After a long cold winter spring is finally upon us.  If it wasn’t so damn corny I might even suggest that it’s a good analogy for the Continent’s economy.  But the evidence is hard to refute.  Germany’s regrowth speaks for itself, and a handful of articles in this issue are given over to Germany’s recovery.  From the sap rising through the economy and the in-fighting it’s causing amongst their neighbouring politicians, to a rundown of the best cities to host meetings and present your company’s renewed confidence to the world.

Rupert Murdoch feels the pinch

It was the US’s most popular networking site in 2006, then something happened.  Something that all the business brains at Harvard can identify, but still can’t quite harness or reverse.  Facebook – set up by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, ironically - stole its crown.

There was a time when you couldn’t open a newspaper without finding a chart-topping band or artist whose raw talent had been uploaded and immediately discovered like the Arctic Monkeys, Lily Allen, and legions of other ingénues who’ve since fallen by the wayside.  MySpace was literally a goldmine and News Corp. quickly set up MySpace Records to capitalise on the undiscovered talent still waiting to reveal itself.

 That depends entirely on your point of view

It might be the coldest winter for 30 years, but there’s evidence that the economic climate is beginning to reheat.  Stock exchanges in the UK and US regained 90% from the nadir they reached a year ago; finance chiefs are in their most confident mood for two years, according to a recent Deloitte report; and investors are rejoining the game after watching from the sidelines.

This new mood of optimism provided an appropriate backdrop to our inaugural awards.  Rather than the usual sequence of back-slapping, the NEE Awards have a more salient objective – to celebrate good service, spread the word and eradicate the humdrum obstacles of cross-border business and grease the wheels of worldwide commerce.  This issue is given over to the best of the best.

Two years ago you’d probably never heard of them; now, you’re lost without them.  Put simply, your smartphone - loaded with apps – is probably the most crucial development to hit the business landscape since the suit and tie.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, apps (an abbreviation of applications) are mini-programs which users can download and store on their smartphone – be it an iPhone, Blackberry, or Google’s Android phone.  Apps may be small, but they have the power to transform your mobile phone into the digital equivalent of a Swiss Army knife; a tool so versatile you’ll instantly wonder how you ever coped without it.