The case traces the story of Henk Van Houtum’s journey and his desire to turn a small, traditional, family business into a professionally-run company. In June 2011 a Dutch Private Equity company, Friesland Bank Investments (FBI), a subsidiary of the Friesland Bank, announced that it was buying a controlling …

Sustainable and Agile manufacturing is expected of future generation manufacturing systems. The goal is to create scalable, reconfigurable and adaptable manufacturing systems which are able to produce a range of products without new investments into new manufacturing equipment. This requires a new approach …

Background As the level of government closest to citizens and the real economy, local and regional authorities have an important role in tackling the severe impact of the current economic crisis. The double pressures of decreasing public revenue and increasing demand for services, however, call for more …