Kenneth H. Marks offers a framework for planning successful deals.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions can be a viable alternative for accomplishing a number of strategic objectives for emerging growth and middle-market companies (those from startup to several hundred million dollars in revenue). Let’s take a high-level view of the buy-side and sell-side processes, and a framework for thinking about and planning each.

Privatization is often seen as a money-raising exercise by governments selling off national assets, but the experience in Mexico with airports run by Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASUR) shows that performance can be enhanced, as Alan Swaby learns.

Well-established cargo carrier Evergreen International Airlines isn’t resting on its laurels—it’s using corporate introspection to improve efficiencies for the future, David Hendricks learns.

RBH Group is poised to begin work on Teachers Village, a residential development in the historical center of Newark. Company president Ron Beit talks to Gay Sutton about his vision for kick-starting wider urban regeneration.

Winston Churchill said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” Rob Harris investigates the Linbeck Group, a company that has adopted innovation as one of its organizational core policies and has included in its journey new tools and processes through “Virtual Design and Construction”.

Commodities markets can be notoriously volatile thanks to a blend of fluctuating prices and operational pressures. One solution that manufacturers are increasingly turning to is iRely, an innovative software company. Sudhakar Kaup, vice president at iRely, talks to Andrew Pelis about how the company gives manufacturing companies an edge.

Genera Energy focuses on advancing biomass-fuels technologies that could help alter the economics of non-food biofuels. Now the University of Tennessee spinoff is developing a first-of-its-kind Biomass Innovation Park that it hopes will become a model for the rest of the country, as Keith Regan discover.

By securing a long-term contract to provide terminal wheelchair service to London’s Heathrow Airport, Air Serv Corporation has enhanced its already solid position as a global leader. Keith Regan learns how the company plans to leverage its experience and turn Heathrow into a model for using technology and operational excellence to further enhance service while driving down costs.

Having digested and integrated a wave of acquisitions to broaden its product lineup and make it an even stronger force in the wireless world, Powerwave Technologies is now eyeing long-term future growth. Keith Regan learns how operational excellence, a careful supplier strategy and low-cost procurement techniques provide a solid foundation for the company to have a major hand in the wireless revolution that’s still to come.

Construction spending in the US was up slightly more in August than had been expected, driven by an increase in public sector construction funded by federal money.

According to figures released by the Commerce Department, total construction spending rose to $811 billion, up 0.4 percent from July, on a rolling 12 month basis. The picture is still quite bleak, however, compared to a year ago when construction spending reached $902 billion in the 12 months leading to August 2009.