It is hardly surprising that Philip Bier's Tiger UK value retail chain is being compared to Ikea. Founded in Scandinavia ten years ago, Tiger calls itself is a "variety store" selling home furnishings. It is active in eight countries, including the UK where there are ambitions to open 40 stores by 2012 - and eventually one on every high street.

Avi Levi
Avi Levi, General Manager UK of Bank Hapoalim International. He moved to the UK from Israel in 2007

● I have had to adjust to doing business in the UK - be more formal and reserved.

In Israel, if clients have something to say, they say it, whereas Brits are more subtle.

In the UK, there are lots more meetings before concluding transactions, whereas in Israel, you can conclude everything in one meeting.

There is an emphasis on execution. Israelis are always looking for the bottom line. The UK could learn from this and be a bit more direct.

Zef Eisenberg is completely open about it. His multi-million pound deal with the billion-pound pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, selling them his Maximuscle sports-nutrition brand, came "completely out of the blue".

Maximuscle, which the former bodybuilder launched in 1995, is the nation's largest supplier of sports nutritional products. It is on target to achieve £80m worth of sales for the 2010/2011 financial year, up from £69m last year.

Foreign buyers go to Italy to buy leather goods, to France to buy designer clothes and to London to buy a property. This is according to veteran estate agent Trevor Abrahmsohn, the founder and managing director of Glentree Estates in north London.

Renowned as the billionaires' agent, the South African is famous for selling expensive, or "trophy" homes, to overseas investors. Around 40 per cent of his clients are from abroad.

While the internet has made it faster for us to shop, it has also given rise to a major concern - the counterfeiting of successful brands. And the problem, which is costing businesses more than £3bn a year, is showing no signs of fading.

The Trading Standards Institute has reported a marked increase in copycat websites selling fake goods over the past year. These bogus sites copy the style of official branded versions, tricking customers into thinking they are buying genuine products by using an almost identical design and similar web address.

Clive Rich is a useful person to have on side.

He has successfully closed deals for some of the nation's most high-profile names including Robbie Williams, Simply Red, Tesco and Virgin. And then there are the 15 years he spent working with Simon Cowell, the multi-millionaire music entrepreneur.

Mr Rich, who works in partnership with leading law firm Olswang, also runs Rich Futures, where he spends half of his time on business negotiation - he is credited as being one of the UK's leading practitioners in this field.

When Gerald Ronson, the property heavyweight and boss of Heron International, welcomed his daughter Lisa into the business, he said they would "give it a go for a year". Twelve years on and she is still there. And Ms Ronson, a former Asian equities saleswoman, seems to have no intention of leaving. There is after all, a lot of work to be done.

The news that Israel's Delek Group, controlled by Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, is reportedly considering raising around £200 million on the London Stock Exchange in January will focus attention on one of Israel's largest corporations. Delek's holdings include a global property portfolio, hundreds of petrol stations in the US, Europe and Israel, and the Phoenix Israel Assurance company, but it will be Delek's achievements in discovering vast gas reserves off Israel's shores that whets the investor's appetite.

Serial Entrepreneur Serge Bueno is passionate about start ups. He has after all helped set up around 80. So passionate is Mr Bueno, 51, that he has delayed retirement to launch a million-pound online Dragons' Den-style initiative as a way for like-minded entrepreneurs to find each other - and investment.

With an ever-maturing convenience food market, companies need to create new ways to stand out to price-savvy customers.

Doing his best to stay ahead of the game is Alan Rosenthal, a newcomer to the industry. The self-confessed foodie is the founder of stewed! - a range of potted stews and slow-cooked dishes inspired by flavours from around the world.

Launched in 2008, initially to target the lunchtime market, the stews are now selling in Ocado, Sainsbury's, Budgens, Harvey Nichols and Waitrose.