A hospital operating table in the United States costs around $40,000. An operating table in Bangladesh can run between $5,000 and $30,000, depending on whether the hospital can spring the cash for a Western model or has to settle for a cheaper Chinese version. Even at the discount prices, hospitals in the impoverished South Asian country -- or in many other developing countries, for that matter -- can afford only one.

Hoping to bring operating tables to the masses, a team of Virginia Commonwealth University graduate students wants to design, build and ship a table for $500 -- one tenth the cost of what it takes the Chinese to deliver one. The only way they can possibly succeed is to approach the problem from a radically different perspective.

That's the kind of challenge that VCU's da Vinci Center for Innovation in Product Design and Development thrives upon. A joint initiative of the schools of business, engineering and design sponsored by seven major Richmond-area corporations, the program teams students from different disciplines as a way to stimulate creative, inter-disciplinary thinking.

Colfax Corp., a global supplier of pumps and valves, has priced its Initial Public Offering at $18 per share. At that price, the 19.8 million shares owned by Chairman Steven M. Rales are worth about $356 million -- adding a nice bump to a net worth estimated by Forbes Magazine now to be $3.0 billion. His brother Steven M. Rales, who does not sit on the board, owns a comparable amount.

According to BusinessWeek, the Rales brothers made their fortune in the Danaher Corp., which owns a "sprawling portfolio of sleepy, underloved industrial businesses -- companies that make dental surgery implements, multimeters, drill chucks, servomotors, and wrenches, just to name a few -- that it seems deliberately assembled to be as unsexy as possible. " The brothers are notoriously reserved, never speaking to the press. They run their business empire from an office six blocks from the White House.

Among local executives, CEO John Young owns nearly 380,000 shares, putting his net worth at roughly $6.8 million.

Performance Food Group Company CEO Steven Spinner will resign from the company upon completion of its merger with VISTAR Corporation, when VISTAR CEO George Holm takes over the combined company. Stated Skinner: "I am privileged to have been a part of Performance Food Group and to have been able to lead it for the past few years. Working with, and on behalf of, the company's outstanding associates and customers has been rewarding and exciting. I wish the combined company great success."

John Stokely, Performance Foods vice chairman said:  "Steve Spinner was instrumental in making PFG into a leader in the foodservice industry. The value the PFG shareholders are receiving as a result of this merger are a direct result of his efforts."

Skinner gave no indication of what he planned to do after stepping down. Read more. 

Jay L. Johnson, executive vice president and chief executive officer of Dominion Virginia Power, will retire effective June 1 to take a position as vice chairman of General Dynamics, a Northern Virginia defense contractor. Previously, Johnson had served as president and CEO of Dominion Delivery and senior vice president of business excellence, where he was responsible for the implementation of Six Sigma.

Said Dominion CEO Thomas F. Farrell II: "Jay has been a significant contributor to the Dominion success story. We will miss his insights, but he will bring invaluable skills as a strategist and leader to his new role at General Dynamics."

Added Johnson: "I am moving from one great company to another. And while I am excited about this tremendous opportunity with General Dynamics, the experience that I have gained and the friendships that I have made at Dominion are second to none."

Chesapeake Corp., a global packaging company, has reported dismal 1Q results which, if continued into the next quarter, could cause it to default on some of its $543 million in debt. Revenues declined seven percent, while earnings plunged from a small profit the same quarter last year to an $8.4 million loss.

"We expected financial results for the first half of the year to be below those in 2007, and the first quarter was worse than expected," said CEO Andrew J. Kohut in a press release yesterday. "The second quarter should be better than the first, and we expect the second half of the year to build on this momentum because of a robust business pipeline and benefits from process improvement initiatives. "

"We have made good progress on refinancing our senior revolving credit facility and have a commitment letter to have a new $250-million senior secured credit facility by the end of June," added Kohut.  "We are also actively exploring options for non-core or underperforming assets."

This morning more than 300 business people attended the Employer All Star Awards breakfast presented by the Richmond Human Resources Management Association and the Greater Richmond Chamber.

The three winners of the 2008 Greater Richmond Area Employer of Choice award were:

VCU Health System, for the large organization category

The Whitlock Group, an audio and video systems integration firm, has won a $3 million contract to upgrade the high definition television system at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. The upgrade will allow the stadium to broadcast HD content to all displays throughout the facility and upgrade to IP TV at a later date.

The Tampa Bay Sports Authority is paying $2.2 million for the system and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the balance. The Bucs have a clause in their lease contract that says the televisions will be replaced periodically. In this case, because the club wanted to upgrade the performance, it agreed to pay the difference in cost.

The Whitlock Group, which has 400 employees in 20 locations across the country, generates more than $120 million a year in annual revenue. Read More.

Not only are cheap petroleum and gasoline relics of a bygone economic era, so is cheap electrical power. Citing explosive increases in the price of energy prices globally, Dominion Electric Power has filed for permission to pass on $1.1 billion a year in energy costs to its rate payers. On average, consumers will see electric rates rise 18.3 percent. (Additionally, the utility is requesting reimbursement for another $697 million in unbilled fuel costs from years past, which it proposes collecting over three years.)

Inevitably, we'll hear carping from "consumer" advocates that Dominion is ripping everyone off. To deal with those concerns, the power company has proposed several measures to buffer consumers from financial hardship, which I won't dwell on here. For details, look for coverage in your local newspaper.

These rate increases are not concocted by greedy utility executives. They reflect fundamental shifts in the supply and demand for energy: relentlessly rising demand combined with constrained supplies. There is no way around it: Energy is getting much more expensive, and there is no way to protect consumers from that harsh reality. Before I delve into the details of Dominion's situation, permit me to quote a statement made yesterday by Peter T. Socha, CEO of Richmond-based James River Coal, in that company's 1Q quarterly report: