The conversation in boardrooms has shifted from:
“How do we make this cheaper?”
to
“How do we get this there faster?”
This is not a soft trend. It has hard numbers. Speed is the new cost advantage.
Zara restocks stores in 2 weeks. Traditional retailers take 6 months. That’s not a logistics difference, it’s a business model difference.
Gartner’s 2024 supply chain report found that top-performing chains prioritize responsiveness 3× more than cost reduction.
A product that arrives on time at 5% higher cost outperforms a cheaper product that misses the window.
Time-to-market isn’t a KPI anymore. It’s survival.
