China has become by far Africa's biggest trading partner, exchanging about $160bn worth of goods a year; more than a million Chinese, most of them labourers and traders, have moved to the continent in the past decade. The mutual adoration between governments continues, with ever more African roads and mines built by Chinese firms. But the talk of Africa becoming Chinese - or "China’s second continent", as the title of one American book puts it - is overdone.

Competition for job-creating foreign direct investment (FDI) is brutal these days in the European Union. Although it used to be the world's biggest recipient of FDI, its global share has now fallen from almost 29 percent in 2011 to 17 percent in 2013, according to UNCTAD. With European investment subdued, banks reining in lending and economies struggling to grow, foreigners with fat wallets are more than usually needed. Even France has engaged this year in a charm offensive to lure them in. So a recent study suggesting that only 12 percent of American companies with operations in France rate it positively as an investment destination is ruffling feathers.

In China, intellectual-property rights are hard and costly to defend, especially for small and mid-sized companies.

Supply-chain managers have a new focus: to move from cutting costs to enabling new processes and making corporations more connected and agile to create value across the entire enterprise.

In almost every town in Mexico, you will find at least one garish La Michoacana ice-cream parlour, a Mexican business success story, possibly as well known as Dunkin' Donuts is in the United States. But it is not a corporation, nor a brand, nor a franchise. It is a confetti of independent, family-owned ice-cream parlours.

When Mexico set up the first maquiladoras half a century ago, they were sweatshops that simply bolted or stitched together imported parts, then exported the assembled product north across the border to the United States. America got cheap goods; Mexico got jobs and export revenues. Now, with competition growing from other low-cost locations, and with the government cutting some of their tax breaks, the maquiladoras are having to step up their efforts to become innovative.

Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing as it's often called, is not about to replace mass manufacturing. Even though the technology is improving, the finish and durability of some printed items can still fall short of what producers require.