Next Wave For Retail

The next wave for the retail marketplace is the convergence of the internal business networks that include the supply chain partners and the external social network that includes consumers and the variety of social network sites and connections. The consumer is driving this convergence through their use of network services and connectivity as they are building their own network of connections for services and goods along with their connections. The objective for this consumer network services convergence is to connect in their own personal network both retailers and their extended supply chain partners such as transportations services and manufacturers to build a cohesive and service based network to support their own needs. This extended consumer network of services and computing capabilities, especially mobile capabilities, have given the consumer the tools to build their own social commerce network. Many service providers have recognized this and have developed new services that allow the consumer to create their own personalized shopping and purchasing capabilities. Considering the growth and value to the consumer of these social commerce network services I really do not see this trend slowing are expect quite the opposite.

There are two things bringing this together;
- The first is the computing and network capabilities,
- The second is new service providers taking advantage of these changes.

A big part of this next wave is how retailers and service providers utilize localized and personalized services in their practices. These services will provide the secret sauce that will fuel the next wave of retail. This has been growing for a while now through experimentation from both consumer experimentation and service providers. You can also see that some retailers have embraced the wave and are working towards developing the market in this direction.

I see the key aspect to the next wave as the localization of services and especially as it relates to interactions with consumers which in turn will drive the personalization that can grow as a result of the localization. Consumers have been using social networks and technologies for a while now to develop their own virtual shopping practices and even virtual shopping malls of their favorite retailers. They are using the services that are available from mobile app developers and now Google has jumped into the localization with both feet to provide consumer capabilities to search and shop based on their current location and even their destination location.

The Google developments and offerings they are providing through Maps alone will drive the localization of eCommerce to new levels. Retailers, restaurants and entertainment are offered and consumers are providing the personalized evaluations, ratings and recommendations on goods and services. Consumers are already tapping into these services in their shopping and travel decisions and retailers must recognize this and then take actions to incorporate the capabilities into their plans, services and offerings. Google is commercializing these services to expand their apps and services further into the lives of consumers and retailers and other service providers have a great reason to embrace these capabilities in their offerings to support their own sales and services.

Fortunately for retailers and service providers Google, for one, is providing the framework for localization that can be utilized by retailers and they are happy to provide this framework for others because it extends the Google brand and the data Google is able to obtain from this framework. This is an important benefit that should also push retailers into this next wave; the amount of customer data available as a result of this localization and personalization can be immensely valuable to retailers.

What are your observations and experience in this social commerce network? Are you seeing any impact or changes to consumer demands that can be related to these changes?

Tom Brouillette

Contact: Tom.brouillette@gmail.com

Thank you for reading my post on Linkedin in addition, Here at my blog I regularly write about management and -technology trends. To read my future posts on LinkedIn click 'Follow'

Digital Transformation As A Realization

 

Digital Transformation As A Realization

 

In reflection, we have been going through digital transformation since the 19th century and we have reached a point now where technology and technology tools have reached a point where we can begin to realize our dreams.  Science fiction writers have been discussing digital transformation forever and, in fact, we are now entering another significant time of digital realization because the technology has reached a point where the dreams of transformation can be realized.  These capabilities are now creating the next significant disruption that is driving new realization along with new waves of disruptions.  These new waves of disruption are being driven in large part by the dramatic increase in consumer acceptance, and embrace, of digital capabilities that has been driven by the necessary responses to the pandemic.

To paraphrase Arthur C. Clark - technology capabilities look very much like magic when initially introduced.  Consumers have embraced and are now weaving the technology ‘magic’ into their daily lives in ways and capabilities they would only have dreamed even 5 years ago!  These tools and capabilities are bringing new waves of disruption to the market as consumers and companies both experiment.  The greatest factor and force driving disruption now is not really the technology, it's the way that consumers use the technology combined with an impatience that will not wait for the market to catch up.  This is where the winners in the market will shine with a strategy of resilience and flexibility to allow them to sense and respond quickly to the continuing waves of disruption.

I see a key tool and capability that will allow companies to respond to the disruption is the tools and framework of process automation that will allow these companies to put together new processes across legacy applications to test the response.  This provides a significant value to these companies, the ability to ‘try before you buy’ the functionality in a pilot mode.  This strategy allows the company to iteratively develop and validate the process and functionality quickly without wholesale disruption in the legacy business applications.  The process automation concept, and especially the ability to automate across legacy applications, has been around for years. Now the tools and capabilities to meet the rapidly changing demands are coming together through a number of new and more robust RPA tool sets that allow organizations to react to the waves of disruption.

I would argue that legacy ERP applications do not require wholesale replacement and that the new crop of RPA tools can be utilized to modernize the legacy ERP through efficient integration with new tools. The enterprise financial requirements remain through the waves of disruptions and the legacy ERP implemented has been proven to support the financial business so this allows the enterprise to focus on response to the disruption rather than the herculean effort to replace the ERP.  These times of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) require tools that support the necessary flexibility and resilience to react effectively to the disruption and RPA tools provide the flexibility necessary to  

respond efficiently to the disruption.

Tom Brouillette

Contact: tbrouillette@ncspartners.com

@ncspartners

Thank you for reading my post on Linkedin in addition,  Here at my blog I regularly write about management and -technology trends.  To read my future posts on LinkedIn click 'Follow'

Tom Brouillette discusses supply chain trends and provides strategic business & technology advice to his followers and companies.

Transition Legacy Framework to Digital Enablement

There has been much talk about ‘getting back to normal’ and ‘new normal’ that I have been thinking quite a bit about because of the continued cycles of lockdowns and now the latest pandemic surge. These disruptions on personal lives are also impacting the business world from a loss of jobs and business closing to the continued work from home requirements. It is past that time now to accept the new reality (I refuse to call it ‘new normal’!), if you haven’t already and take the appropriate steps to live in this new reality. We are already seeing the results of change and we really need to focus now on developing and executing a digital enablement strategy. The pandemic has driven change due to health and safety concerns and these changes themselve are driving the digital transformation. This transformation is beginning to increase in velocity as consumers accept and become accustomed to the new reality and we will never go back.


Any business that directly interacts with the consumer, retail - services, restaurants, for instance, have borne the brunt of the pandemic disruptions to the point of breaking and many have been pushed past that point to failure. Consumers have changed the retail and services markets forever through digital interactions that are redefining the consumer relationship. The changes to the market are not really new, but simply and more accurately, sped up dramatically in a natural progression that has been pushed to the limit by the pandemic. The change here is the ability of consumers to shop, and more importantly, to obtain goods and services without contact, whether eCommerce and delivered to their home or via curb-side pick-up.


Retailers must now take a multi-prong approach to their digital enablement activities; they must focus on a strategy that first defines and then delivers the digital enablement while they also focus on immediate response to the waves of disruption driven in many cases from the COVID-19 transition support requirements. This is difficult for all businesses and especially difficult for the legacy retailer that was already struggling with digital enablement before the pandemic. The change and disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed digital enablement past the tipping point though and this has now suddenly become a key to survival rather than a progressive transition. Now that this genie is out of the bottle there is no going back. It is now a matter of great urgency to define and implement a digital enablement strategy.


This will be an overwhelming task if the legacy retailers treat this as ‘business as usual’ because there just is no time for them to slow-walk the changes through the organization. If the legacy retailers treat this time of disruption the same as other changes in the market they will be left in the ditch, smouldering. This requires quick actions to move forward without an idea of the end result. At this point we don’t have any idea what the end will look like because the end is being defined and redefined through waves of disruption.


These retailers must implement a strategy of continuous change. They must build a flexible framework that is able to sense and then respond to the disruption. This will require a strategy of digital enablement to be able to sense the disruption and quickly respond. Unfortunately these same legacy retailers are also struggling with labeling applications and cumbersome integration between internal applications and their external partners. The first order of business is to build a flexible framework that will support the velocity of change, while also responding to disruption.


In addition to the above, these legacy retailers do not have the time to figure this out, they must act quickly. Fortunately there are two opportunities for retailers to incorporate in order to survive; consultant organizations to help with the strategy implementation and RPA tools to help bridge the digital enablement between legacy applications and partners. The first step is recognition and the support of senior leadership. This is a huge undertaking and requires a great deal of support from many different areas to succeed and this will require support over time to fail and correct direction. Without full throated support from senior leadership this will only end in failure.


Tom Brouillette

Contact: tbrouillette@ncspartners.com

@ncspartners


Thank you for reading my post on Linkedin in addition, Here at my blog I regularly write about management and technology trends. To read my future posts on LinkedIn click 'Follow'


Tom Brouillette discusses supply chain trends and provides strategic business & technology advice to his followers and companies.

Partner To Develop Digital Enablement Strategy

 

 

The COVID-19 pandemic disruption created an urgency in reacting and redefining the global supply chain in reaction to the consumer market upheaval. The initial pandemic disruption set off waves of related disruptions in such a short period of time that companies and organizations are overwhelmed because they cannot wait until the dust settles to address the next event. We have truly entered into a time of severe VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) across the marketplace and the supply chain is in the eye of this storm providing the key capabilities to respond. Now, perhaps more than ever, the response depends on partnerships across the extended supply chain to effectively sense and respond to the disruptions.

We must now assume that the cycles of disruption have reached a point where this time of severe VUCA will be the norm for the foreseeable future. As such, we must develop a strategy and the capabilities that help partner organizations in the extended supply chain to sense the disruption early and respond to the disruption quickly and effectively in a manner that can be leveraged for the response to the next wave of disruption. These demands require expertise in the broad market along with deep specific expertise of partners to first navigate the events and then develop a strategy to utilize the network capabilities to respond. Quick response requirements do not allow for delay hoping the disruption will disappear. We should have learned by now that it requires a response that is based on a market impact and expertise in quick identification of an appropriate response.

This is where technology and specifically a robust digital enablement / transformation strategy comes into play. The velocity of the market coupled with disrupting forces make it almost impossible for humans to sense the disruption in time to respond and limit the impact and prepare for the potential next disruption. Technology that senses the changes in the market and then identifies potential results and impact is critical to the success of a business. Considering the extended supply chain as an example, there is just too many moving parts and participants in the equation for any one partner to hope to identify and implement a response. Success requires developing a partner network to be able to respond to the waves of disruption effectively. Further success requires developing a market partner strategy that informs and enables each individual partner strategy.

This new model requires a strategy that is at once flexible and also embraces extended partnerships to enable the response to disruption in a way that supports the business strategy. Organizations must partner with an expert(s) to help develop this strategy in order to meet the time constraints. You cannot wait for the current VUCA environment to settle and return to business as usual. We need to accept the fact now that business as usual is a VUCA state that requires organizations and partners to ‘walk and chew gum at the same time’. This requires the input and direction from an expert with the vision and the experience and perhaps most importantly the network of partners and contacts that can help in developing this strategy.



Tom Brouillette

Contact: tbrouillette@ncspartners.com

@ncspartners


Thank you for reading my post on Linkedin in addition, Here at my blog I regularly write about management and technology trends. To read my future posts on LinkedIn click 'Follow'


Tom Brouillette discusses supply chain trends and provides strategic business & technology advice to his followers and companies.

Business Continuity In Extreme Disruption

The coronavirus pandemic is another Black Swan event that highlights the importance of a robust and flexible business continuity plan that utilizes big data analytics technology and artificial intelligence to support a reactive and flexible framework rather than a structured process of recovery. We see a discontinuous river of disruptive events that are impacting the supply chain along with businesses and customers and the reactions to these events must be swift in order to limit the impact. The world will not slow down and in fact will only speed up in the types of disruptive events that must be addressed in creative and flexible ways.

The seemingly continuous stream of Black Swan events speaks to the need to sense and respond to these events to limit or even eliminate the impact. Early detection and response to the pending event dramatically reduces the impact of the event and this should be the goal going forward! It makes no sense at all to develop a quick response system that leaps into action when the impact is upon us. This goal of early detection requires a focus on risk analysis and that allows early detection in order to act before the crisis. I suggest that a key to the rise and frequency in Black Swan events is due in large part to a lack of focus on detection.

This is the reason I have been focused on the continuous improvement practice of sense and response. The supply chain is in the position of canary in the coal mine and the continuous improvement practice including and focused on robust identification, or sensing, analytics to sense the coming disruption early in order to respond early. The goal should be in risk identification and then analysis of the pending impact and most importantly the likelihood of the risk manifesting itself. After the 5th ‘500 year flood’ it's time to understand and take action to focus on risk analysis and early detection!

This increased importance of sensing the disruption requires an increased focus on risk management and especially risk identification as a key area of identification in the continuous improvement process. This is a big change in focus from short term cost control to risk and disruption control. Focus on risk and disruption control will increase supply chain costs however will reduce disruption impact. This reduction in impact will in the long term reduce costs of the impact on the supply chain and the economy.

The challenge for risk management is incorporating the lessons in day-to-day supply chain management and especially the extended supply chain. The correct answer to the global disruption is not eliminating global manufacturing and the global market, the correct answer to global disruption is early detection and risk management plans to address the disruption. This means alternative supply chain capabilities for materials, manufacturing plants and delivery. These all would produce different effects on the success of reaction to the disruption and each of these require focus on risk and cost analysis to identify when it makes sense, financially and production-wise to make the change.

Unfortunately we are in an age of quick and easy answers and this does not work well in a global economy and supply chain. This requires a level of continuous effort to monitor and analyze the risks and likelihood of occurrence. This process of risk mitigation must be incorporated in the regular review and analysis process of the continuous improvement practice. The good news, in my opinion, is that this risk mitigation can be supported more accurately and quickly by embracing data analytics improvements brought about through artificial intelligence technologies. This is a baseline requirement to the effective analysis of the amounts of data available!

Discontinuous Demands Of The Market

Consumers are driving waves of discontinuous demands that are disrupting the market and all of the partners in the market. The cycles and the velocity of changing demands has increased as a result of the consumer embrace of technologies that allow the consumer to shape their demands based on their changing lifestyle requirements. Just as the market reacts to a set of demands it seems that the consumers shift and change the demands again. This cycle is complicated by the combinations of generational, technology and lifestyle priorities. The market must implement the process and tools to sense and respond to the demands in a manner that allows them to maintain the pace of the discontinuous demands.

Millennials and Gen X’ers are entering and as a result of their entrance are impacting the market in a big way as a result of their comfort with technology and their imagination in supporting and even creating their lifestyle demands. These millennial and Gen X’er generations are the ‘tip of the spear’ in utilizing technology to create new ways to meet their demands. They are also a significant reason for the decline of department stores, large retailers and brick and mortar stores that is especially demonstrated in reductions in mall and store traffic.

The largest impact though is from the baby boomers embrace of technology and capabilities. This generation is a quick learner and perhaps most importantly from a market impact perspective they are also quick to embrace new trends and capabilities. Technology provides the opportunity to explore and rebuild a market and a very large number of baby boomers are searching for ways to support their lifestyle demands. In addition, baby boomers are not afraid of technology and as a result are quick adaptors to new technologies and capabilities that can address their demands.

Technology is the great equalizer in the market from both the consumer and the partners supplying the consumer. The combination of generations and their propensity to new demands and quick adaptation of new capabilities has dramatically shortened the change cycles. This, in turn, has left the market struggling to maintain and react. This cycle and resulting impact is quickening and bringing with it a faster disruption to the market that must be addressed in order to survive.

The change cycle has reached the point now where there is really no time for the market to adjust and extend the new capabilities across partners. The cycle has reached the point where the market must react quickly or fall behind. Falling behind can be the beginning of the end though because of the difficulty in catching up with the market.

This is where the importance of the collaborative social network practices come into play for the market to allow the partners to collaborate in reaction to meet the market demands. In other words, a strong collaborative network allows the partners to react and adjust to changing demands more efficiently and quickly. This is where the social networking technologies and practices make a big impact on the market reaction.

Social network technologies combined with big data and artificial intelligence analytics provide the capabilities to sense change in market demands more efficiently and earlier to allow for reaction time by the partners. Collaborative practices and tools allow partners to react in a manner that does not require each partner to develop a reaction to the demand. Instead the collaborative practices allow partners to take advantage of the specialties of each partner in reaction to the changing demands. The strength of the collaborative network allows market reaction to demands at the speed of the changing demands.

The greatest difficulty though is overcoming cultural practices that historically have viewed the changes in meeting demands as a trade secret to create a competitive demand. The culture needs to change to increase sharing and collaboration to sense and react to the changing demands. The competitive advantage is in the sharing and collaboration to allow the partner to more quickly react to the demands.

The measures especially utilizing collaborative practices to respond to the changing market demands are not overwhelming. These collaborative practices have been utilized for years in the extended supply chain as a means to react and respond to changing demands. The difficult actions from the market reaction perspective have been related to cultural practices both in the market and in the responses to the market demands. This has shown that overcoming cultural challenges in market leadership will be the number one challenge and delays or continuing in the same cultural practices will only cause the continual decline for these current leaders in the market.

Artificial Intelligence - The Common Strategic Thread

All networks, social, business, integration and collaboration, news and extended supply chain networks are all related through a common thread, data and more specifically - how is the data used to drive decisions and execution strategies? The glue then that combines the data in a manner that can be used to sense and respond to the waves of disruption in the market.

I believe that the constant running through all aspects of the market place is the discontinuous disruption that is driven by consumer embrace of technology combined with the market reactions to the consumer demands. Marketplace partners must recognize this new reality and work to incorporate methods to obtain the data necessary to feed the decision making process. The value and the accuracy is based upon the amount and types of data that are incorporated and available to the process. This precept itself drives the need and the value of collaborative analysis and data collection across the partners.

This model is especially important to the retail marketplace where the market is continuously buffeted by changing demands from consumers that are themselves driven by changing technical capabilities. These reactions and impact from technology has been a fact of life for quite some time within the extended supply chain and the pressure of reaction to disruption combined with the demands of cost containment and reductions are driving collaborative partnerships in the extended supply chain. These partnerships along with the resulting data collaboration can be used as a model for the marketplace as a whole. This is a key reason for the importance placed on the supply chain by Amazon and others would benefit greatly by embracing this practice.

In addition to the importance of collaborative data, the marketplace partners must also take into account the level of accuracy changes that occur during the life cycle of the analysis. The accuracy of the decision goes through a measurable life cycle:

• Infancy starts with sensing the potential reactions to the demands. This is an unclear time where many options can be taken in reaction to the data and the analysis. This is the beginning of experimentation to test the options.
• Mid-term or decision childhood where the options are narrowed based on additional data analysis based on the results of experimentation from the infancy stage. This is the refinement of decisions and strategy based on the results of experimentation. This is marked by refinement and addition of experiments to support analysis refinement.
• Maturity or decision adulthood where the strategy is fully formed and executed based on the refinement resulting from the data analysis. This is also where the next disrupting concept begins to form and requires the continued analysis of results from the strategy to form the new concept and strategy.
• End of life of old age where the positive results of the strategy decline and the consumer and market are driving the new disruption. This is end of the strategy value and it is equally important to be able to sense the decline of the strategy as it is to identify the beginnings of a new disrupting factor.

You can see that the process I described above follows the PDCA, continuous improvement process, which is a standard practice of the supply chain. This provides a solid framework to sense and respond to the disrupting factors and has been incorporated across a wide range of marketplace practices. The disrupting factor that drives improvements to this process is the collaborative data collection and analysis that allows the process to sense potential changes earlier and then through AI analysis provides the guidance for experimentation and validation to formulate the change to react to the disruption.

Social Networks Driving Supply Chain Disruption

Social network collaborative technologies have left a mark on the personal communications world in the way that the technologies encourage both immediate connections and in the communications capabilities between connections. You can see the impact across all areas of interaction and these tools and the new collaborative capabilities they enable have disrupted not only personal social interaction but also the retail marketplace and the extended supply chain network. The disruption in the supply chain network can be seen in all aspects of the supply chain that thrive on collaboration and interaction, in other words these capabilities have disrupted the supply chain network practices. The resulting waves of discontinuous disruption will continue to be felt across the supply chain network for a long time to come.

Social network technologies and the resulting collaboration technologies are founded on open and efficient communications through networks and across technology platforms. The extended supply chain and partners processes and procedures require open and efficient communications through networks and across technology platforms so this has been a match made in heaven. This embrace of technologies was simply waiting for the right moment of technology and extensions of network technologies and frankly imagination to rise and disrupt the supply chain.

The pieces and practices have been in place in the supply chain for a long time and really waiting for someone with the imagination and will to define and deliver the potential. The tools for communication between have been available through EDI technologies, for instance. These technologies have been enhanced though to support extended connectivity demands via improvements in network and wireless technologies. The Internet of Things (IoT) has played a key role in the disruption of the communication. These technologies continue to disrupt process and practices as capabilities are developed to support the demands.

The areas of focus and disruption change based on reactions to demands and imagination in delivery and capabilities. The LTL market, for instance is in the throws of a major disruption now based on shared ride technologies. This has flowed into freight forwarders and also customization demands to support inventory management for last mile deliveries. This is a great example of consumer demands driving the market to incorporate social technologies, in this case ride share technologies, into the business process to improve the practices. Another example of technologies and network capabilities impact on supply chain is the Iot tools and capabilities utilization to improve tracking and planning capabilities that has been a continuous improvement process for quite some time.

Blockchain tracking and tracing capabilities are incorporated to support demands of lot trace and date management for food products to provide historic product pedigree information accuracy. These capabilities were initially slow to acceptance and now the combination of market demands (read consumer demands), regulatory requirements to support recalls and improvements in technology and network capabilities are driving this to mainstream usage. Blockchain technologies already provide a great deal of benefits and while already delivered significant impact in the supply chain it is really still in its infancy and I expect the capabilities and usage to expand with new imaginative demand.

Retail disruption has combined with technologies to produce a discontinuous disruption in supply chain to support changing consumer demands. Disruptive forces have always been around and the big difference now is the speed of the disruption. This speed has been increased as a result of technology and network capabilities available to the consumer more than any other factor, the key factor to the discontinuous disruption is the embrace of technology by consumers. The technology, combined with the improvements and growth in networks allowed the consumer to drive change into the market. Then social networks and social network technology encouraged the spread of consumer and business use of the technology. Putting technology into the hands of consumers is driving the rate and size of disruptions.

The challenge for the market and the supply chain is the identification of important and key disruptions, in other words what disruption will have legs that allow the disruption to grow and expand in usage. Unfortunately, there is really no way to determine the winners and losers and so the supply chain must act on all. This is where social networks and collaboration really show their value. Social networks provide the means to sense the disruption and measure the speed of growth along with clarification of the disruption. Collaboration and collaborative development allow the supply chain to respond and react to the disruption.

Disruption Driving Transformation Of The Supply Chain

 

Disruption displaces an existing market or industry to produce something new and more efficient and worthwhile. It is at once destructive and creative. Disruption in the marketplace is driving a transformation of the supply chain into a more efficient and flexible framework that can support the continuous disrupting forces. This transformation of the supply chain is driven not only by reaction to disrupting forces in the marketplace but also from the enabling technologies developing at a breakneck pace.

Historically, supply chain disruption has been described as a major break down in production or distribution nodes that comprise a supply chain. This definition of disruption implies an event within the supply chain that interrupts the normal process and flow that must be overcome to return to the pre-event state. However, technologies, especially eCommerce technology, coupled with improvements in network capabilities that are driven by consumer lifestyle demands have redefined disruption into a break that will never return to the pre-disruption normal, the disruption creates a new normal.

This process of recovery into a new normal is what makes up innovation and new capabilities for the market. Rather than a recovery to the pre-disruption state, the disruption produces a recognition of a need for innovation and change based on the market demands for innovation in the process. Disruptive innovations tend to be produced by outsiders and entrepreneurs in startups, rather than existing companies. This innovation cycle is now driven by consumer lifestyle demands colliding with the existing market practices creating an innovation cycle. This innovation cycle disrupted the continuous improvement cycled to a continuous innovation cycle and the market leaders recognized and adjusted to the change.

Currently, the waves of innovation in the market are driven by supply chain participants recognizing and developing features and functionality designed to meet customer expectations, partner needs and financial requirements. Supply chain disruption is the repurposing and realigning of existing capabilities to support changing consumer lifestyle demands. Then, just for good measure, the great disruptors add new supply chain capabilities to enhance the innovation.

The best change agents in the extended supply chain implement these features and functionality before the consumer recognizes the need. This drive to experiment based on sensing a market shift that creates the demand for goods and services is the actual driving force of disruptive innovation in the market. Disruptive innovation in the supply chain is a leading influence in remaking the market to meet consumer demands. Consumer demands are being driving at an enormous speed and this velocity of change requires robust tools and practices to react. I believe the supply chain is particularly ready and capable to develop these required tools and capabilities because of history of disruption within the supply chain.

Shifting demands from all corners of the market—ranging from product and consumer services to supply chain partners—contribute to supply chain disruption and in turn are driving innovation in the supply chain as a reaction. Consumers as the ‘Great Disruptor’ in the marketplace and are driving the supply chain to innovate in capabilities and flexibility in order to react to the disruption. The supply chain innovators are driven by a spirit of experimentation that in turn allows them to innovate in the face of the discontinuous disruption. The best of the innovators incorporate the continuous improvement (PDCA - Plan, Do, Check, Act) practice to support the innovation cycles driven by the disruption.

This transformation will only increase in speed as disruption drives new disruption. We have entered an age of disruptive transformation driven by the demands of the market that is no longer accepting the status quo. In order to survive in the age of disruptive transformation the market partners must also embrace a practice of experimentation based on flexibility.

Effective Inventory Mangement

Inventory management is one of the pillars of a successful retail business and especially critical in the highly competitive eCommerce marketplace. While this statement would seem to go without saying, in the real world, effective inventory management can be very to achieve because of all of the moving parts. Effective inventory management requires first a focus on the basics; attention to detail, strong process management and determination especially when supporting controls and investigations.

Effective inventory management requires execution of complex global inventory management strategies, along with collaboration across internal and external partners that all come together to support the inventory management processes and procedures that support the highly volatile business demands. A focus on inventory management and control is required to support the extended global supply chain that is now key to the retail marketplace.

Inventory management provides the foundation of tools, process and procedures required to succeed in the global retail marketplace. It may not be a flashy capability but it is a base requirement to support the flashy side of retail . Bad inventory decisions can kill an organization’s profitability and wreak havoc on the supply chain. Developing and implementing inventory management controls as part of a seamless global logistics program doesn't just happen overnight. The successful inventory management program will be based on the following building blocks:


Collaboration program across the entire extended supply chain


Logistics planning, forecasting and analysis accuracy through robust sales and operations planning


Cycle counts to eliminate physical inventory


Product count program based on velocity and product demand to ensure availability for high demand product (A, B, C velocity usage)


How often do you analyze the velocity?


Inventory turn management that includes continuous review:


How do you improve inventory turn?


How do kits and co-pack products impact inventory and inventory turn


Inventory stocking practices in a multi DC network


Advanced Analytics supporting forecasting and planning

Inventory planning and forecasting provides an important feature and support in an effective continuous improvement process guiding inventory management practices in the global market. The accuracy of the planning and forecasting are enhanced by the volume of data available from the extended supply chain partners and requires a robust set of tools to perform the analysis. This begins with a focus on implementing and maintaining the fundamentals of inventory management and controls including robust programs starting with manufacturing planning, through cycle count procedures to ensure accuracy through inventory performance analytics supporting forecasting and planning.

Technology adds value to the continuous improvement process by providing a framework that integrates the data available from the from planning and forecasting with the process execution data to improve the ability to sense and respond in a continuous manner. Technology has become an integral partner in these activities to provide the connectivity required for the extended supply chain partners create knowledge from the vast amounts of data that are available. A robust continuous improvement program allows the supply chain partners to sense and respond to the changing inventory control demands that are increasing in both velocity and impact on the supply chain success,





Technology and collaboration has reached the point now where inventory management and control can fully utilize and take advantage of the volume of data to increase the effectiveness of the continuous improvement procedures and data volume support should not be considered a limiting factor. Big data capabilities provide the opportunity for each of the partners in the extended supply chain to both share and utilize data that would not have been imagined even three years ago and by the same token the capabilities of three years from now will be light years ahead. The focus of the supply chain partners must be on starting the continuous inventory management process and to develop the collaborative processes and procedures that will encourage experimentation and improvements.

Disruption Culture

The disruption roaring through the marketplace now requires imagination, flexibility and a culture that does not freeze or shrink from the change driving the disruption. This disruption culture requires a willingness and encouragement to experiment and fail while reacting to the change in the marketplace. The key to success in the disruption is the imagination to experiment with new ideas and processes to meet the demands of the marketplace with a goal of creating the disruption in the marketplace. Disruption seems to be the norm, or at least it the changes are greater and increasing in frequency, requiring reactions from the marketplace in order to maintain their place. In the past retailers could wait for the change to solidify before reacting and now they cannot afford to wait for the change to solidify before the next wave of change.




Disruption is identified later in time when the changes have increased in velocity and impact resulting in a broad spectrum change that impacts the marketplace and changes it forever. In other words, disruption is identified when you realize the impact to the marketplace. This is also why it is so important for each participant in the marketplace to react and support the changes in their field. If any one or two of the participants do not support the change they run the very real risk of being left out of the marketplace. In my opinion, this lack of supporting market changes is the key factor for the retail market failures of some of the major retailers recently.




The retail marketplace is now in a time of discontinuous and disruptive change and the only way for the market to react is to develop and encourage a culture of change that embraces and encourages the changes that disrupt the marketplace. That is why it is so important for retailers and the supply chain partners to create a disruption culture that is guided by change and more importantly embraces the change and the resulting disruption. This is not an easy lift because requires the largest partners with the most to lose to be the leaders in the change.




The secret of Amazon and Google and Facebook is that they have developed a disruption culture that searches out change that can disrupt the marketplace and they use this as a way to get ahead of their competition. We have seen this over and over where an upstart enters the market with a new idea and this idea catches fire with the consumer and before you realize it they have disrupted the market and leave the competition behind. This is the point though where especially the largest retailers must focus their resources on sensing and responding to the change. They must realize that they are under attack from the market and the competition and they cannot reduce spending to address the issue, they must refocus their investments on the tools and the culture that will allow them to sense and respond to the changes.

Market Disruption Framework

There is no way to avoid the disruption in the marketplace and this means that both retailers and partners must face the forces driving the disruption and meet the demands head on. The good news is that it is not necessary to meet all of the demands, however you must meet the demands focused on your market segment and product mix. This means that really all demands and changes must be evaluated to determine the impact to the particular market segment in order to identify what is required to in order to be successful. This task is overwhelming without the framework to provide an early warning system directed by a robust analytics capability. There is a robust disruption sense and respond framework that is required for participants in the marketplace that will allow them to sense the change based on the data analytics and then help to define the necessary response to the change.




This disruption framework truly comes down to a foundation of robust and flexible integration, analytics and communication platforms that supports a culture and focus on change and continuous improvement. The retailers and partners in the marketplace must focus on sensing and responding to the demands and market changes through the process of continuous improvements rather than any newly minted functionality or software. This is good news is that this will allow the partners to focus on the foundational framework required to support the changes so they can focus on responding to the changes rather than developing all new functionality for every change. The bad news is that there is no silver bullet to solve the demands as there were in during other times of disruption.




The current disruption activities in fact require a focus on culture and social networking rather than software, although to be fair software plays a very large role in identification of the market demands. The actual reaction to the change is based on the means that the partners either integrate new partners or put together existing functionality with a new integration or social communication connection. These changes are related to identification more than brand new functionality. Don’t get me wrong, there is some level of new functionality being introduced as a matter of improvements to efficiencies for instance such as robotics or new delivery capabilities, however the vast majority are changes in relationships and interactions between partners and existing functionality.




The most important ingredient to this equation is the analytics capabilities that are required to sense the change in the market in a timeframe that allows the most time for the partners in the market to react. This is the single tool that will provide the greatest impact to the abilities of the partners to adjust to the disruption market actions This must be a key foundational capability to the disruption framework. The analytics capabilities are key ingredient to the continuous improvement process and must be a key focus in order for the continuous improvement evaluation and direction process to be successful.

Smart Manufacturing Impact On Retail

The retail marketplace is poised now to truly leverage the capabilities and benefits of smart manufacturing with the integration and expansion of the collaborative retail network. Smart manufacturing provides capabilities to customize and deliver on demand and the practices in smart manufacturing supporting the efficient product changeover and customization allows retailers to refine and expand their offerings into a type of endless aisle without the expense of manufacturing an endless aisle of inventory. This is just one example of the opportunities available with the combination of the collaborative network when combined with the capabilities of smart manufacturing. This can be the next wave of improvements in the retail shopping experience and is really just in the infancy of development and implementation in the retail marketplace.





I believe that retailers have a great opportunity to develop a relationship with smart manufacturers to enhance the consumer shopping and purchasing opportunities for new and customized products for customer purchasing. This will be an awesome development in the retail shopping experience and is an important improvement and additional transformation for the consumer shopping experience. This capability potential from smart manufacturing combined with the capabilities of the collaborative network provide the framework for the next retail transformation.





I see this transformation utilizing smart manufacturing to start from two different directions both the smart manufacturer through direct interaction with consumers and through specialized service providers that partner with smart manufacturers. This will be the first wave of transformation in the retail marketplace because of the traditional retail culture this marketplace change will start with the small and nimble providers that are experimenters and forward thinking. The benefit to the marketplace starts with the collaborative network that provides the framework for the types of services and offerings that are required to introduce the opportunities from smart manufacturing.





Retailers and especially the large retailers should focus on embracing these capabilities offered by smart manufacturing to refine their product development and replenishment strategies. The smart manufacturing capabilities will provide retailers with the opportunity to develop a replenishment strategy to reduce overstock and refine and improve the replenishment cycle in a manner that transforms their forecasting and replenishment to reduce overstock and the costs associated with overstock. This requires though retailers to reevaluate much of their retail strategy because of the recent growth and expansion of the overstock marketplace. The capabilities fit perfectly with the collaborative network capabilities though and this is why it will catch fire with consumers.





Unfortunately, from an historical perspective, the large retailers have historically followed the lead of smaller retailers to experiment and develop the new technologies or capabilities in the retail experience. This needs to change though because of the speed in which the retail marketplace is changing now. The marketplace development is not slowing down and every new development and improvement in the marketplace is in fact speeding the changes in the market. This should be the next focus for the large retailers in their transformation because consumers will embrace these capabilities because it fits right in with their lifestyles.

Maintaining The Innovation Chain

Maintaining the innovation change is both deceptively simple yet exceedingly difficult at the same time.  It's simple because it doesn’t cost a great deal of money to maintain, the key requirement and effort to maintain the innovation chain is simply to maintain a line of open and active communications across the partner network.  It is difficult because keeping a line of open and active communications requires a culture change that embraces the importance of the communications required to maintain the innovation chain. The culture change is the hangup that will lead to the failure and is really the most difficult to ensure over the long term.  The culture change must be allowed the time and the encouragement to success while the change is taking hold and becoming a mainstay of the innovation chain.

Many retailers and their partners embrace the culture change over the short team however do not have the patience to nurture and allow the change to become ingrained and part of the nature of the organization.  In addition to the the partners must have the patience to encourage the same changes in culture across the entire collaborative network in order to allow the change to become part of the network culture. This is very difficult because each partner is at different levels of change and different levels of engagement.  The commitment and engagement is a cyclical factor in maintaining the change and this is also encouraged by the active participation of the partners across the network, along with the resulting benefits derived by the engagement of the partners. This is where the change will most often fail, its not that the partners do not see the benefit, and it's not that the partners do not want to participate,  it is more that the partners feel they cannot sustain both the level of commitment and the level of engagement required to ensure the long term success of the innovation chain.

You see, partners can maintain short bursts of engagement across a large number of partners for a short period of time and these same partners seem to lose their focus and commitment after a period of time if they see no change or improvement in the key measurements.  The partners in the innovation chain must be encouraged to participate and this must be a constant and continuous encouragement to participate otherwise the partners will stop the methods and practices that encourage participation. The partners in the innovation chain will only try for so long without benefits and without the encouragement to participate.  This is a bit of faith that must be practiced so that when one partner is down another picks up the slack and takes on the responsibility for encouraging the others.

Just like everybody has an off day in life, every partner will have the off day or number of days where there must be another partner willing and able to step up and support the innovation chain while the others recuperate.  This is one of the benefits of the innovation chain, every partner does not need to be on their game all the time in order to succeed. The benefits of the collaborative network and the partners in this network is that they will carry each other during the ups and downs to support the demands and the needs of the innovation network.  There is really not a very high cost of entry and yet there can be a very high benefit achieved as a result of the active participation of the partners in the chain.

Retail Discontinuous Transformation

The retail market transformation is coming in waves of changes driven by market conditions, technology and most importantly consumer demands.  The transformation is a marketplace initiative that involves all partners supporting the retail marketplace in ways that themselves are transforming with the market.  What really started as a new channel twenty years ago has transformed the market and relationships that could not have been foreseen when starting the trip and in the same manner, the future transformation cannot really be foreseen in the market.  There are many changes now in the works that are driven by consumer demands and reaction by partners to these demands. The collaborative network plays an important role in this transformation as the framework that supports the reactions to the demands by the marketplace partners.

This is where the transformation gets interesting because there are so many different actors in this transformation and as a result there are so many different potential reactions to the demands.  Up until now there have been many partnerships between individuals where in many cases the reactions to the demands are not necessarily coordinated by the marketplace partners. The next frontier in the transformation seems to me to be related to coordination and development of a social network across the marketplace participants.  This coordination is necessary because the rate of change is quickening to a point where it will shortly overwhelm any retailer that does not participate in the social network. This social network capabilities are supported by the collaborative network to provide the necessary framework to communicate across partners in the marketplace efficiently so that the marketplace can react to the changing demands.

The change will no longer be implemented through individual retailers but implemented by the marketplace through the participation of partners as necessary across the collaborative network.  In effect, the network will provide and support the transformation which will be made possible by the participation of the partners in this network. This is a big change for the retailers in the marketplace because these retailers at least felt they were the center of activities and partnered with others to provide services.  Now the market is changing where the retailer is just another partner in the marketplace that is supporting consumer demands. This transformation is furthering the truth that consumers control the marketplace now and that retailers are another player, or partner, in the marketplace and simply provide goods and services to the marketplace rather than forming and defining the marketplace.

I think the transformation is now reaching, if it hasn’t already reached, that tipping point where the market shifts from a retailer centric to a consumer centric marketplace.  The key point in reaching this tipping point can be identified as the point where consumers are deciding products rather than simply accepting products from the retailer. We have essentially reached this point now where consumers have so many choices that the product life cycle is impacted by the speed in which consumers can, and do, shift to different products.  This is where the retailers and marketplace partners must focus, the flexibility of product life cycle and product demand.

Consumer Collaborative Network

The retail market continues to transform based on demands and capabilities of the consumer and the consumer interaction with retailers and especially retail partners. These changes are buffeting the retail market in discontinuous waves of activities driven by the consumer as the consumer develops new social and technical capabilities.  Over the last few years these have been more focused in what I would call retail operational changes such as delivery methods or ordering capabilities and the foundation for the next wave of changes. The operational changes are delivered by technology capabilities while the next wave is being driven by the social aspect of shopping and purchasing which has a foundation in technology and the activities and effects are focused outside of the retail operational activities and focused on the retailer to consumer relationship through social activities.  

We seem to be between major technology retail developments and the focus now is on network connectivity from the retailer partners to the end consumer and all partners in between.  This time the change is related to culture within the retailer and the partners that support the retail marketplace. Consumers are still transforming their interaction and relationship to retailers and this transformation now is relational and focused on social interaction and capabilities.  These social interaction are the next logical step from consumers in the omni market retail transformation and bring together and highlight the social interaction that is an integral part of shopping for consumers.

Consumers have been using the social tools at hand for quite some time now in developing their virtual shopping practices and this has been manifested in the growth of sales through Facebook and Twitter.  You can see this manifested in the commercials for the consumer to consumer sales sites that have been on the rise recently. These sites provide a social foundation for the interaction among and across consumers to sell products that one consumer no longer requires or wants and another consumer needs, in essence a virtual garage sale and taking the legacy sites such as Craigslist to the next level.  This is the what I see as the next phase in the retail transformation.

Amazon has also staked a claim to the market of virtual garage sales through the Amazon services and has been very successful in providing an enhanced service.  Consumers will not wait for retailers to catch up or even accept new practices that benefit the consumer, consumers have shown this over and over again and the example I go back to is ‘window shopping’ where consumers shop physically in retail outlets and then search for best prices and purchase online.  This next wave of consumer social interaction is expanding now across consumers through the corners of retail and will quickly move across the marketplace through first adopters and this time with the collaborative network the first adopters may be retail partners unrelated to the sales of products but focused on services.  

This wave seems to be focused on services and how can the retail marketplace integrate the consumer services that enhance the consumer experience and simplify the shopping aspect of the retail experience.  The collaborative network provides the framework and the foundation for retailers to plug into the transformation and utilize partner services to support consumer demands efficiently and effectively. The retailer though must first recognize the need and then change their culture to embrace the partnership.

Smart Manufacturing Impact On Omni Market

Smart manufacturing technologies along with IOT technologies have reached the point now where they can provide new opportunities in products and services to the retail omni market.  When combined into the collaborative network services and capabilities smart manufacturing can provide a means to better support peaks and valleys in product demand and most importantly support a shortened product development lifecycle.  I really see the collaborative network with the extended partners as a key factor to the incorporation of smart manufacturing practices in the retail marketplace. This will allow retailers to better support the changing demands and shortened product life cycle without increasing overstock inventory.  The collaborative network provides the foundation for the partners to take advantage of smart manufacturing technologies without a large investment and this low investment is the key to increased adoption.

Smart manufacturing has been around for a while and is only getting smarter through continuous improvements.  Now I believe we have reached a point where smart manufacturing, IOT and the collaborative network will combine to produce capabilities that will drive increased acceptance and adoption of the technologies in the retail market.  The acceptance will be driven by specialty retailers that focus on customization of products to support customer demands for products that are customized to their particular tastes. Color is the most obvious customization opportunity and a very simple example of smart manufacturing that is especially easy to support online.  The retailer can provide a wide variety of color variations that can be produced at the time of order and then shipped directly to the consumer or the brick and mortar outlet. This example allows the product to be offered in a wide variety of colors only limited the consumer’s imagination and does not require an increased level of inventory to support and potentially require overstock sales reductions.  

Smart manufacturing can also support commodity product replenishment orders to support reduced replenishment cycles which in turn will also reduce overstock inventory as well.  Smart manufacturing combined with reorders of commodity products or IoT enhanced products can eliminate the guesswork and the consumer tracking of these products. A good example of this is cloud enabled printers that connect to the cloud to support wireless printing from any device and location.  These devices can monitor the printing volumes and automatically order and ship ink as necessary. It is an easy next step for these IoT products to reach out to maintenance and support when and issue is identified as well.

The omni market combined with the collaborative network now provide the framework to efficiently utilize and integrate smart manufacturing to support the demands of consumers more efficiently and effectively providing enhanced product selection without increasing overhead of increased inventory.  This allows the consumer to take advantage of impulse demands at any time through any device. This develop delivers a great deal of flexibility and capability to the retailer to support the changing demands of the consumer. This is a big deal for retailers in the evolution of the market and in addition is an especially important reason for the retailers to maintain their focus and support on the continuously evolving marketplace.   

Omni Market Network

All of the pieces from the extended collaborative network to blockchain technologies come together to support the continuous changing and expanding demands of the omni market network.  The collaborative network brings the framework for this omni market network and the partners from end to end of the supply chain collaborate in their activities and support of the omni market demands via the capabilities of this network.  The omni market a robust network framework to support the demands and develop new capabilities in the retail marketplace. This network is critical to the continued success of the partners that contribute and make up the omni market network.  There is really no turning back now on these principles and the network growth because the consumer will not accept going back.

Retailers have struggled over the past few years with implementation of increased operational capabilities required as a framework for the omni market.  These operational capabilities are the basis for entry into the omni market and are baseline expectations of consumers whenever shopping and purchasing. There is really no place now for a simple multi channel market and the smart retailers have focused their attentions on bringing together the operational pieces and parts to support the omni market demands of the consumer purchasing.  Retailers have delivered this through a combination of build and buy technologies and this has worked well to allow the retailers to support the baseline operational demands.

The collaborative network then brings the tools necessary for the retailers to both connect to partners for services and products but most importantly provides the framework for the retailers to deliver  true shopping network that brings together the social and the operational aspects required to support the consumer demands on the omni market. This now creates the framework for retailers and in my opinion the more important aspect to this framework is related to the network partner channel connectivity and interaction.  This collaborative network really will turn the retailer culture on its collective head because is makes the retailer a participant in the network and not the owner of the network.

The common aspect of the omni market network is the extended supply chain partners that support the network.  The common aspect of these extended supply chain partners is that they support more than one retailer, their services are common services across retailers and these are the foundation of the collaborative network.  These are the partners that will gain a great deal of efficiencies through participation in the collaborative network as well. These services are common so retailers can plug into the network to quickly and efficiently begin to benefit from the services.  In addition, because these services are common, the service providers are continuously working towards expanding and improving services to support the market demands and the collaborative network provides the framework to quickly push new services out to all partners.

This aspect of participation in the omni market network turns the common retailer practice on its ear and requires a change in culture and participation in the network.  The consumer demands will only continue to grow and change and retailers must learn from past experiences with consumer demands to understand that consumers will not let roadblocks thrown up by retailers derail their demands.  Now the retailers must accept the change in the marketplace and embrace the collaborative marketplace.

Extended Supply Chain Network

The supply chain has been building a collaborative network made up of partners supporting the supply chain for years out of necessity and there is really no reason that a retailer should reinvent the capabilities or, most importantly, the partner relationships all over again.  Let’s face it, the supply chain has already developed the partnerships and the network connectivity with these partners and, on top of this, these partners are already a part of the supply chain network and would really only require the retailer to plug into that network as an extended partner in order to take advantage of the network and the relationships.  Retailers can then take advantage of the supply chain network as another partner and jump start the retailer collaborative network activities through both the partners and the collaborative network that supports the supply chain.

This is really the simply an embrace of the collaborative network and the social network properties available that can support the retail marketplace demands.  There is no reason that retailers should rebuild networking capabilities when the supply chain network can be extended. This is after all the foundational principle of social networking and on top of that the framework has already been developed by the supply chain.  This will allow the retailer to easily connect to the supply chain partners to take advantage of services and capabilities without the development or the maintenance of a separate and distinct network. There is no reason why the network relationships should be re-developed and there are many benefits to extending the supply chain collaborative network.

There is only one key challenge or inhibitor to the extension of the supply chain network to include retailers as a contributing partner and that is reluctance of the retailer to join the collaborative network as a partner and not an owner.  Retailers have traditionally been very protective of their capabilities and this has extended to the collaborative network as well. Retailers would do well to overcome these protective tendencies to partnership in the supply chain network because the benefits to the retailer are so great.  This is not an insurmountable challenge for the retailer but it does require a culture change to realize that they will be partnered through extension to other retailers it the supply chain collaborative network. Of course there are separations and each of the partners participates a different levels of sharing and openness so none of the partners opens their internal network to the collaborative network.  

If you think about the opportunities that will be opened as a result of the partnership and the relations open to the partners in the supply chain collaborative network I believe the inhibitor will be well worth the effort to overcome.  In fact, the simple truth is that without the benefits of the supply chain collaborative network retailers will continue to struggle with the velocity of change in the retail marketplace. We have reached the point now were the service in not the draw for consumers and the draw consumers is product, availability ease of shopping and flexible delivery and purchasing capabilities.  The majority of the requirements are supported through the supply chain network and then the retailer can focus on the brand and the product.

Retail Supply Chain Disruptors

The retail supply chain is certainly going through a disruption period now for a while from a few factors including the Internet of Things and changes to consumer delivery practices.  There are many other results of this period of disruption and it certainly seems at this point that we are entering into a period of continuous disruption in the supply chain. There are many factors driving these changes and is see the latest ones as coming from Amazon and third party logistics providers and the collaborative network.  Amazon is a continuing disruptor that has developed a culture of disruption in the retail market that people have been chasing since it entered the marketplace. Third party logistics providers and the collaborative network are the new players in the continuing disruption and it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future.

Third party logistics providers have been around and developed a strong catalog of services and capabilities to support the retail market that have allowed retailers to outsource their needs effectively and quickly.  The 3PL market enables their partners to quickly achieve capabilities that would have cost a great deal of time and effort to develop on their own. The 3PL provides the service and takes on the risk of fulfillment for product types and demands and the retailers can take advantage of the service for a fee.  This type of fulfillment model is ideal for this disruptive retail market to provide the services to retailers based on their demands at the time. The benefits to the retailer are speed to market and reduced risk. This is delivered by the 3PL through their network of locations and services that the 3PL has been developing for many years.  This model was an early precursor to the collaborative network and essentially proved the concept and the benefits of the collaborative network.

This brings me to the collaborative network and the growing and potential benefits of the network to support and drive the continued disruption of the retail market.  Similar to the third party logistics partners, the collaborative network provides the foundation and the framework for the partners in the network to collaborate to develop new services and also supports the extension and growth of niche service providers to flourish and quickly support the changing demands of the retail market.  These services and demands are the result of both market demands and the experimentation of partners in new services to support the retail market, very similar to the 3PL providers. This collaborative network provides the benefits of the services and capabilities from partners in the network without the efforts and time to develop the services themselves.  This network provides the environment that encourages and supports experimentation while sharing the cost and the risk across a broad spectrum of partners.

The combination of 3PL partners and the collaborative network provides the basis for a continuous disruption pattern and delivery across the retail market.  In the past this type of disruption was driven by large players such as Amazon and they were very successful for a long time. Now though the collaborative network partnerships present this same ability and potential that Amazon developed internally for the partners in the network.  This is no small feet and the potential and relative risk to the partners in the network negligible as it relates to the potential rewards.