Regular readers of the Business Excellence magazines will be familiar with our coverage of exotic locations and luxurious hotel resorts. Indeed, we currently have a magazine issue on our home page dedicated to the genre, under the headline “the greatest of escapes”.

The World Trade Organization has ruled that Boeing did receive subsidies “inconsistent” with the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement, but not nearly as much as had been claimed by Europe on behalf of Airbus.

European countries had complained that Airbus had suffered because of payments and/or incentives to Boeing amounting to $19.1 billion between 1989 and 2006.

Ireland’s Conroy Gold and Natural Resources has announced positive results on its drilling programme at Clay Lake in County Armagh.

Clay Lake covers an area of around 141 hectares and has returned the highest gold-in-soil values recorded by Conroy on its Irish exploration licences. The current drilling programme builds on the company’s previous positive gold results, which revealed the presence of a broad zone of gold mineralisation.

General Motors today announced a $30 million investment in new equipment for its stamping plant in Pontiac, Michigan, to make sheet metal for the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano being built at GM’s nearby Orion Assembly Plant.

The investment will upgrade three conventional press lines already operating at the plant and add two additional presses.

Pontiac Stamping has provided parts for GM vehicles since 1932.

Wasting time, poor sales meetings, poor strategy, capping income, and playing favorites are destructive to morale and lead to poor performance, says John R Treace.

Emotional intelligence testing is an emerging trend, but it can have its pitfalls. Gabrielle M. Wirth offers some best practice advice to avoid legal challenges from emotional intelligence interviews and tests.

Women are unique, says Susan T Spencer. They lead in a different way from men—and that’s a good thing for business.

Susan T. Spencer is one of a kind; an entrepreneur and business professional who competes in male-dominated industries. She learned about football from her father and business from her parents and grandparents. Before the age of 40, Susan was a mother, junior high school teacher, a tennis dress manufacturer, a lawyer and general manager of football’s Philadelphia Eagles.

Kenneth H. Marks offers expert advice on how to increase the value of your company before a potential sale.

Great news! After a long drought of M&A activity, the market for private companies is showing signs of life and recovery. If you own, operate or advise a middle market company, $5 million to $500 million in revenue, what does this mean for you and your clients when thinking about shareholder liquidity or selling the business? And how can you improve the odds of getting a deal done?

George F. Brown, Jr. offers four fundamental, measurable indicators to help determine if price pressures are real or not.

Stephen Archer, business analyst and director of Spring Partnerships, believes that the United States is declining rapidly as a superpower.

Is the US economy the next Ireland? To most people, particularly those in the US, this is an unthinkable concept. However, the similarities between the two countries are uncomfortably similar and the outlook for the US is little, if any, better.