The Bottom Line

Chocolate is a big business as well as a delicious indulgence. Evan Davis and guests discuss how this global industry is tackling the pressures of rising food prices, speculation and climate change.

Guests:

Jonathan Horrell, Director of Global Sustainability of Mondelez International

Producer: Kent DePinto.

Self-improvement: If you want to look better, feel better, perform better, there's no shortage of help available. Whether it's cosmetic surgery for the perfect body, fitness programmes to boost self-esteem, or self-help books to improve the mind, there's plenty of choice. But do they promise the world and fail to deliver - or give you the strength to achieve the personal growth you desire? Evan Davis and guests discuss the industry of making your life better.

Guests:

Jon Congdon, President and Co-Founder, Beachbody.com

Carole Tonkinson, Publisher, Harper NonFiction

John Ryan, Founder and Chairman, Make Yourself Amazing

Producer: Sally Abrahams.

Business leaders spend their lives climbing the corporate ladder, so what happens when it is time to step off? Evan Davis and guests discuss life after CEO.

Guests:

Producer: Kent DePinto.

Successful TV formats like Big Brother, Pop Idol, X-Factor and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire are sold and broadcast all round the world, netting their creators billions of pounds. But how can you protect such a valuable asset? And are too many copycat versions saturating the market and crushing original ideas? Evan Davis finds out from those at the top of the lucrative global industry of TV formats.

Guests:

Producer: Sally Abrahams.

Business school or school of life? An MBA from a top business school is what defines many of today's high powered CEO's - but is the qualification worth the cost or are would-be entrepreneurs better off learning business acumen in the real world? Evan Davis debates with guests.

Guests:

Producer: Kent DePinto.

The "sharing" economy is the topic of discussion for Evan Davis & his guests in the first of a new series of The Bottom Line. The market is built around renting out your possessions to strangers and entrepreneurs have piled in to enable us to share our homes, cars, bikes, clothes, tools and much more besides. At its heart is the idea that business works better if it collaborates, rather than competes, with other companies. How disruptive might these innovative enterprises prove to be? How much profit can they make (and is that the point anyway?).

Guests :

Even Heggernes, UK & Ireland Country Manager, Airbnb

Producer : Rosamund Jones.

Decorating your home is big business - in the UK and around the world. In China and India the home decor market is evolving fast - but will the result be a global homogenous style? Who sets the trends? And what do you do if your products lose their fashionable edge? Evan Davis and guests discuss the volatile world of design.

Guests:

Producer: Rosamund Jones.

It's the lifeblood of the world's economy, moving most of our imports and exports and around the globe. But shipping is changing: vessels and ports are getting bigger and competition for trade is coming from the Far East.

Evan Davis and guests from the world of shipping discuss how ports are run and how the shipping business manages the risk of accidents and piracy.

Guests:

James Cooper - CEO of Associated British Ports. , a private company which owns and runs 21 ports in the UK.

Producer - Smita Patel.

Infrastructure projects can take decades to complete and are meant to last for generations. Planning for new rail networks, roads, bridges, airports - in the UK and overseas - all require assumptions and predictions about the future. What shape will the country's economy be in? Will the population grow or shrink? How might travel patterns change? And will the political regimes support the project over the years?

Evan Davis and guests discuss the problems and pitfalls of planning for the long view.

Guests:

Producer: Rosamund Jones.

When the world economy is booming, many corporate bosses love nothing more than buying each other's companies. Takeovers, mergers and acquisitions soar. But evidence tends to suggest that many of the arrangements are a waste of time, so why are deals so seductive? On the Bottom Line, Evan Davis and guests discuss why deals go right and what happens when they go wrong.