It’s the 21st century. If technology isn’t doing the bulk of the heavy lifting for your supply chain, then you’re doing something wrong. 

Palm oil, cocoa, beef. They are all weekly, if not daily, parts of the average American’s diet. Yet when not sourced carefully, they’re also some of the biggest threats to the world’s forests.

As the volume of data that businesses have available at their fingertips continues to grow exponentially, the ability to distill actionable insight from these mountains of information becomes both ever-more valuable, and ever-more challenging. 

Think about the supply chain of virtually every consumer good. If it travelled from a supplier, to a distributor, to a retailer, then most likely its cost is directly linked to the cost of the fuel that helped it make that journey. 

When applied to supply chain management, blockchain proposes a system that is flexible and secure, allowing real time and transparent contracts between organizations and third party partners. It’s poised to strengthen supply chains vulnerable to ransomware from the inside out—but is it just better data management with a new name?

Last year, China boasted the world’s second largest pharmaceutical market. Recently, the country has taken steps to boost investments in its generic pharmaceuticals sector. How could a new flood of cheap, mass-produced generics from China affect the US pharma sector given current trade tensions?

The fashion industry is no stranger to controversy. From outsourced labor to overflowing sales racks, brands across the board have been accused of having a “bottom line” mentality, squeezing suppliers for every penny and privileging quantity over quality.

Last weekend was one of the country's biggest BBQ blowouts, and you can bet that a lot of that food will go to waste. But it's not just national pig-outs that lead to large amounts of food eventually hitting the landfills. Food waste is a year-round problem. Just how much food goes to waste each year, and why?

As is the case with many of the issues plaguing the supply chain industry, human rights and labor violations have proven difficult to combat as their underlying causes continue to evade companies looking to root out illegal practices. Given the highly diffuse, globalized nature of modern supply chains, the use of forced labor, child labor, and harsh or underpaid working conditions pervade global supply networks despite efforts to bolster fair labor practices.

Huawei's plan to burst into the U.S. smartphone market isn’t going quite as planned. Despite a promising product portfolio, the Chinese smartphone giant is still struggling to crack the US market. It boils down to tightening US restrictions against Chinese tech and telecommunications companies. What’s the rationale behind these blockades, and what is Huawei doing to circumvent them?