The Shipping Point: The Rise of China and the Future of Retail Supply Chain Management

FOREWORD

LEADERSHIP & SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

JOHN PATTULLO

It 's been said that in business everything depends on leadership. The recent financial crisis has had a profound impact on the world we live in, and just as poor financial leadership helped create the crisis, transformational leadership, will surely help steer us out.

From a leadership perspective, times of turmoil often generate periods of intense focus, which if properly harnessed, can generate breakthrough innovation. Whether it's the development of radically more effective operations, or the invention of step change technology, innovation is often the byproduct of adversity. Leaders, who recognize crisis as a time of opportunity, can better anticipate the world that will emerge, and set a course for sustainable competitive advantage.

Shipping Point: “Inventory can be managed . . . people must be led.”

As a Scot, I am proud of the way that a small and poor nation has made an unusually significant contribution to global innovation. In my early school days, we were taught about Scottish technical breakthroughs from inventors such as James Watt, Lord Kelvin, Alexander Fleming and Alexander Graham Bell. These achievements were often driven by harsh economic necessity.

As chief executive officer of CEVA Logistics, I have seen the huge potential that is unleashed when talented people are empowered to lead, and to innovate. For all the technological advancement that has occurred in logistics over the last decade, supply ...