Peter Day's World of Business

The last eighteen months have seen a global public backlash against plastic. Everyone talks about the huge impact that Sir David Attenborough and the BBC's Blue Planet series has had in raising public awareness about the damage that 8 million tonnes of plastic which enter the ocean every year is having on sea life. It was one of the triggers for consumers, governments and companies to decide that action needed to be taken. But what does it mean for businesses which depend on plastic as a core raw material or for the packaging and retail industries, both deeply reliant on plastic? Caroline Bayley talks to companies about the opportunities and challenges presented by the plastic backlash.Presenter: Caroline Bayley Producer: Beth Sagar-FentonPicture Credit: BBC

Guyana, a country of just 750,000 people wedged between Venezuela and Suriname on the north-east coast of South America, has never had an oil industry. But a series of recent discoveries in its waters has revealed billions of barrels of oil beneath the ocean, potentially one of the world’s biggest reserves. Next year, the oil is due to start flowing and the impact on business is already being felt. A shoreside oil service industry has popped up; workers who previously struggled to get by are finding stable employment; and cafes and hotels are overflowing with foreign customers. But encounters with the Venezuelan Navy, huge environmental risks, and legal challenges mean this is a business that is far from straightforward.Presenter/Producer: Simon MaybinPhoto: A trainee at the Totaltec Academy in Georgetown prepares for work in the new oil sector Credit: BBC

The face-to-face interview can be life-changing. But it comes with risks attached, of bias on the part of the interviewer, or nerves on the part of the candidate. Lesley Curwen looks at the fast-changing process of getting hired in companies, big and small. Large companies are increasingly using recruitment tools including artificial intelligence to weed out the weakest candidates, in order to find the right candidate for the right job. But there is resistance in some quarters from some small employers who believe in the old ways of sifting through CVs by hand to produce a short-list. So can the traditional face-to-face interview survive longterm? Presenter: Lesley Curwen Producer: Smita Patel Picture credit: Getty Creative Stock

Can the United Arab Emirates grow its own food? The Desert kingdoms today import 90% of their own food, at great cost. And each year consumption increases by 12%. This raises issues of food security, price and environmental damage – flying in fruit from California is not environmentally sustainable. This is a region with little soil and few water resources. On average it rains just five days a year. So why is agriculture now considered one of the most exciting growth areas in the UAE? Farmers here depend on desalinated water from the Arabian Sea – costly to both the farmer and, once again, to the environment. But new agricultural technologies are being developed. Starting at a small scale, can such businesses really be built up? Or are they vanity projects reliant simply on oil wealth? Georgia Tolley examines if the Emiratis can make their desert bloom and ensure their business of food production grows. Presenter: Georgia Tolley Producer: John MurphyPicture Credit: BBC

The relationship between landlord and tenant is an important, often unseen, dynamic that most of us don’t give much thought to. And yet, it's reshaping high streets up and down the country. High rents are blamed for the collapse of so many retailers - they appear unsustainable yet they are the vehicle through which much of our pension wealth is invested. In this programme, Ruth Alexander looks at different models of ownership: from the big financial institutional investors through to the original aristocratic landowner and asks how - in the turmoil created by the rapidly changing retail environment - these landlords are facing up to a new reality. Presenter: Ruth Alexander Producer: Alex Lewis

Its top stars can earn millions of dollars a year, without breaking into a sweat. They train for hours a day and have legions of fans, who fill stadiums to watch them. But these aren't normal sports stars. They're part of one of the fastest growing industries - known as Esports. And, as John Murphy discovers, the distinction between real physical sport and this online, virtual version is narrowing, as major companies and some of the world's most famous football clubs are signing up the top Esports players to play in major competitions. A number of video games, including Fifa, Dota2, Call of Duty and League of Legends, have their own international leagues and world championships. The global audience is now estimated at more than 200 million, and growing. Annual revenues from Esports, currently around 650 million dollars for events, continue to rise. Billions more are generated through video games sales. In the UK the video games sector, from which Esports have sprung, is now worth more than video (films) and m

Much has been made of the death of the high street, but some places are staging a comeback. The government has announced this Spring a £1.6bn Stronger Towns Fund to help less well-off areas. Six hundred million pounds of that will be shared out to towns which can come up with credible plans to help their high street adapt to the rapidly changing retail environment. So what does it take to turn a town around? In this programme, Ruth Alexander visits two towns in Cheshire - Northwich and Altrincham - which have tried two quite different approaches to see what works, and what doesn’t. Presenter: Ruth Alexander Producer: Elisabeth Mahy

As the global economy slows and the search for new areas of growth becomes more intense, many countries are looking beyond their coastline to the vast, untapped potential of the sea. The “Ocean Economy” is now attracting attention from governments, businesses and investors, not only in traditional industries like fishing and shipbuilding but also in new areas like biotech and robotics. Integration is the watchword and one country, Portugal, is now taking this seriously enough that its government has even established a Ministry of the Sea. For this edition of Global Business Tanya Beckett visits first Lisbon, where the ships they built half a millennium ago sent explorers across the Atlantic and round the Cape to bring home riches from South America, Africa and India; and then Leixoes, an Atlantic Ocean port where a cluster of technology enterprises combines with the local fishing industry and an ocean cruiser terminal in the embodiment of the integrated model that represents the Ocean Economy today. Presenter

There’s more money spent on innovation today than ever before. Yet the process by which we come up with ideas is still poorly understood. If only we had a better grasp of how great ideas are generated, we would have the key to unlock huge new waves of innovation and productivity. Adam Shaw looks at the growing study of innovation to uncover its secrets and looks at what companies and individuals are doing to make them more innovative than ever before. Presenter: Adam Shaw Producer: Smita Patel Editor: Penny Murphy Picture Credit: Getty Images

Five years after Uruguay became the first country to allow the sale of recreational marijuana, what does a legal cannabis industry look like? When the small South American nation of Uruguay made it legal to grow and buy marijuana for fun, an entire industry had to start from scratch. For producers, regulators, investors, and consumers, it was a blank canvas. Now, as Canada and more and more US states follow in Uruguay’s pioneering footsteps, what can others learn from Uruguay’s approach? And as even more US states and other countries legalise the medical use of marijuana, can Uruguay, which also legalised growth for medical use, benefit from being at the vanguard of a new - and potentially huge - global industry. Presenter/Producer: Simon Maybin Picture Credit: BBC

Caroline Bayley reports from Hamburg in Germany on how companies there are preparing for Britain's exit from the European Union. The UK is one of the port city's most important trading partners and one thousand firms in the area have business links with Great Britain. So it's not surprising that there's a flurry of activity in Hamburg in the final weeks before the UK's departure. But how do you plan for Brexit and a new trading scenario which has not yet been finalised? We speak to those who are planning ahead, as well as British workers, concerned about their future status as employees in Germany, and many who simply don't know what to do. Presenter: Caroline Bayley Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton Picture: St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken, Hamburg, Germany Credit: Getty Creative / iStock / tomch

Hungarian politicians have been the focus of protest since they passed what many have called a “slave law” last December. This legislation allows companies to ask their workers to do more overtime – and to delay payment for up to three years. But the government says the law gives businesses flexibility and employees the freedom to work more and earn more. Many think that this legislation is intended to deal with Hungary’s chronic labour shortage. With an aging population, hard-line immigration policies and many educated young people looking for work overseas, businesses in Hungary struggle to recruit the people they need. Lucy Ash travels to Hungary to hear about the new law and its implications – and find out how businesses are coping with a dwindling workforce. Presenter: Lucy Ash Producer: Josephine Casserly Picture Credit: Laszlo Balogh/Getty Images

The Chinese have long been involved – sometimes controversially - in Africa. But there’s another Asian economic powerhouse that is doing business there. Using South Africa as a springboard, South Koreans are seizing control of some of the key markets on the continent. There are four thousand Koreans living in Johannesburg, creating new businesses and developing established companies. Karen Allen talks to them about some of the challenges they face. Visiting the global electronics giant LG and the car manufacturer Kia, Karen sees how they are growing their businesses. She also hears how the Korean work culture gives them an edge.Presenter: Karen Allen Producer: Ben CarterPicture Credit: Getty

Since Bletchley Park and the enigma machine, Britain has been at the forefront of what would become cyber security. In GCHQ we have a world leader in threat detection and yet our industry lags far behind both the US and Israel.Jonty Bloom looks at what we could do to make this Brexit proof industry bigger and finds out why Belfast is at the forefront of the UK’s research and development to keep us safe online.He looks at Unit 8200 the Israeli Army’s elite cyber security unit which has spun off several successful start up companies because of the unique training system they employ.Jonty gets to see inside the National Cyber Security Centre which is part of GCHQ’s new open policy as it invites investors to see the third round of it’s start up incubator.The ‘Catalyst’ campus in Belfast’s newly redeveloped docks sits beside the shipyard that built the Titanic and is now securing silicon chips rather than building ships. It’s buzzing as foreign investment has flowed into to take advantage of its burgeoning cyber s

Potholes are a national obsession. But there's much more to them than you might think. Ruth Alexander digs deep into their costs for business and society - where fixing two holes in a motorway can cost half a million pounds. But she also finds all kinds of entrepreneurial imagination going into solving the problem. Everything from new data analysis to 3D printing drones may be the answer. Beneath it all lies a fundamental question. Can we learn to value roads, and maintain them as a vital national asset, smoothing the way to big business and social gains? Producer: Chris Bowlby Editor: Penny Murphy

Does the house building industry need to change? Manuela Saragosa meets the disruptors, the companies trying to transform how the vast majority of residential property is built. Across the country new factories are springing up - in a bid to manufacture our homes in much the same way as we do our cars. The risks are huge. Significant investment is required to get things moving and demand for these new homes has yet to be tested. But the disruptors claim that the house building industry must modernise or die. Productivity is falling and traditional skills are in short supply - something that is likely to get worse as immigration reduces. Other countries, too, already build huge numbers of homes off-site, claiming that this results in quicker and cheaper construction. So, just how many of the hundreds of thousands of homes that we need to build might end up being factory produced? Presenter: Manuela Saragosa Producer: Rosamund JonesPicture Credit: BBC

It’s been a challenging year on Britain’s railways with timetable chaos, over-running engineering works, cancelled trains and irate passengers, not to mention a private operator handing back control to the government. The transport secretary, Chris Grayling has announced yet another review of the industry. Meanwhile, Labour and many of the public want to see rail re-nationalised. Rail professionals point to the industry’s successes – a doubling in passenger numbers since privatisation, and a current strong safety record. But the government says the rail industry hasn’t kept pace with customer demand. So is there another way? Matthew Gwyther goes to Italy to experience their take on free competition on their high speed lines. He also speaks to rail experts at home – all searching for answers.Presenter: Matthew Gwyther Producer: Caroline Bayley Editor: Penny MurphyPicture Credit: BBC

From innovative mattresses to personal sleep consultants, business is moving in on our nights under the covers. The sector is booming, thanks to a new understanding of the importance of sleep, with annual sales in the billions of pounds. And it’s not only our homes that businesses are targeting. In the workplace, managers are becoming more aware of the sleep needs of their teams and some are even installing pods to allow their employees to have a nap on the job.David Baker looks at the products and services on offer and finds out how we can separate the science from the snake oil.Presenter: David Backer Producer: Smita Patel Editor: Penny MurphyPicture Credit: Getty

Will life sciences lead Britain towards a new economic future? Brexit's causing uncertainty. But as Ruth Alexander discovers, there's a dynamic 'golden triangle' now linking medical and other cutting edge research at Oxford and Cambridge universities with London's political and financial power. The government's putting this at the centre of its vision for a transformed economy. So what's behind all this, and can this sector live up to the ambition? Producer: Chris Bowlby Editor: Penny Murphy

Caroline Bayley delves into the booming industry of private tutoring.