Instead, McKinsey suggested a hub-and-spoke system, with 55 back-office centres serving 10-15 branches each.

ECONOMIST: Indonesian banking

Some of these nimbler airlines specialize in point-to-point service, instead of the hub-and-spoke system used by the legacy carriers.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Because, Mr Fallows argues, of the hub-and-spoke system, developed by the airlines since deregulation to cut their costs and fill their seats.

ECONOMIST: Air travel

The model that Mr Smith cooked up at Yale, based on a hub-and-spoke system of overnight air delivery, has since expanded to encompass a broad portfolio of businesses contributing to efficient supply chains.

ECONOMIST: Face value

In my hometown of Boston, it would be nearly impossible, due to the fact that I live in the suburbs and the transit system is based on the same hub-and-spoke system the airlines employ.

FORBES: Private Jets: Efficiency Tools, Not Posh Luxuries

With airlines cleaving away from the hub-and-spoke system -- which once rigidly controlled arrival and departure times -- in favor of more or less continuous schedules and red-eye flights, the hotel industry needs to restructure its own arrival and departure policies to reflect modern traffic flow.

CNN: 10 ways to improve the travel industry right now

It is tempting to want the Internet rebuilt to look more like a highly rational, centrally planned version of an airline system's hub-and-spoke model: big users near big content, as many direct routes as possible.

FORBES: Weaving The Perfect Net