As an industry responsible for connecting world markets, facilitating trade across borders and between continents, efficiency, reliability, and cost-effective solutions remain in sharp focus, not only at a transactional day-to-day level, but at the strategic level to position for the future. And there remains plenty to do.
The recent past has witnessed significant reshaping of the industry landscape. M&A activity has continued establishing new standards as have vessel sizes, alliances collaborations, and scale, driving significant change both upstream and downstream in the supply chain. The pace of change has remained solid with a backdrop of diversifying market dynamics, catering to brighter volume growth, while factoring in and adjusting to emerging individual national and regional trading interests.
As we look ahead, the industry will continue to change and innovate. While the physical flow of goods and services in the supply chain remains central, focus will increasingly move to capture opportunities imbedded in managing the flow of information behind the physical flow in the supply chain. Velocity and complexity increases, and digital connectivity with smart and effective solutions connecting stakeholders will increasingly be key.
We will need to step up to collaborate actively across the stakeholders in the supply chain to help us all toward the goal of meeting the consumer requirements: here and now availability, while eliminating waste and minimizing environmental impact in the process. This development will redirect focus: customer satisfaction and quality, capability to perform and embrace innovation, and collaboration hold more value and importance than simply fulfilling demand as cheaply as possible.
Maritime and logistics players need to push harder yet on the boundaries of what is comfortable and what today appear possible. We need to nurture our culture for innovation, encourage collaboration among stakeholders beyond the traditional models and across the entire supply chain, test new avenues, and be determined to succeed.