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For Tibbett & Britten, the achievement of the 1970s was to ‘sell’ to retailers the concept of hanging garment distribution. Now they have developed a range of services to help fashion retailers with their presentation. RDM spoke to Managing Director Alan Richards on the company's plans for the future.

Catering for the distribution needs of a wide range of clients, from the smaller retailer and supplier to the major High Street multiple, NCL includes amongst its clients Woolworth, Boots, Carrington Viyella, and Marks & Spencer. Originating from British Railways and a subsidiary of the National Freight Corporation, NCL has the advantage of more than a hundred depots located in town centres, and a back‐up of 7,000 vehicles. Its latest venture is the launch of Fashionflow, a specialised distribution operation for hanging garments.

The Nominal Group Process is one of a group of techniques that has been formulated to supplement the interactive group process. The NGP can be directly used to identify specific problems or areas of organisational concern. The technique has the secondary effect of facilitating overall communications (it begins to “break the ice” between participants). The structured format actually encourages participants to communicate, yet prevents those few participants from controlling the process. Because the NGP is so versatile, it is applicable in either simple problem identification or complex organisational development efforts.

In MENA, household food insecurity, which is closely related to poverty and undernourishment, is most severe in rural areas and concentrated within Iraq, Sudan, and Yemen. Twenty-five percent of the MENA population may be poor and 7% undernourished. The key to increased national and household-level food security is pro-poor growth, driven by export-oriented, labor-intensive sectors. Agricultural sector policies should be subordinate to the pro-poor growth goal and not to the goal of food self-sufficiency. Such a strategy requires conflict resolution; macroeconomic stability; physical and human capital accumulation; reliance on markets and the private sector, and diffusion of ecologically friendly farming practices.

This paper examines the transformation of Syrian political economy from 1970 until 2005. I argue that Syria has undergone two important phases of political and economic transformation, from building a centralized state and economy in the early 1970s to embarking on the path of market economy in the early 1990s. With the logic of competitiveness guiding the direction of economic development, the socio-economic changes of the mid-1980s and after have corresponded with an important process of class and state formation. After a brief discussion of the current transition in Syria, the following sections of the paper attempt to provide a critical study of the different strategies for economic development. Section two examines the process of state and economic centralization of the 1970s and 1980s and highlights the contradictions of this period. Section three assesses the impact of economic liberalization through a study of competitiveness in the economic policies of the 1990s and 2000. The final section examines the economic and political impasse that Syria has been faced with. In conclusion, I argue that the current path of market economy as the strategy for capital accumulation has not resolved the socio-economic problems that Syria has faced in the last two decades. This strategy will continue to face contestation by marginalized groups such as factions of the Baath Party, landless peasants, workers and small producers as Syria becomes even more integrated into the regional and global economy.

State policies have played a significant role in shaping the structure of agrarian economy in both advanced and under‐developed capitalist societies.(1) The influence of the state over the rural sector is not simply confined to its agricultural policies but covers a large array of policies and actions that may have direct as well as indirect effects on the rural population. This paper deals with the factors that influence agricultural policies of the state in the specific case of state policies towards Oriental tobacco production in Turkey.

The Northfleet Group of Gravesend, Kent — UK market leaders in retail display systems — has appointed Gary B. Pettit to head the company's projects division as major accounts manager. This is a new position within the group which is aimed at the continued expansion and development of the division in serving the company's multiple retail and wholesale outlets. In this capacity, Mr Pettit reports directly to the sales director and leads a team of four managers and a further 16 sales and administrative personnel.

The goal of this chapter is to discuss the managerial implications of regulatory reforms in BRICS countries and how those reforms affect the strategy and performance of BRICS multinationals. In particular, we consider (1) how firms may learn from the institutional and competitive changes at home that accompany pro-market reforms and use this knowledge to venture out successfully across borders, (2) how firms may learn through their international operations as a means to enhance their competitiveness and responsiveness to reforms in their home market, and (3) how BRICS multinationals differ from other emerging market multinationals.

The chapter is primarily conceptual and relies heavily on case studies, interviews, and public financial data.

Ultimately, reforms are implemented by the state, but the strategic responses of managers to these reforms are largely what determine whether their firms will survive and thrive under the new and evolving regulatory conditions. BRICS firms are particularly well positioned to take advantage of reforms within their own countries and in other emerging markets, including other BRICS nations.

The chapter underscores the importance of aligning strategy with home and host market policies and environments.

The observations presented are conceptual and have not been verified quantitatively. We rely heavily on historical observation and, therefore, much of the analysis is selective to those firms and may not apply to other firms.

The purpose of this paper is to address the topic of food fraud which has been so widely and variously reported over recent months and years. Its purposes are to set current experience into an historical context and to illustrate the tension between the science of deception and the science of detection.

This is a desk study of published literature and historical documentation, together with interviews with those professionally concerned with detection and enforcement.

The piece concludes that with all the scientific developments and analytical techniques that seem so mind‐bendingly sophisticated, there remains the basic problem of a lack of resources.

It is asserted that more is owed to the memories and the reputations of those who pioneered the effort to combat food fraud. Without a considerable increase in the resources made available for the appliance of the science currently available and that being developed, the battle will never be fully engaged, yet alone won.

This review is unique in that it seeks to take a long view of current concern, and even scandal, showing that the situation is not new and lessons should have been learned from past experience.