In Case You Missed It

• What drives supply chain innovation? 5 thought-leaders respond.
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• Not cutting-edge enough? Check out USPS's plan to deploy self-driving mail trucks by 2025.

Market Snapshot

It was a good week of economic news, as growth seems to have outshined the hurricane effect in the U.S.

A few highlights:

• Jobless claims fell to the lowest level since March 1, 1973, to 222,000 last week.
• Business inventories posted the largest gain in 9 months, CNBC reports.
• Consumer sentiment rose beyond expectations (6.3%) in October. Economists expected the University of Michigan index to rise only 0.2% from September, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Retailers and manufacturers should rejoice as this signals a strong start to the holiday shopping season, despite concerns the hurricanes would severely affect disposable income.

Technically Speaking

Companies are increasingly turning to startups to help them adapt to market shifts.

CMA CGM last week announced it would create an incubator in Marseilles, France and back startups that can help in its "digital transformation." Such a strategy has gained popularity in recent years, with companies like Target and FedEx boasting similar programs.

In some cases, though, startups need a source of secure funding more than a technology development program. When it comes to CMA CGM or Target, companies are often looking for solutions to specific business problems. Other times, a company is simply seeking the best ideas for the next big technology, and therefore opt to create an investment fund instead.

As an example, the South China Morning Post reports Foxconn Technologies and IDG Capital have approached investors to raise 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) to back emerging automotive technologies. This will allow the companies to scope out and back innovative ideas at the same rate of companies like General Motors and Ford. 

Breaking Ground

Amazon's quest for a second home is driving cities — and pundits — crazy.

For good reason, too. The construction project will bring an estimated $5 billion of economic value to a city in addition to roughly 50,000 jobs. Cities are doing everything in their power to secure these economic benefits, from promising tax incentives or the gifting of a lively Saguaro cactus.

The process is so hyped it is almost like cities are bidding for the Olympics, one analyst told Retail Dive. And as with any other bidding process, the time has come for Amazon to decide its favorite.

Want to know all the factors at play and the cities involved? Construction Dive's Mary Tyler March puts it all together in this round-up article.

Mergers and Analysis

Mergers and acquisitions are not always about expanding market share. Sometimes, a company is just looking to be better at what they do.

Take Qualcomm's $39 billion purchase of NXP Semiconductors, for example. Qualcomm is already a leader in the electronics component space, having developed the mobile processor found in many of today's smartphones. But the giant cannot benefit from the decade-old innovation forever, so it needed to find the next big technology to invest in: self-driving vehicle technology, The Wall Street Journal Reports.

Meanwhile, Airbus last week took full control of Sepang Aircraft Engineering, a Malaysia-based airplane service firm. The Wall Street Journal reports the move is a bid to diversify its revenue stream outside aircraft building, but it is also a way for the company to take greater control of the aerospace industry's supply chain. If the customer is demanding greater servicing and fewer planes, manufacturers must adapt.

Sometimes, though, adapting to consumer demands requires splitting a company, rather than expanding it. The Journal also reports Reckitt Benckiser Group is splitting its consumer packaged goods brands into two divisions: consumer-health and home-and-hygiene. 

You can't have a successful business without a good product, and you can't know a good product unless you keep your consumers top-of-mind. Sometimes, as these three companies show, that requires change.