German car maker Volkswagen has risen above the economic slowdown with an increase in profits for the third quarter, thanks to booming sales in emerging markets.  ┬á Net profit from July to September rose 28 percent to 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion), with increased demand in China, Russia and India helping to offset slowing sales in Europe and the US. ┬á┬á VW says it continues to believe that its deliveries, sales and profits will exceed last year's levels in spite of the global economic slowdown and financial crisis.

US consumer confidence fell to a record low in October, under pressure from the global financial crisis, home repossessions and company lay-offs of workers.  ┬á The Conference Board said its monthly consumer confidence index fell to 38, down from a revised 61.4 in September and below analysts' expectations of 52. This is its lowest level since the board began tracking consumer sentiment in 1967. ┬á┬á The Conference Board conducts a survey of 5,000 US households to gauge consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the US economy.

Boeing union and management representatives say that the US planemaker has reached an indefinite deal to end an eight week strike by assembly workers.   Approximately 27,000 Boeing workers walked off the job on September 6th protesting pay, outsourcing, and other issues. The strike closed factories for the second largest planemaker, and further delayed the new 787 Dreamliner which was already 15 months behind schedule and set to fly for the first time in November.   The strike had been costing the airline manufacturer up to $100 million a day in lost revenue.

US telephone and internet service provider CenturyTel Inc. agreed to buy Embarq Corp. for $5.8 billion in stock, helping the phone company to almost quadruple its already existing 2.1 million phone lines.  Embarq, the former landline arm of Sprint Nextel Corp. which split in 2006, provides service to rural areas and smaller cities in 18 states across the US, and is the main telephone company for Las Vegas.   CenturyTel covers mainly rural areas of regions in the South and Midwest, from Louisiana to Minnesota, and also provides service to Colorado and the Northwest.

The company that will run the ski hills for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Intrawest ULC, completed a $1.7 billion refinancing deal, ending weeks of hearsay about the companyÔÇÖs financial health. ┬á One of the main venues for the Games, the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort, is what the leading destination-resort company in North America is best known for. ┬á Its existing lender group, Fortress Investment Group LLC bought Intrawest two years ago in a multi-billion dollar deal backed by a group of lenders.

People in teamsIn part five of his series on managing and leading people, Jon Minerich, Principal, Oliver Wight Americas, Inc., describes how to set up successful teams. Everyone, it seems, is talking about teams, teamwork, and team building. Smart CEOs know that teamwork is crucial to accomplishing their companyÔÇÖs strategic goals, and also that there is more to it than assembling a collection of individuals to work together.┬á  The concept of teams in business is not new, yet many companies still struggle to deploy them effectively.

By Thomas R. CutlerCompanies designing products for customers to their own specifications are part of a unique worldwide club of engineer-to-order (ETO) firms numbering 200,000-plus. Even firms that have been exclusively engaged in repetitive manufacturing are now increasingly finding profitable client demand for customization. Almost 90 percent of these unique one-of-a-kind manufacturers have annual sales of under $50 million and have yet to unify the key parts of the process into an integrated business information system.

Wabash 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.

Finding space for healthy growth┬áVanderbilt University Medical CenterÔÇÖs rising profile has put pressure on its central campus. Keith Regan learns about its creative solutions, including building around existing structures and reusing a suburban shopping mall for outpatient care. Founded in 1875, Vanderbilt University Medical Center has recently seen its national profile grow dramatically. US News & World Report recently ranked the center among the top 15 hospitals in the nation.