways, the offering […]
Additive manufacturing will forever shift the concept of supply and demand, moving businesses and consumers from a mindset of “best fit” to “my fit.”
Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, allows us to imagine a world where we can make whatever we want whenever we want it. Long-hyped but not yet fully realized, the technology has the power to discard the old model of production, ushering in a new age of personalization that turns the notion of supply and demand […]
Ants – yes, ants – can teach us a thing or two about how blockchain could revolutionize supply chains.
Larry Gee
| San Jose State University
In early 2013, a number of grocery stores in the UK were hit with a major incident when horse meat was found in beef burgers. To compound the problem, many of the grocery chains could not instantly point to the exact source but had to launch lengthy investigations to track back through processing plants and […]
Public and private stakeholders must work together to establish a technology framework that unleashes global trade's potential.
Ziyang Fan
| World Economic Forum
International trade has dominated the global headlines recently. Much of the discussions have been focused on the threat of a trade war, the tit-for-tat tariffs and the health of the global trade order. While extremely important, these conversations are missing a brighter side of international trade – how innovative technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution […]
With the right approach, our biggest critics can become our greatest champions.
Tasha Eurich
| Harvard Business Review
Feedback, as they say, is a gift. Negative feedback, in particular, can be valuable because it allows us to monitor our performance and alerts us to important changes we need to make. But processing and acting on negative feedback is not always easy, and there’s comparatively little guidance on how to navigate the hard feedback […]
A healthcare product’s journey is equally as important as its destination.
Each year, Global Business Reports publishes its report on the state of the biopharmaceutical industry based on interviews with more than 100 authoritative thought leaders. These include industry associations, logistics experts, academic institutions, research organizations, consultants and analysts. As part of the report, UPS’s Dirk van Peteghem shared his insights on supply chain challenges and […]
