Peter Drucker

Drucker's 1962 essay pushed executives to see distribution as a major, poorly understood cost, which helped launch logistics as a management discipline. He argued that the activities after a product leaves the factory, including warehousing, transport, and inventory, consumed a large share of the price of goods yet received little management attention. The essay is often cited as a starting point for physical distribution and later supply chain management. Brands that track fulfillment cost as a percent of revenue or cost to serve by channel are applying his insight that these costs are worth measuring and managing.

• Fulfillment Cost as Percent of RevenueShare of revenue spent on fulfillment
• Cost to ServeFull cost of serving a customer or channel

• Donald J. Bowersox1932–2011 · Logistics educator, Michigan State
• Michael Porterb. 1947 · Strategist, creator of the value chain
• Antoine-Henri Jomini1779–1869 · Military theorist who named logistics

1. The Economy's Dark Continent, in The Roots of Logistics (Springer, via RePEc IDEAS) ideas.repec.org
2. Labor logistics (Phenomenal World) phenomenalworld.org