The ancient Tamil adage “Thennai maraththil thel kottinaal, panai maraththil neri kattum” (when a scorpion stings a coconut tree, a swelling appears on a palmyra tree) aptly captures the interconnected nature of events.

The supply chain disruptions roiling a large part of the world today exemplify this.

Diet Coke, sold only in aluminium cans, is feeling the pinch in India.

The Strait of Hormuz blockade has prevented the cans from reaching Indian factories, affecting production and supply.

Ditto several alcoholic and other non-alcoholic beverage brands dependent on overseas supply of can-grade aluminium.

This is not the first time a supply disruption has affected brands on shelves.

In 2024, during the Red Sea crisis, Tesla and Volvo reportedly halted production in Europe due to delays in component deliveries.

The Black Sea blockade in 2022 affected the supply of semiconductor-grade neon gas, critical in chip manufacturing.

A literal blockade occurred in 2021 when a container vessel remained stuck in the Suez Canal route for six days.

History shows that such trade disruptions push economies to search for alternatives — new routes and even new industries.

The fall of Constantinople in the 15th century disrupted the old Asia-Europe trade route and was one of the reasons that forced European powers to look for new sea routes to India and beyond in the East.

Centuries later, Napoleon Bonaparte’s blockade of British trade led to sugar shortages in Europe, prompting the development of beet sugar as a substitute.

Global lessons In today’s globalised world, there are useful lessons in how some companies prepared for, or responded to such shocks.

When the 2011 massive earthquake in Japan disrupted the supply lines of Toyota, the automobile giant mapped 6,800 critical components and their choke points across suppliers, as part of its RESCUE (REinforce Supply Chain Under Emergency) system.

Another key decision was to maintain buffer stocks for non-substitutable parts such as semiconductor chips, for which the just-in-time rule may not be applicable.

This system kept Toyota....