The Entrepreneurs

Footwear: we meet the CEO of a Mallorca company whose motto is “Imagination Walks”, head to a factory in northern England creating trainers for Asia’s style-conscious buyers, and give Germany’s Birkenstock sandals a branding overhaul.

This week we go back to the land – the town of Lumberland in New York state to visit a company making beautiful axes, we talk land rights in the West Bank, and discover a Spanish company bringing rural foods to urban tables.

We meet São Paulo entrepreneurs who are carving (or painting) a niche in the world’s second-largest beauty market, head to Freemans Bay in New Zealand where a small clothing brand is going after worldwide appeal, and ask the head of a classic car-making company how he intends to woo female customers.

Social entrepreneurship: we tour a historic refuge for London’s dispossessed that doubles as a sumptuous private members’ club, learn how recycling newcomers TerraCycle turn Hungarian waste into profit, and see how women in Afghanistan are creating small businesses to get ahead.

We analyse a prototype for the perfect salesman, head to Germany to taste-test a popular soft drink, and visit the Basque Country to check out a co-op that’s stuck to a slow, steady, and fair approach during the economic downturn.

Wellness special: we visit a new women-only club in London, get management tips from the founder of swimwear label Orlebar Brown, meet the makers of a skin cream for skaters in Melbourne, and do laps around London's Regent’s Park with Luis Rendon.

We visit Louis XIV’s favourite candle maker to see how they’re plying the wax trade in the 21st century, meet a radiologist-turned-designer who explains the medical influences on her work, and ask how a little email newsletter in Paris became big business.

We meet the inventor of a new silicone-based material, visit a business in East London that’s teaching people how to build electronics and chat with a man who thinks applying Stanislavski’s theory of theatre to business could improve customer experience.

We meet the mind behind Wantful – a service to find the perfect gift – and look at the upper echelon of the hairdressing industry, while Gillian Dobias visits Paperworld in Frankfurt.

We meet the head of the family-run Benetton company, speak to the director of the International Trade Centre about her mission to represent small businesses worldwide, and visit a company using a novel approach to fight malware.