The company’s 12 percent profit rise, to the tune of £443 million, was underpinned by the strong performance of its minerals division.

Weir Minerals, which specialises in supplying slurry handling equipment, was boosted by continued demand growth in Chinese and emerging markets for key commodities such as copper.

Weir also said cost efficiencies helped it achieve a record year, which saw revenue up by 12 percent to more than £2.5 billion.

During a recent discussion, a customer of one of my clients described an episode of the popular television series House in response to a question that I had asked. In that episode, Drs. House and Wilson had made a bet as to which could hide a chicken in the hospital for the longest time without being detected by security. A young doctor on the staff asked a colleague why each of the two senior department heads had chickens in the hospital. The answer she got was “The store only had one pig”.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are more active in international markets than ever before. Advances in technology and lower barriers to international trade have made it easier for them to compete globally, yet building a network of subsidiaries presents a fundamental challenge, with each business unit operating in a different environment.

Alberto Salas, president, La Sociedad Nacional de Minería (the national mining society of Chile)

What is the historical role of SONAMI?
La Sociedad Nacional de Minería (SONAMI) is one of the oldest business organizations in Chile. This year we’ll have been running for 129 years and during that time we have played a key role in the development of the mining sector.

Chile is currently responsible for over a third of worldwide copper production. It has been the leading global producer of copper since the 1990s when the government’s liberalisation policy opened the country to the international mining community.

New home sales surged some 16 percent in January to their highest rate since July 2008, while The Conference Board index of consumer attitudes rebounded to 69.6 in February from an upwardly revised 58.6 in January.

This latter figure suggests Americans has recovered from the shock of a sharp rise in payroll taxes over the New Year.

Markets were buoyed by the US data, which were both well above expectations, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovering half a percent in morning trading.

It was in 1972 that Dame Shirley Bassey released the iconic song Diamonds Are Forever. Immortalised as the theme tune to one of Sean Connery’s greatest James Bond adventures the song spoke of how diamonds will remain long after a person’s love has gone. The truth is that not only will diamonds outlive many generations to come, the creation of natural diamonds pre-dates life on earth itself.

Bus transport could have been made for South Africa. Though it’s a big country with huge variety across its nine provinces, unlike many of its neighbours it has an excellent road network and one of the four major intercity bus lines travels to nearly every city and village. Not only is cross-country bus travel in South Africa cheaper than flying but it is far more satisfying. The Rainbow Nation’s landscape is as varied as its people.

According to the Zambia Tourism Board this nation surrounded by eight neighbours has over 40,000 kilometres of roads, only 8,200 kilometres of them tarred and another 8,000 kilometres all weather gravel road. The rest are made of compressed laterite and vary in condition from reasonable to rather bad, being vulnerable to the seasonal rains.

Wherever life may take us, we are all born with the same basic skill set. However it is from this point onwards that we each develop and progress as human beings in hugely different ways from one another. Nevertheless, the vast majority of us will one day find ourselves in a similar position to when we were young in that we will require training to embark on our future career paths.