Peter Day's World of Business

With food waste a huge global problem, can business find new, profitable solutions? Tanya Beckett delves into pizza bins, visits larvae breeders and talks to everyone from bankers to hummus-makers as she investigates why this fast-changing business scene. How can new technology help tackle the problem? And are wasteful food consumers ready for radical change? Producer: Chris Bowlby; Editor: Penny Murphy

From the film Wall Street, to the play Enron, finance workers and bankers tend to be portrayed negatively in works of fiction. Andrew Dickson traces the history of these depictions, asking if they're fair - and if more positive portrayals would enhance the reputation of the City He speaks to playwrights, a bond trader turned thriller writer, a film historian and a veteran of the banking industry. Producer: Penny Murphy.

What red lines need to be crossed before companies retreat from foreign markets? As political turmoil engulfs Turkey, total economic collapse threatens in Venezuela and other global threats emerge, In Business explores the point at which businesses decide that enough is enough. Does it depend on the size of the investment and do companies in different sectors play by different rules? And what reputational risk might companies suffer if they get that calculation wrong? Presenter, Matthew Gwyther, talks to business people who have stayed and those who have left. Did they see the red line clearly or would they make a different call second time around? Producer: Rosamund Jones.

Twenty five years after Britain opened its first privately run prison, Matthew Gwyther explores whether private jails in the UK have delivered on the promise of a cost effective, safe, and reliable service. And he looks to the US, the pioneer of the private prison system. Does incarcerating people for profit work? Or does it lead the sector to cut corners, sacrificing safety and security in the pursuit of profit? Producer: Sarah Shebbeare (Photo: A prison guard walks through a cell area at HMP Berwyn. Credit: Getty Images)

From sick man of Europe to world's richest exporter - how did Germany do it? At the turn of the century, Germany's economy was weak and its unemployment high. Fast forward to today and the country has overtaken China as the world's richest exporter. To find out how, Caroline Bayley travels to rural South Germany, home to many so called "hidden champions", little-known world market leading companies. But she also hears how for all its economic success, Germany has yet to come up with the next Google. Though plans are afoot to catch up with Silicon Valley. Producer: Estelle Doyle (Photo: Historical cars are displayed at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, southern Germany Credit: Getty Images)

What role can the community play in rejuvenating their local economy? Globalisation often results in a big geographical divide between where profits are made and where they are spent. Anu Anand visits two communities trying to reverse that trend and keep investment, jobs and profits close to hand. In Frome, in Somerset, she meets local property developers who are keeping rents low and chain stores at bay in a bid to allow local independent retailers to thrive. And in rural Lancashire she spends time with villagers building their own broadband network and investing in local energy projects. What impact might these initiatives have long-term and could other communities follow suit? Producer: Rosamund Jones.

Many British fishermen rejoiced after the UK vote to leave the European Union. They hoped it would mean fewer EU boats fishing in UK waters. Business reporter and sailor Lesley Curwen visits ports and harbours at both ends of Britain to talk to fishermen about their hopes and fears, and hears from a group of European fishermen who argue a hard Brexit would destroy thousands of their jobs. Producer: Smita Patel (Image: Newlyn fish market, Cornwall. Credit: BBC)

Tower blocks are under intense scrutiny. So what's the best way to run them? Matthew Gwyther visits Manchester and discovers this is not just about architecture. These blocks are also complex communities of people. So what's the future now for this key sector in our housing and commerce? Producer: Chris Bowlby Editor: Penny Murphy.

Why do so many economic and business forecasts fail to correctly map the future? Adam Shaw asks why so many recessions take us by surprise and why the failure of certain forecasts should be a cause of celebration, not despair. He examines the role of complexity and groupthink and how technological advance can scupper the best laid forecasts. Do we, as consumers, invest too much faith in forecasts? And is there anything forecasters can do to ensure their pronouncements are more reliable? Producer: Rosamund Jones (Image: Adam Shaw at a pool table. Credit: BBC)

Nina Robinson looks at how India’s digital payments industry is mushrooming after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation ‘shock doctrine’ tactic to rid the country of 500 and 1,000 rupee bills last November. It had an unimaginably huge impact on India’s digital payment and banking systems. The sector now has to cope with an enormous increase in digital payments using your mobile phone. People are making e-payments for goods using these ‘e-wallets’. New digital payment points have sprung up everywhere and now even small vendors and hawkers are using them. Global Business examines whether a cashless economy in India could really work to bring untold future economic benefits. (Image: An Indian vendor who now accepts e-payments. Credit: BBC)

For decades the UK has not produced enough engineers. What's been going wrong? Is education at fault or does engineering have an intractable image problem? Engineering is a very male world. If that changes, might its recruitment problem disappear? Ruth Sunderland visits businesses with innovative schemes aimed at reversing the trend, and meets students, teachers and industry leaders. Who will be the engineers of the future? Producer: Rosamund Jones (Image: Ruth Sunderland. Credit: Mark Richards).

McDonalds has long dominated the burger market and continues to do so in the UK. But the US owned, giant fast food chain is in the midst of a make-over. Posher burger chains are springing up everywhere and McDonalds is now offering table service and new-look restaurants. Matthew Gwyther, Editor of Management Today, asks how and why McDonalds feels the need to present a new image to its customers and whether it will work in today's health conscious society. Producer: Caroline Bayley.

We spend hours in meetings at work so what can we do to love them more? Tanya Beckett looks at the art of the meeting and asks how can we make them more productive & enjoyable. How do you deal with the person who never stops talking, or someone who spends an entire hour on their smartphone? Tanya learns how to prepare for successful meetings and discovers that how they're run tells us a lot about the culture of an organisation, and even a country. Produced by Smita Patel.

The Kremlin has been flexing economic and political muscles on the world stage but the Russian economy is struggling to keep up. Plunging oil prices, U.S. and European sanctions over Ukraine and military operations in Syria have all taken their toll. People across the country are feeling the pinch but rural areas are the hardest hit – much of the countryside is empty and dying. Almost 36,000 villages, or one in four, have 10 residents or fewer. Another 20,000 are abandoned, according to the latest census. Young people left long ago for cities and towns – the collective farms which once would have employed them disappeared along with the USSR. It’s a bleak picture but some young businessmen and women are trying to revive Russia’s dying villages with a mixture of traditional craftsmanship, social enterprise and shrewd marketing. In the impoverished Pskov Region, Kirill Vasilev employs 15 villagers to make Valenki –felt boots made from dried sheep’s wool, the footwear of peasants and tsars for centuries. Traditi

How have private businesses fared in Greece since the crisis began? The economy has shrunk by nearly a third and unemployment has soared. So what have companies had to do to survive? And have any managed to actually thrive? Louise Cooper meets hopeful entrepreneurs, embattled importers, and a few small companies going underground in a bid to avoid rising costs and disappearing demand. Can Greece ever return to growth? Producer: Rosamund Jones.

The number of women in prison globally is rapidly increasing. The Institute for Criminal Policy Research has calculated that between 2000 and 2015, the female prison population around the world grew by 50%, compared with an 18% rise in male prisoners over the same period. Re-offending rates are high, and overcoming the stigma of a prison sentence makes finding a job extremely tough. But can entrepreneurship break the cycle? Caroline Bayley speaks to six former women prisoners across three continents. They were convicted under different circumstances and of different crimes – but they're united in their passion for business, enterprise and self-employment which has allowed them to turn their lives around on the outside. Producer: Alex Burton (Photo: Woman in prison holding bars. Credit: Pikul Noorod/Shutterstock)

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with the European Union. It voted to stay in the EU in last year’s referendum. Tens of thousands cross between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland every day to work. Matthew Gwyther, the editor of Management Today, travels across Northern Ireland to find out how businesses – large and small – are preparing for life outside the EU and what the potential impact is for the vitally important agriculture industry. (Image: Traffic crossing the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Credit: Brian Lawless/PA Wire)

Productivity, or the lack of it, is one of the great puzzles of the British economy at the moment. Productivity is not about how hard we work, but how much value we get for each hour of graft. And the French seem to be better at that than the British. Jonty Bloom explores how workers in France can put in shorter hours and take longer holidays and yet still have productivity levels close to those seen in Germany and the United States. And he asks whether high productivity always makes for a better economy. Producer: Ruth Alexander.

Why are Mexicans working abroad sending more money back home? Last year total remittance payments for Mexico reached a record of nearly $27bn – most of that came from Mexicans working in the United States. But it’s a sensitive time with President Trump determined to clamp down on illegal immigrants and build a wall along the US-Mexican border. Caroline Bayley asks how significant those payments are to relatives back home and the Mexican economy as a whole. (Image: Mexican farmer and his wife. Copyright: BBC)

Denmark is on course to generate 50% of its electricity from wind power in the next three years. The move towards clean energy and self sufficiency stands in stark contrast to the situation the country found itself in after the 1973 oil crisis when street lighting was reduced and people were told not to drive on Sundays. Keith Moore visits the Scandinavian country and discovers how public support and political will has created an industry that not only makes environmental sense but business sense too. (Image: Wind turbines, Credit: Keith Moore)