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.

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis has launched an $18.5 billion bid for US biotech company Genzyme Corp.

The bid is said to be aimed at capturing Genzyme’s drugs for high cholesterol and its lucrative treatments for rare genetic disorders.

Sanofi's now hostile $69-per-share offer values the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company at $18.5 billion—the same as its friendly offer made privately to Genzyme’s management in July. Genzyme rebuffed that approach.

Just six years after first setting foot in China, entrepreneur Pete Toms has turned a great idea and a set of good contacts into a $7 million turnover company. Gay Sutton goes to the horse’s mouth to find out how he did it.

The story of Frontier Mining is one of an amazing turnaround. Jane Bordenave finds out how the company went from bust to boom in just 12 months.

While it is listed on the London Stock Exchange, Frontier Mining is in fact a Kazakh mineral exploration and development operation that has been working in Kazakhstan since 1998. It is involved in gold and copper mining and was bought in 2009 by a group of investors led by entrepreneur Erlan Sagadiev.