Features

Departments

The Customer Comes Eighth
By Art Kleiner
Does anyone still believe the customer comes first? In most companies, the customer weighs in far behind the core group of decision-makers that really runs the organization.

Is Nothing Sacred?
By Linda Formichelli
Would you splash your company's logo on a sheep? In a golf hole? On a college kid's forehead? There are companies that would-and do. But does anyone even notice?

A Salute to Governance
By Gary Moreau
The military holds some valuable lessons for corporate-governance reformers-if you can think of your CEO as a general, your board as the U.S. Congress, and your department heads as field commanders.

Taking On Capitalism
By A.J. Vogl
William Greider, national-affairs correspondent for The Nation, has never shied from heavyweight topics. Now he asks one of the most essential questions of our time: Can capitalism be saved?

Doomed to Failure
By Jean-Louis Barsoux and Jean-François Manzoni
If there's been unusually high turnover in your company's ranks, take a look at each employee's first week on the job. Too many managers let snap judgments made during that time affect a new employee's whole tenure with the company.

Impossible Questions
By William Poundstone
The newest interviewing trick is to stump potential hires with riddles, puzzles, and other brainteasers. But does that really tell you anything about your new employee?

Openers
By A.J. Vogl

Press Box
The business press caters to our declining attention spans.
By Ellsworth Quarrels

From the Board
Jose Berrios looks at workforce diversity 10 years after The Conference Board convened its first council on the subject.

Adventures in Cyberspace
By E.J. Heresniak
The availability of sex on the Internet exposes Americans' hypocrisy about titillation.

Dispatches From the Front
By John Guaspari
I've said that there is no such thing as an internal customer. I know when to admit I'm wrong.

The Irrational Universe
By Phyllis Gail Doloff
We've forgotten the "human" in HR. Instead, we treat people like office accessories.

In Review
By Robert A. Brawer
Two books examining the role of the corporation in a democracy reach very different conclusions.
By Richard J. Whalen
Is Saudi Arabia a staunch American ally or a powder keg waiting to explode? Robert Baer, retired CIA operative, goes inside.

Sightings
By Matthew Budman
Where It All Started.

Soundings

Flying Into the Wind - By Scott McNealy

What the Finns Know - By Michael Lewis

Another Noble Lie - By Toby Young

Passing the Buck on Technology - By Diane Filbin

Questioning Authority: Diane Ravitch - By Melissa Master

And more, from Alan Weiss, Seth Godin, George Wein, Upton Sinclair, Daniel Cohen, Adrian Slywotzky, Richard Wise, Jeff Koon, and Andy Powell.