The business of logistics – designing and coordinating the flow of items, information, cash and ideas through the supply chain — is an enormous industry.  The US logistics bill is now more than $1 trillion — a bigger share of the GDP than that of social security, health care or defense.

It is also a very complex business. A proliferation of factors — such as the development of technology, the globalization of the economy and the pressures of environmental concerns — means that logistics professionals have to design and operate worldwide networks which are constantly in flux and which have to respond to a host of constituents.

Because logistics professionals are always dealing with where the rubber meets the road, so to speak — where the company meets the outside world — logistics is centrally involved with the source of all corporate power: satisfying the customer.

(For more detail on the field of logistics, visit the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, the European Logistics Association or the American Production and Inventory Control Society )

(To see a recent piece from the Wall Street Journal about how the field is growing, and how many high-paying jobs it's creating, go here.)