The value of the virtual currency has been rapidly rising since a US Senate committee hearing earlier in November which described it as a “legitimate financial service”.

It was almost 350 years ago that the seeds of Canada’s mining sector were sown with the discovery of coal on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Three and a half centuries on and there are more than 800 mines across the country providing direct employment for more than 363,000 workers.

Today Canada ranks first in the world for the production of potash and uranium, and among the top five for the production of nickel and diamonds, with its mining industry contributing approximately five percent of its gross domestic product.

"Providing service for what we sell" is the formula which has endured for eight decades and managed to consolidate Finning as the most important partner in the distribution of Caterpillar equipment worldwide. This is stated by Marcello Marchese, CEO of Finning South America, who has led the company since June 2012, taking command of the Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay branches, where the company is positioned as the major CAT equipment and services distributor for the mining, construction, energy, forestry and oil & gas industries.

To some, solar power represents the perfect environmental energy source, one which will be ever present so long as the sun continues to shine. Arguments for solar power also draw on the fact that solar power plants promote clean energy production by producing virtually nothing in the way of pollution, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint of a project.

In an age where negative stories seem to supersede positive news the vast majority of the time, it is always refreshing to hear an optimistic voice or opinion. We have all been privy to the damaging effects that have come in the wake of the sharp fall in metal prices and economic activity in the mining sector, a prolonged event that has seen a lot of company’s share prices plunge as they fail to raise much needed capital, however if you search around you will find people that are much quicker to speak of the opportunities that do exist today.

Mining has been a fundamental part of Ontario’s economic fabric for centuries and is now seen as an integral component of its future. Ontario’s native population is widely credited with being the first to tap into the province’s mineral wealth, while major discoveries and mine development in the 20th century helped to underpin Ontario's rise to the status of Canada's most populous and wealthiest province, and supported Canada's development as an industrialised and globally competitive nation.

There are of course a number of reasons behind South Africa’s growing competitiveness amongst global markets in the last decade or more, however one that stands out in particular is the country’s modern transportation sector. South Africa’s roads, railways and ports are already regarded as a crucial engine for economic growth and social development, and stand to develop further still through the government’s stated intent to invest billions of Rand in the years to come.

Some years ago, I worked with a major equipment supplier whose products were relevant to virtually every vertical market. The president of this company had decided to define a new sales model, motivated by his observation that “As I spent time in the market, I learned that we had customers everywhere, but that we weren’t special to customers anywhere”. That’s a common issue for firms with broadly relevant products and services, and there are always good reasons and strong advocates for almost every possible opportunity to make a sale to a customer.

A too small sales force is a loss of income and a too large or incorrectly allocated one is a waste of resources. Many companies use their sales managers’ gut feelings to determine how many sales people they should have and how they should be allocated. This means that one of the most important decisions for growth and profitability is based on the hidden assumptions of a few people.