In an environment of increasingly global competition, companies are depending on their supply chains to differentiate themselves in key markets, says Michael Woore, former program director of IT services with Technicolor.

A resilient mind-set can transform scarcity into opportunity by combining limited resources with inventiveness and a never-say-die attitude. This approach "” whether it is aimed at creating a product, service or business model "” is called jugaad innovation. Jugaad is a colloquial Hindi word that roughly translates as "an innovative fix for your business; an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness."

The DHL Global Connectedness Index, a comprehensive analysis of the state of globalization around the world, concludes that the world is less globally connected today than it was in 2007. The report, drawing on over one million data points from 2005 to 2011, documents how global connectedness, measured by international flows of trade, capital, information and people, grew robustly from the report's baseline year of 2005 to 2007, and then dropped sharply at the onset of the financial crisis. Despite modest gains since 2009, global connectedness has yet to recapture its pre-crisis peak.

A survey that examines manufacturer and consumer perceptions about how products are made, sold, bought and consumed reveals a focus on quality, supply chains that are more transparent than ever but a decline in overall optimism, according to Underwriters Laboratories.

The cross-border supply chain finance market space for companies employing over 500 employees and which are domiciled in the UK, France and Germany is estimated to be more than €460bn, or about $646bn, according to Demica's latest research report.

Revenues accumulated by the global mobile application market are expected to pass the $30bn milestone by the end of this year, according to new market data from ABI Research.