This month we hear some true-life confessions from directors left holding the baby after bringing an MBO into the world. They tell us now it felt and what it now means to be the proud owner of a company. We also look back on the key business moments of 2005 and the top deals of the year.
This month Midlands text king Gary Corbett breaks cover to give us an exclusive interview and reveal his future plans for Opera Telecom. We also dine with local government supremo Sir Michael Lyons, and hear how Nottingham's business community is fighting back against negative media headlines inspired by its gun crime.
The "pre-pack" administration of van maker LDV took only a few minutes, but the story behind the company's difficulties stretches back a decade. We investigate, plus our annual look at the region's fastest growing companies unearths a swathe of businesses that have benefited from the opening up of the public sector to wider competition.
In our April issue Insider heads East and devotes its entire issue to doing business in China. Editor Jim Pendrill reports direct from Ningbo, south of Shanghai, where Nottingham University has set up a ground-breaking campus and explores the trading links being developed between China and the East Midlands. Elsewhere we look at what businesses need to be doing to break into the Chinese market and talk to companies already trading with China for lessons learnt.
Cheap debt, buoyant stock markets and good earnings growth are creating a heady mix for deals activity, and Midlands corporates are in on the action. Our annual review of the top 500 companies reveals who is buying whom. Also, property tycoon Paul Bassi calls the top of the property market while our Nottinghamshire review looks at life after the coalfields.
This month we catch up with David Lockyer, boss of Leicestershire shoe firm Stead & Simpson, who recounts the highs and lows of the company's recent past in a piece which coincides with a wider look at the health of the East Midlands economy. For the first time we also ask the market for its views on the region's leading banking players - with some revealing results - while also profiling our final batch of young entrepreneurs in our 42 under 42 survey.
Find out who holds the levers of power in our survey of the region's 100 most powerful individuals and read how we think they can help fight the London drift.
This month we take a trip back through time profiling an A-Z of Midlands businesses that have been trading for more than a century. We trace the key to their survival and what lessons can be learnt for today. Also, in the run up to next month's Dealmakers issue, we profile the final shortlist for our Deal of the Year.
Our annual 30-page Dealmakers review finds Midlands financiers in rude health doing deals ever further afield. We also take out for lunch Graham Cartledge of Newark architect Benoy and pay a site visit to Birmingham's new £3545m super hospital.
This month Kurt Jacobs scours the region's latest inventions to find ourbrightest sparks. We also take lunch with the boss of recently floated Clinphone of Nottingham while putting Birmingham's regeneration agenda under the microscope.
Richard Fiddis, head of Experian in the UK, gives his first major Press interview to Insider. Also read about Insider's Three Cities breakfast where we brought together leaders from Birmingham, Nottingham and Manchester to debate common goals.
The Midlands rich are making their money in property as our annual guide to the region's wealth shows. Also, read all about the winning schemes at this year's Insider Property Awards.
