Automation isn’t just reshaping how goods travel from factories to front doors. It’s also reshaping the logistics sector’s workforce. That’s according to a new podcast from JLL on the global logistics market.

And it isn't just people on the warehouse floor working shoulder-to-shoulder with robots who are impacted. The shift goes all the way up to the c-suite, with increasing needs for skills like data analytics and risk management.

This transformation of the supply chain profession through automation and digitisation has been accelerated by the pandemic. 

This is increasingly important in commercial real estate, where the logistics-sector boom appears set to continue. According to JLL’s Future of Global Logistics report, 74 percent of surveyed professionals expect demand to grow at pace over the next five years.

In this podcast, Michael Ignatiadis, JLL's head of supply chain and logistics solutions for Asia Pacific, speaks with Radu Palamariu, Global Head of Supply Chain & Logistics Practice at Alcott Global, on what skills have made, and broken, logistics businesses in these times of extreme disruption.

Michael and Radu agree that at the end of the day one of the most important skills remains very human: relationships.

“The change here is that risk and resilience is now a key metric, whereas beforehand it would have been down the list of priorities,” says Michael Ignatiadis.

“I think the biggest difference between the companies that will win, and those that will lose, will be people,” says Radu. “The same types of technologies will be available to everybody… but the ability of teams to act fast will make the difference.”

Listen to the podcast here: How automation is reshaping the logistics job market

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JLL’s latest podcast investigates the future of logistics