Since founding IOS 22 years ago at Chicoutimi in Québec, Réjean Girard has seen no fewer than four recessions and it's an achievement in itself that, as a service provider to the notoriously cyclic mining industry, the firm has managed to grow through each of them. It has forged a reputation well beyond Québec and Canada as an efficient and innovative operator.

Founded in 2005, its focus being to provide clients with management consulting and IT solutions, CONCIEL has expanded over the subsequent years to become a business tasked with solving its customers’ mission-critical problems through the innovative application of technology and expertise.

The artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector is a catch all classification for a diverse group of people who employ low-tech methods, with little in the way of equipment and no supervision, to extract metals – mainly gold.

It is almost impossible to avoid the messages about the importance of innovation that dominate business magazines, web sites, and conferences. At a most recent Annual Meeting of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, innovation joined “Big Data” and channel disruption as the three themes cited by CEOs, CMOs, and academic experts as most critical to the future success of business-to-business manufacturing firms. That emphasis is nothing new.

The agreement to join forces and respectively reshape their businesses will also see the two firms combining their consumer health units. Novartis will acquire GSK's cancer drugs business for $16 billion and sell its vaccines division, excluding the flu unit, to GSK for $7.1 billion.

In a separate deal, Novartis has agreed to sell its animal health division to Lilly for nearly $5.4bn. The firm said the moves would help it to focus on its key businesses.

The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable has his sights set on what he calls 'the darker side of capitalism'. He has announced his intention to create a new public register of company ownership that will reveal the ultimate owners of UK companies, thus making it harder for firms to evade tax or funnel corrupt funds.

Nobody’s perfect. What quality or ability do you wish you had?
Being able to predict the future more accurately.

What is the best business book you have ever read, and why?
Mind of a Fox, by Clem Sunter and Chantell Illbury. Through scenario planning they predicted the 9/11 disaster. The book talks about enabling one to have vision to the point where one can predict specific future events.

Founded in 1970, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has since transformed itself from a small conventional ship operator into one of the world’s largest and best known maritime transportation groups. By providing an unparalleled service network through its various offices around the globe, and through the expansion of its fleet, MSC has successfully consolidated its position as the second largest carrier in terms of container slot capacity and the number of container vessels operated.

“I think it’s safe to say that business has changed dramatically over the last 18 months,” states Rainstorm Dust Control’s technical sales and marketing manager, Mason Trouchet, when I ask him what life has been like for the Australian company since we last featured them in September 2012.