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William J. DeWitt III

This year will see the beginning of the replacement of retiring baby boomers, a process that will impact logistics and freight transportation companies for 15 years. Over that time, U.S. demand for materials and goods -- both imported and produced domestically -- will grow, matched, and maybe exceeded, by U.S. exports that will help fulfill the improving standard of living needs of large global populations.

The baby boomers, reaching their 40s at the time of the 1980s-era of deregulation, became a core of the logistics and transportation outsourcing phenomenon, and provided outsourcing oversight for shipping and receiving companies.

Retiring baby boomers and a growing global economy will challenge U.S. logistics and transportation companies to have the experience and expertise over the next two decades for sustainable and profitable growth. Global market success will be enhanced in 2011 and beyond by a heightened engagement with the next generation of managers found in the colleges and universities that offer logistics, freight transportation, and supply chain management courses and degrees.

Industry needs more commitment to expand the programs established by the Intermodal Association of North America, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, and the Institute for Supply Management, to name a few, that sponsor students for their annual and local meetings and tours of facilities.

Less visible is the funding needed to support supply chain management doctoral programs and students, a process that can take four to six years. The industry needs qualified faculty for the future (some data suggest more than 100 faculty positions open in supply chain management with less than 30 doctoral candidates in the pipeline).

Just as there is a deficit in U.S. transportation infrastructure funding, the country and the supply chain management profession is behind in the investment in our students. They are the future managers and executives for the industry -- and the future leaders to keep the U.S. competitive in the global economy.