COMMERCIAL FREIGHT - Three future models are emerging in commercial freight: Freight brokering enables shippers and carriers to connect on-demand to ship specific loads. Freight brokers add value by acting as a demand/ supply aggregator, creating transparency in load management, and reducing friction for shippers and carriers. Existing players in...

Setting different prices for the same product is a practice as old as the retail trade:  we see this every day, whether through price reductions for youths, air ticket prices varying according to the dates they are booked, or prices differentiating depending on the store location. These practices of "price...

Today’s leading businesses are facing many near-term challenges in an uncertain economic and political environment. More than ever, though, they also need to focus on the long term, because the keys to success in the next decade will be different from today’s. Business leaders need to reinvent their companies for...

EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC :  Environmental risks are the leading concerns for doing business across East Asia and the Pacific, with “natural catastrophes” ranking first and “extreme weather events” ranking fifth. The concerns about “natural catastrophes” were heavily driven by responses from Japan and New Zealand, where they ranked...

Continued uncertainty about Brexit has led many UK-based businesses to activate their contingency plans.  Companies have decided to move all, or part, of their operations to EU member-states in order to continue to serve their customers in the single market. Precautionary measures include setting up EU offices alongside their UK...

The recent buzz around “social commerce,” a concept that emerged from the intersection of social media and e-commerce, is already changing the way people shop ... Merchants investing most of their time studying how to do business on the leading electronic commerce platforms in Asia may soon find themselves falling...

Bioplastics for a Circular Economy: In 2014 alone, industry generated 311 million metric tons of plastics, an amount expected to triple by 2050.Yet less than 15% of it is recycled. Biodegradable plastics can ease this problem, contributing to the goal of a “circular” plastic economy in which plastics derive from...

> With the words of Mr. Koji Tomita ( Ambassador, Representative of the Government of Japan for the G20 Summit). > in his publication “On the upcoming Osaka G20 Summit.” > for the Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies.  Japan has assumed the G20 presidency for the first time...