Petroplan, the global oil, gas and energy recruitment specialist, has published its annual financial report for 2013. The results reveal another successful year at Petroplan, with Profit before Tax increasing to £5.1 million, up from £2.9 million in 2012.

Chile is one of the most stable, competitive and fastest growing economies in the world, and certainly holds that position within Latin America. In 2013 Chile’s maintained its positive recent growth rate, recording 4.1 percent increase in its GDP – just a little lower than last year but still an enviable figure. Much of that growth has been driven by the country’s mineral resources, with the state mining company Codelco accounting for a third of the nation's economy.

With 22 years at Toyota behind her, working up from assembly manufacturing supervisor to VP of Manufacturing Cheryl Jones has nothing to prove when it comes to the knowledge of lean systems. However that is not where she first realized that waste is often endemic, always bad for business and ultimately unfair. That came in a very different industry, when she was working as a checkout operator for Krogers, the American supermarket chain.

Ashoka is the world's largest network of social entrepreneurs. Since 1950, 20 percent of marine species have disappeared and the rate of extinction has accelerated. At this rate the world could see the total extinction of most breeds of wild fish by 2050. To fight this, says the citation, Claire Nouvian has created an unprecedented body of independent research to support advocacy efforts targeting governments, companies, NGOs and consumers in order to change the dialogue and practices surrounding the fishing industry.

The report Valuing social investment in mining discusses how, by taking a strategic approach to corporate social responsibility, mining companies can maximise the impact of their social investments.

Mining companies, the report concedes, are very aware of the significant impact of their operations upon local communities and recognise the need to earn a "social license to operate," in the form of an unwritten contract with workers, their families, and other stakeholders.

I recently received an email from a business acquaintance who had somehow come upon the book I coauthored and published in 2010 (CoDestiny: Overcome Your Growth Challenges by Helping Your Customers Overcome Theirs). His email explained that he and his firm were grappling with the challenge described in the case study in the book’s first chapter, namely that of capturing value from innovations offered to customers who seem to care only about price. His email included the following observations:

Established in 2010, Poswa Incorporated (Poswa Inc.) is a progressive law firm, which specialises in providing services across all aspects of commercial law, including the structuring of transactions, negotiation and drafting of agreements, legal opinions and legal due diligences. Through specialist insight and personalised service, Poswa Inc. focuses on tailor made legal solutions that broaden business horizons.

Aerosud is the biggest manufacturer of aircraft parts and assemblies on the African continent, producing 1.5 million parts and assemblies a year and on the back of an established track record of quality and delivery it has become a single source supplier for almost all of the products it supplies. It is a fantastic success story, so much so that the company was declared a strategic industrial national asset by South Africa's government owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).

For the first time in four years businesses around the world are more optimistic than pessimistic, with scores rising above 50 across all three areas surveyed: their own prospects; their national economies; and the global economy according to the annual Sage Business Index, which surveys close to 14,000 small and medium sized businesses in 18 countries around the world.