By this time next year, hopefully my beloved Philadelphia Phillies will have repeated their Fall Classic World Series run as a reprisal of last year. The boys in red pinstripes are certainly “going deep” again in 2024.
As I think about shipping and supply chain, I notice how much different — and dare I say modern — baseball has become. Yes, many of the players, ballparks and even facial hair are similar to the past, but the new speed of the game. My gosh, the speed.
Less down time, more balls in play, more base stealing, more flash. This is because of the new pitch clock, digital “comms” devices for catchers and pitchers and rules against time wasting. America’s Great Pastime now caters to a much more preoccupied, modern target audience. The game suddenly fits better in a faster world.
GPS, digital twins, port community systems, IoT, 5G, interconnectivity, real-time decision making, drones and rapid EV charging — can our industry take a page from Major League Baseball and cater to a newer target audience?
Across all economies — but especially among supply chain professionals — we’re still reeling from The Great Resignation, caused in part by the professional and personal stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A historically large cohort of the Baby Boom generation is morphing into a cohort with very different expectations of speed, availability and visibility. I wonder whether our “game” will advance from the 2010s era of “sit-back-then-hack” towards a much faster “double-steal” strategy.
Whatever the ultimate speed of technology adoption, AAPA will work to advance policies, standards and information sharing during our most interesting time since containerization.