Specialising in the manufacture of plastic parts by rotational moulding since 2003, the Luxembourg company Rotomade has been growing rapidly since 2010. The secret of its success? The manufacture in collaboration with a sewerage and waste water treatment expert of a septic tank which is right now the most efficient on the market. The company markets it around the world through its subsidiary Biorock.

Created in 2005 and hosted in the Technoport Business Incubator until 2011, Villmond may be a small company, but it certainly does global business. How exactly does a Luxembourg-based four-man team end up working on projects such as providing a quality assurance system for the Argentinian census of 2010? One of the founders of this innovative IT consultancy firm, Victorio Bentivogli, claims it is due to the good network his experienced team has built over the years. But more importantly, Villmond had the know-how to provide a solution to a technical challenge when others were limited by traditional approaches.

In close collaboration with ArcelorMittal and in response to its needs in this area, the Public Research Centre (CRP) Henri Tudor has recently developed some new tailor-made tools for the environmental evaluation of buildings.

Amal Choury is the founder and managing director of e-Kenz, a Software as a Service (SaaS) company that enables SMEs to reduce the cost of their enterprise resource planning (ERP) activities and allows them to focus on their core business. Since it was founded in 2008, the company and its managing director have gone through a period of astonishing development thanks to their sheer dynamism. This momentum has already translated into several awards for Ms Choury personally – including the prestigious Woman Business Manager of the Year prize in 2010.

Donner une vie, voire une âme, à un plan souvent abstrait et peu attrayant, tel est le défi que s’est donné Serge Ecker. Pour y parvenir, il a créé Grid Design, société qui travaille essentiellement à la modélisation 3D, réelle ou virtuelle, de projets architecturaux. En recherche permanente d’innovation, il participe au développement d’une application iPhone qui permet de découvrir l’intérieur d’un bâtiment, d’une voiture ou de tout autre objet grâce à une visite virtuelle, pour une expérience unique, à la fois ludique et réaliste.

On 12 October 2011, VesselSat1, the first satellite built entirely in Luxembourg was placed in orbit for ORBCOMM Inc. Dedicated to tracking ships (the AIS system), it was created and assembled in less than a year by the engineers of LuxSpace sàrl. A record delivery time for the Luxembourg company, which is the only designer of microsatellites in Europe.

Boson Energy SA is a prime example of technology transfer in action: award-winning work in research, development and innovation about to be released on the European market. The product: the Boson Energy Unit, a small-scale plant that uses gasification to convert wood and other cellulose-based biomass into gas and ultimately into green electricity and heat. Clients include: industries, communities, hospitals and others.

The Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg (IBBL) is a key component of Luxembourg’s push to develop personalised medicine, the discipline which tailors treatments to individual patient needs. Since it opened on 25 February 2010, the IBBL has applied itself to becoming an international centre of excellence and to supporting scientific advances that will produce health and economic benefits. FOCUS spoke to IBBL CEO Dr Robert A. Phillips about the role of this institution and asked how Luxembourg can make a difference.

Luxembourger Patrick Kersten, founder and managing director of the real estate website atHome.lu, is the epitome of the modern entrepreneur. He discusses his business ventures with FOCUS, describes his career so far, and outlines where he sees opportunities for the future.

"My motivation has always been to do something that other people aren’t doing," says Norbert Keller. He wants his company to be a high-quality niche business, and leaves standard products to others. Not surprisingly, the company he founded has become a market leader in its sector.