2020 Reading Guide

2020 Reading Guide

It’s time to open up that book you’ve been meaning to read. These titles will help you catch up on the latest deep dives into the world of logistics.


Bubble

Bubble or Revolution?

The Present and Future of Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

By Neel Mehta, Adi Agashe, and Parth Detroja

Are cryptocurrencies and blockchain operating inside a bubble, or are they revolutionary? Some say that these emerging technologies are innovative advancements while others are more skeptical. This book offers a balanced and comprehensive analysis of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, breaking down the concepts and using real-world case studies to analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Interviews with tech industry leaders provide first-hand insight into the future of these technologies.


Toolkit

The Logistics and Supply Chain Toolkit

Over 100 Tools for Transport, Warehousing, and Inventory Management

By Gwynne Richards and Susan Grinsted

This handbook provides practical methods for tackling the challenges that come with logistics and supply chain management. Individual toolkits outline solutions and plans for disciplines including warehousing, logistics, supply chain management, inventory, and outsourcing, providing readers with specific solutions for complex circumstances. The toolkit also includes performance management and problem-solving tools that provide higher-level guidelines.


Smart

The Future Is Smart

How Your Company Can Capitalize on the Internet of Things and Win in a Connected Economy

By W. David Stephenson

From smart watches that track real-time health data to responsive kitchen appliances, the Internet of Things is embedded in day-to-day life. Consumer products are just the beginning—leading companies are preparing to use data sensors to track management, strategy, manufacturing, and maintenance. This book explains how businesses are tapping into technology not only to optimize their supply chains, but also to boost safety, reduce waste, and make customers happy.



Billion

Billion-Dollar Brand Club

How Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, and Other Disrupters Are Remaking What We Buy

By Lawrence Ingrassia

Entrepreneurs find new and creative ways to tap into the products people use every day. Taking a ride on the New York City subway or simply listening to a commercial break during your favorite podcast will introduce you to a wave of new brands disrupting everything from eye wear to mattresses. Learn how startups, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists are taking on companies that have dominated the consumer economy for more than a century.


Blockchain

Blockchain: The Next Everything

By Stephen P. Williams

Exploring the systems predicted to change economics, global trade, science, politics, and art, this accessible guidebook explains how blockchain technology can radically transform the world. Using anecdotes, metaphors, and clear descriptions for readers who aren’t tech savvy, this introduction to blockchain explains its most important aspects: why it can’t be hacked, how it empowers ordinary citizens, and what its widespread use means for society.


Integrating

Integrating Blockchain into Supply Chain Management

A Toolkit for Practical Implementation

By Remko van Hoek, Brian Fugate, Marat Davletshin, and Matthew A. Waller

Blockchain can provide real-time visibility and insight into the supply chain process. After learning what this emerging technology can bring to the table, it’s time to evaluate how it may work for you. This book provides step-by-step guidance for integrating blockchain into your supply chain. Tools, frameworks, and case studies—along with a benchmark survey showing current blockchain use in supply chain management—show readers how to take an informed, business-savvy approach to blockchain.


Essentials

Essentials of Inventory Management

By Max Muller

Go beyond the organized stockroom and master the fundamentals of inventory management. These concrete steps can help you project your future business needs, minimize costs, and fix supply chain problems. Charts, review questions, and formulas help explain concepts such as tracking inventory costs, calculating gross profit, deciding when to eliminate dead stock, and choosing the best location for a distribution center, giving you the tools to achieve optimal efficiency.


Faster

The Future Is Faster than You Think

How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives

By Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler

Technological acceleration is rapidly changing the world. What will happen to the way humans govern nations, raise children, and care for the planet in the next decade? This book is a roadmap for how future waves of technology may reinvent day-to-day life as artificial intelligence, robotics, and virtual reality converge with 3D printing, blockchain, and global networks. It also explores how legacy industries, such as transportation, retail, health care, and entertainment, may transform in the process.


Trade

Trade Is Not a Four-Letter Word

How Six Everyday Products Make the Case for Trade

By Fred P. Hochberg

Trade lowers prices and spurs variety and innovation, but understanding the entire global trade network is not so simple. This book uses six everyday products with surprisingly compelling backstories to explain how trade has shaped modern life: the taco salad, the Honda Odyssey, the banana, the iPhone, the college degree, and the HBO series Game of Thrones. Using colorful examples and digestible explanations, this entertaining read dispels common myths and provides a thorough understanding of the basics of trade.


Dummies

Logistics Careers Plus More for Dummies

By Daniel Stanton

Using simple, practical language, this guide explains how to plan and manage a successful logistics career at any stage of professional development. Operations, logistics, and procurement are interconnected parts of a larger system, which offers diverse career opportunities. This book shows readers the entire range of skills required for professionals at every point of the supply chain, and how each of those roles affects colleagues, customers, and suppliers.


Winning

Winning Her Business

How to Transform the Customer Experience for the World’s Most Powerful Consumers

By Bridget Brennan

Retailers can beat the competition by appealing to today’s most powerful consumers: women. Women drive 70% to 80% of consumer purchases, but the usual sales practices aren’t reaching them. Based on more than a decade of research, this book offers invaluable insight into women as consumers, and explains how an inclusive customer experience can benefit everyone. Businesses can deliver transformational customer experiences that speak to women by focusing on interpersonal skills, value-added knowledge, and emotional-engagement techniques that generate sales, referrals, and repeat business.


Revolutionizing

Revolutionizing World Trade

How Disruptive Technologies Open Opportunities for All

By Kati Suominen

As global trade approaches a new era, businesses are more empowered than ever, thanks to technological developments in trade and global production. Emerging tools and possibilities within digitization and trade, however, are being stifled by policy changes and outdated regulatory frameworks. This book examines these conflicting players and envisions new policies that may help catalyze global growth and development.


Retail

Logistics and Retail Management

Emerging Issues and New Challenges in the Retail Supply Chain, Fifth Edition

By John Fernie and Leigh Sparks

Sound logistics and supply chains are key for successful retail management. Updated with new developments in the field, this book illustrates the progress of retail logistics and the challenges that remain. It covers topics such as internationalization, corporate social responsibility, and green logistics, and reviews examples of successful organizations. This new edition also provides information on the luxury fashion industry and the unique logistical challenges of e-commerce.


Mandate

The Innovation Mandate

The Growth Secrets of the Best Organizations in the World

By Nicholas J. Webb

For companies of all sizes and stages, innovation can be the difference between success and failure in today’s competitive marketplace. Innovation helps companies introduce new products, better connect with their customers, hone their supply chain, and hire the right people. This book provides a step-by-step process for continually generating and implementing great ideas, and maximizing their value to benefit customers and investors. Use the five-point checklist to ensure your company is innovation-ready and learn how to achieve profitable innovation.


Procurement

Lean Demand-Driven Procurement

How to Apply Lean Thinking to Your Supply Management Processes

By Paul Myerson

With a focus on improving processes rather than simply cutting material costs, this book helps readers identify supply-side waste, especially in the realm of procurement, using Lean principles. The author details basic supply chain concepts and processes in a digestible format, providing process-improvement tools, methodologies, best practices, examples, and case studies. Learn how identifying nontraditional sources of waste through improved processes and, occasionally, technology can benefit your entire supply chain.


Operations

Operations and Supply Chain Management

16th Edition

By F. Robert Jacobs and Richard B. Chase

Modern businesses must continually analyze and optimize their supply chain processes. This newly updated text covers current issues affecting the industry, with a focus on the global economy. Relevant analytical data, real-world problem-solving strategies, and hot topics help readers understand the bigger picture. From manufacturing and service processes to sales planning and the Internet of Things, this book provides a wide base of supply chain knowledge.