Scanning the Horizon: 4-8 Jan
Research: Women Are Better Leaders During a Crisis
Source: Harvard Business Review
The research presented by the Harvard Business Review points to a phenomenon of the "glass cliff" which describes an idea that women get promoted to leadership positions when a company is in a deep crisis and needs saving. Just as a recent example, COVID-19 crisis has shown countries led by females dealt with the outbreak better than countries led by men.
In the research, competence-based analysis proved women performed better in a number of areas:
One of the main reasons why women proved to perform better, is that women demonstrated better results in employee engagement, notably, communicating well, inspiring and motivating their teams, building relationships and collaborating effectively.
Global air cargo volumes on the rise
Source: Air Cargo Week
December holiday season brought positivity to air transport industry, as air cargo volumes grew for the first time in over a year, recording 8% increase in the last weeks of December. The airfreight industry also marked a record load factor of 73% calculated by taking both cargo volume and weight into account.
Interestingly, the was no major impact on air cargo volumes generated from the shipments of COVID-19 vaccine yet.
How inclusion helps companies succeed
Source: Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania via WEF
With global protests calling for social justice accross the world, last year highlighted the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workspace like never before. The analysis points out that companies which champion diversity and inclusion perform better at the "3 Ps" - performance, preparedness and purpose.
One of the issues for companies trying to advance their social justice policies, is not knowing the real difference between diversity and inclusion. It is not enough to strive for diversity without enforcing inclusion, and it should not be just a "nice to have if there is time" - everyone should be included in the process and there should be a systemic action to advance it.
Waste not want not: 4 signs the circular economy is going strong
Source: World Resources Institute via WEF
Another great trend is proving the potential of how people, planet and profit can coexist in a sustainable matter - the growth of circular economy. The transition to the circular economcy that is taking pace right now accross the globe is a systemic change and embracing it has many benefits. Our interest is also at how logistics sector can benefit from this process and there are certainly clear opportunities to take:
Traditional large companies, like IKEA, H&M embrace the resale of their own used producs
E-commerce is supporting the move to resale of used products
Business to business (B2B) services, like logistics emerge to support the resale of used products
Maintenance, repair and refurbishment services expand and gain importance
Airfreight rates expected to remain elevated in 2021
Source: Air Cargo News
As the air cargo belly capacity in 2021 remains hard to predict, due to ongoing global pandemic, slower than anticipated national vaccination programs and remaining travel restrictions, the air cargo rates are expected to remain high and volatile for some time.
As a result of this uncertainty the shippers shifted to making ad-hoc agreements for the 2021 calendar year in a new normal of market-based pricing.
Issue 6’s In-Depth Focus on Sustainability
Source: International Airport Review
The International Airport Review dedicaded a whole issue on the efforts the airports sector is making to reduce its CO2 emissions, cut on energy consumption, limit waste and water usage to name just a few.
The industry's efforts examples span from Melbourne Airport setting a solar energy farm, Toronto Pearson Airport reducing energy consumption an cutting CO2 emissions beyond global agreements, to ACI World coordinating industry's efforts on a global scale.