Smith-Midland Corp. started with a single innovative idea and now manufactures, sells and licenses its precast concrete products around the world, with a licensing model that leverages global partnerships, as Keith Regan learns from president and CEO Rodney Smith. Smith-Midland Corp. got its start by creating an innovative solution to a vexing problem for ranchers and farmers: how to keep livestock from wandering off the property without having to open and shut a gate all day.

The demand reviewIntegrated business management means managing all the business resources via the sales and operations planning process.

Product developmentIn the second of a series of six articles on integrated business management, John Schorr explains the importance of including product development in the sales and operations planning process. In the first article of this series on sales and operations planning (S&OP), we defined S&OP as an integrated business management process through which the executive/leadership team continually achieves focus, alignment, and synchronization among all the functions of the organization.

Sales & operations planningIn the first of a new series of articles on sales and operations planning, John Schorr argues that S&OP is much more than a tactical logistics and supply chain process; itÔÇÖs a way of managing the business as a whole. Over the years many companies have moved from disconnected management processes, with all their informality and fire-fighting activities, to having capable planning and control processes in place.

Spring is in the air, and as Tennyson almost said, in the spring, a young businessmanÔÇÖs fancy lightly turns to thoughts of acquisition. Martin Ashcroft ponders the poetry of this strategy for growth. ÔÇÿBirds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do itÔÇÖ; letÔÇÖs do it, letÔÇÖs merge and acquire. With apologies to Cole Porter, merger and acquisition are in season, and seem almost as common as falling in love. The global business environment dictates that companies have to grow to consolidate their footprint in the market place.

As manufacturers discover that lean can bring improvements in processes away from the shop floor, service industries are adopting lean principles, too. Ron Wince traces the migration. What does Toyota have in common with the Johns Hopkins Medical System, Wells Fargo, and General Electric? More than you might thinkÔÇöthe last three are a part of a growing trend of service companies who are . . . . . . adopting the tools that have made Toyota arguably the best automotive manufacturer in the world.

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Russ Widmar and his management team at Fresno Yosemite International Airport have made their business a beacon of excellence in the regional airport sector. He talked to Ruari McCallion about investment, retaining staff and solar panel-covered car parks. ThereÔÇÖs been an airport in Fresno, California since the 1920s, and itÔÇÖs been at its present location since 1947.

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Pinnacle of success┬áEllisDon Corporation is midway through the construction of a prestigious new addition to the Toronto skyline. Senior project manager Jon Thompson talks to Gay Sutton about the challenges of building on a small footprint of land and how great relationships have kept the schedule on track. TorontoÔÇÖs skyline is evolving fast, and one of the newest additions to its cosmopolitan outline is a slim inspirational shaft of glass, rising 53 stories into the sky.