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The marketplace for third-party logistics is arguably the largest market in the world. Any physical good that comes into or goes out of the United States requires extensive logistics planning and management and must be cleared by U.S. Customs. Because of the complexities of these processes, most businesses choose to hire a 3PL provider to manage the transportation, clearance, warehousing, and distribution of their shipments.

Market Statistics

In 2006, imports to the United States exceeded $2.2 trillion (a 10.5% increase over 2005) and exports exceeded $1.4 trillion (an increase of 12.8%). Each of these goods required a number of shipping and warehousing services and must receive US Customs clearance? this is where Go Global takes over.

In 2006, the total revenue for the 3PL industry was $110.6 billion, representing a total industry growth rate of 11.9%. Datamonitor projects that by 2010, the total 3PL market will exceed $140 billion.

Global trade management is also part of the focus at Go Global Logistics. In 2005, the global trade management segment expanded to $222 million, and is expected to swell to $405 million by 2010, a cumulative annual growth rate of 12.8%.

The Go Global Marketplace is cornering this portion of the market, encouraging small and mid-sized businesses to participate in global trade, under the consultation of Go Global. By using the marketplace to manage our customer’s transactions, Go Global is able to provide FREE transaction management, shipment tracking, trade negotiations, and our “bidding war” reverse auction function, adding value for our clients and strengthening our comparative advantage over the competition.

Many companies entered international markets precipitously and are only now beginning to address the lack of visibility across their supply chains. Only the largest 3PL (third party logistics) providers offer the newest technologies like online tracking, and 90% of enterprises report that their global supply chain technology is inadequate to provide the timely information necessary for budget and cash-flow planning as well as effective management. Go Global Logistics offers every tool your company needs to have an efficient and transparent supply chain to make your importing and exporting as easy and error free as possible.

One of the most counterintuitive aspects of the freight forwarding and third party logistics industry is the lack of a central location for international trade information and services. The industry is extremely

? Us Census. “Annual Trade Highlights.”http://www.census.gov. January 2007.
? Hoffman, William. “3PLs Reach Record Revenue.” Traffic World. 23 Apr. 2007.
? Datamonitor. “Global Air Freight & Logistics.” http://www.datamonitor.com. Apr. 2007.
? Sowinski, Laura. “What Supply Chain Execs are Buying, Where They’re Skimping.” World Trade. Sep. 2006.
fragmented and operates behind the scenes. For this reason, many businesses with a desire to enter international markets have no idea where to begin.

Furthermore, those companies that do provide complete 3PL services are very large and have been focusing on maintaining a small number of larger accounts. Many small and mid-sized businesses who were fortunate enough to find a reliable 3PL provider find themselves being squeezed out and not having their contracts renewed. The smaller third party logistics providers do not offer the newer supply chain technologies, and are characterized by “old school” business practices.

Go Global is involved in many of the fastest growing markets in the world such as Asia and Western Europe where the market is expected to grow 33% over the next five years. It is projected that after five years, 3PLs (third party logistics providers) will handle more than 57% of the sector’s supply chain requirements. This provides tremendous growth opportunities for Go Global.

Go Global is also slowly expanding into the African markets as the infrastructure and problems with governmental corruption improves. Foreign Direct Investment in Africa has been steadily rising, a sign that it will soon be a viable target market for Go Global Logistics. In 2006, FDI increased 26.5% to $38.8 billion. If this trend continues to develop, Africa may be the next China of international trade, and Go Global hopes to be there to ride the wave.

? Sowinski, Laura. “What Supply Chain Execs are Buying, Where They’re Skimping.” World Trade. Sep. 2006.
? Commercial Motor. “Significant Potential for Third-party Logistics.” Reed Business Information. 15 Mar. 2007.
? Panitchpakdi, Supachai. “Investment in Africa: The Challenges Ahead.” International Trade Forum. Issue 1/2007.

Redefining the Market

Most small and mid-sized businesses search for 3PL providers on the internet, where 3PL advertising coverage is abysmal. Upon performing an online search for “customs broker” “3PL” or “logistics,” the results yielded are generally unrelated to the services businesses are seeking. Go Global plans to capitalize on this by establishing a strong online presence with user-friendly information geared towards businesses new to international trade.

By providing innovative features that are valuable to our customers like the Go Global Online Marketplace, we attract a wide range of businesses seeking to or already engaged in international trade. The Go Global Marketplace is redefining the market by creating a centralized online marketplace allowing importers and exporters across the globe to connect and trade in a secure and efficient platform.

By providing low cost, scalable, online services with the same level of visibility available from the largest 3PLs, Go Global is redefining the world of international trade and supply chain services and continues to empower small and mid-sized businesses to compete on the global stage.

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Of late, the topic of succession planning has sparked much concern. However, it seems few organizations have heeded the warning. According to a Human Resource Planning Society and Hewitt Associates study, fewer than 60% of companies have a succession plan in place.

Below are some of the most common myths about succession planning.

Myth #1: If there are no imminent retirements, succession planning needn’t be a top priority.

According to a survey conducted by Capital H, nearly 22 percent of respondents expect to lose between 10 percent and 25 percent of their top performers to retirement within the next five years. These top performers play a significant role in a company’s success, often serving in high-level, supervisory roles. For successions to progress smoothly, the people chosen to fill these roles need to be prepared and adequately trained. That process takes time.

Myth #2: Succession planning is only an issue for big companies.

85 to 95 percent of all the companies in the United States today – more than 10 million ? are family-owned or family-controlled. The smaller the business, the greater the impact is felt from a replaced employee. This is especially true of any employee succession in a sales or operations leadership role, as a poor month or two can mean disaster for a small company. Small companies need to plan early and invest in the training necessary to help the new or promoted employee succeed. For smaller companies, this may mean researching outside learning opportunities and setting aside a budget to cover them.

Myth #3: There need only be a succession plan for C-level team members.

During the recent recession, employees were often asked to broaden their lists of responsibilities. The Economic Policy Institute reports that employee productivity has increased 4.1% each year. Manager and director-level professionals have been asked to take on more duties than ever before. As such, it is important to look at a cross-section of departments to ensure proper succession plans are in place for each division.

Myth #4: Succession planning should be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Continuity works best. Allowing each department to come up with its own unique process for succession planning, can be a troublesome and time-consuming endeavor. Organizations, instead, should create a company-wide process that could then be used by each individual department.

Myth #5: Good talent is easy to spot.

As an employee moves up the corporate ladder, soft skills become more necessary and valuable components of success ? management skills, emotional intelligence, leadership ability, and so forth. However, these skills can be difficult to quantify. To spot and cultivate employees with these skills, an organization needs an instrument to help measure and assess talent. According to a recent report by Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management, organizations like Lilly, Dow and Dell have long-used talent assessment as part of their succession planning processes.

Myth #6: Succession planning only pertains to baby boomers.

According to SHRM and CareerJournal.com’s 2005 US Job Recovery and Retention Survey, 76% of all employees are looking for a new job. This means that your top performers may be leaving sooner than you imagine. As such, it’s important to think about succession planning ? not as a one-time effort ? but as an ongoing process to continually grow and develop your organization.

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Most small business owners are not aware that they or an employee may be breaking the law regarding spam. The advice that follows is intended to help you avoid any financial or legal consequences.

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was signed into law and became effective January 1, 2004. As a small business owner, you need to be aware of your obligations under this law to avoid serious problems that could cost you time and money. The law is very specific about the content you must provide in any commercial email advertising piece. Not surprisingly, many of us are victims of daily assaults with unsolicited junk mail from very obscure sources. What these spammers are doing is illegal. Taking time to complain is impractical for many small entrepreneurs, so in most cases we just delete the junk, and go about our business.

On the other hand as a small business owner you are in a different position when sending email to customers. Your credibility is at risk because you are not obscure, and may be easily identified for criminal prosecution or law suits. Understand your obligations and what you can or cannot do. In the US, the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, is the government entity for establishing and monitoring compliance with this law. Their rules are very specific as follows:

Requirements for Commercial Emailers

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them. The law, which became effective January 1, 2004, covers email whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service, including content on a Web site. A “transactional or relationship message” – email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship – may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.

FTC Facts for Business

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, is authorized to enforce the CAN-SPAM Act. CANSPAM also gives the Department of Justice (DOJ) the authority to enforce its criminal sanctions. Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law against organizations under their jurisdiction, and companies that provide Internet access may sue violators, as well. What the Law Requires Here’s a rundown of the law’s main provisions:

- It bans false or misleading header information. Your email’s “From,” “To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
- It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.
- It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a “menu” of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor’s email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it’s illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.
- It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.

Penalties May Be Severe

Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising. Additional fines are provided for commercial emailers who not only violate the rules described above, but also:

- “harvest” email addresses from Web sites or Web services that have published a notice prohibiting the transfer of email addresses for the purpose of sending email
- generate email addresses using a “dictionary attack” – combining names, letters, or numbers into multiple permutations
- use scripts or other automated ways to register for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial email
- relay emails through a computer or network without permission – for example, by taking advantage of open relays or open proxies without authorization.

Department of Justice Facts for Business

The law allows the DOJ to seek criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for commercial emailers who do – or conspire to:
- use another computer without authorization and send commercial email from or through it
- use a computer to relay or retransmit multiple commercial email messages to deceive or mislead recipients or an Internet access service about the origin of the message
- falsify header information in multiple email messages and initiate the transmission of such messages
- register for multiple email accounts or domain names using information that falsifies the identity of the actual registrant
- falsely represent themselves as owners of multiple Internet Protocol addresses that are used to send commercial email messages.

Conclusion

Fines up to $11,000 per violation should get your attention. Review your commercial email policies, and revise as necessary to make sure you include the 3 most frequently omitted features: identify advertising, your physical address, and an opt-out provision. Continue your review to confirm compliance with all requirements. Finally, visit the official FTC web site for information on additional rules and press releases that may have occurred since this report was written.