Hewlett-Packard ($8 billion) and Nike ($5 billion) also unveil major stock repurchase programs. Microsoft CorpÔÇÖs plan to buy back its shares from investors, which will run until 2013, is said to be the biggest single buy-back plan in history. Analysts say the move is an attempt by the company to use its spare cash to prop up its share price, which has fallen nearly 30 percent this year, partly due to its failed $47.5 billion bid to acquire Internet portal Yahoo.

A well-supported ventureWood Group Pressure Control knows that the value of its work is only as good as the value of its workforce. Kate Sawyer investigates. Consider this. In December 2007, Wood Group Pressure ControlÔÇÖs Australian field service team received a safety recognition award from Santos, its client, for eight years of service with zero recordable injuriesÔÇöduring this time, the team completed in excess of 100,000 man hours in the field, with over 500 wellhead completions.How is this possible?

Trailer lifeWabash National has made continuous improvement a way of life for its employees in recent years, and now the supply chain is getting the lionÔÇÖs share of the attention, as Keith Regan learns from the team leading the push to embrace change as a way to remain competitive. In the first two years of its continuous improvement journey, Wabash National conducted some 375 different improvement events, many focused on making small improvements in operations.

When it took over responsibility for Toronto Pearson International Airport, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) had a desperate need to rebuild its facilities. Now that has been done, the next phase of strategic development can beginWith over 30 million passengers a year, Toronto Pearson International Airport is the busiest airport in Canada. When the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) was established in 1996, however, the facilities it inherited from the government were nothing less than deplorable.

Growing in a building boomKeith Regan details how St. Francis Health System has used close project management and oversight to keep its projects on track even as contractors are being tempted by other work. About five years ago, St. Francis Health System developed a long-range facilities master plan that would address the institutionÔÇÖs growing role in delivering healthcare in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the surrounding suburbs.

Extending the nuclear familyThe word ÔÇ£partnershipÔÇØ has been an integral part of the success of the MOX Project, which aims to design, build and operate a Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, as Andrew Pelis learns. The demise of the Cold War was not just a triumph for peace and security. The aftermath has seen the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, which has opened up a range of new opportunities in Aiken, South Carolina.

Rising to the occasionDowntown SeattleÔÇÖs skyline is accentuated with Dick HedreenÔÇÖs high-rise accomplishments, which he describes to Gary Toushek. Seattle developer Richard (Dick) HedreenÔÇÖs ambitious career began simply enough after his military service was up.

Newfound prosperityAfter more than two decades, operations are starting again in Ming Mine in Newfoundland, Rambler Metals & MiningÔÇÖs CEO George Ogilvie tells Ruari McCallion. Newfoundland has tended to be somewhere people come from rather than go to. The prosperity and energy of Montreal, Toronto and points west have proved to be magnets for the energetic and ambitious, and it has been easy to understand why.   Lack of resources and the sheer distance to markets have contributed to long-term economic struggles.

OntarioÔÇÖs QueenÔÇÖs University takes a realistic approach to sustainability, Jenn Monroe reportsIn one year, September 2009, QueenÔÇÖs University in Kingston, Ontario, is planning to celebrate the completion of Phase I of its QueenÔÇÖs Centre, a new athletics, recreational and student life complex that will feature the new School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, a varsity gymnasium, an aquatic center, a fitness and weight center, and an underground parking garage.

Building on experienceDecades of experience in building multi-family projects have given the Paradigm Companies extensive insight into how to get them done with the highest quality and lowest costs. The firmÔÇÖs principals tell Keith Regan how it is able to embrace projects that others look past. The Paradigm Companies got their official start in 1991, when former principals with the local office of National Development acquired that companyÔÇÖs Washington DC portfolio of projects.