The Big Idea

• Fraud, corruption, bankruptcy: The new America?
  Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme is the latest proof that nothing in America is what it seemed, says columnist Michael Goodwin. The whole country, as he sees it, was perpetuating a giant Ponzi scheme -- consumers, carmakers, insurance companies, even governments. "The con lasted only as long as new suckers bought in," he says. New York Daily News (12/14)     

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Strategic Management

• The truth about strategy sessions
  When business leaders sit down to develop strategy, what really happens is a "framing" contest, says professor Freek Vermeulen of the London Business School. "In strategy meetings," he says, "people try to convince each other by painting a mental image of the future; what would happen if they'd continue as is, and what could happen if they'd follow the course of action proposed by them." It's not a bad way to do business, he says. Random Rantings (12/10)     

Join us for the 8th Annual Fuqua & Coach K Leadership Conference, Duke University, Oct. 26-28, 2009. Learn how to lead and rebuild through crisis from chief executives, athletic coaches, and Duke faculty. Strategy retreat packages available for companies to send teams of executives to build on conference lessons. www.conferenceonleadership.com

• Financial crises, past and present
  McKinsey's research into past financial calamities reveals a basic strategic message: Prepare to seize opportunity. In previous recessions, "companies pursuing a purely defensive strategy fared less well than their more active counterparts," the authors say. The McKinsey Quarterly (free registration for SmartBrief readers) (12/2008)     

• Bank execs squeezed to forgo compensation
  Nearly 90 financial companies have taken cash infusions from the U.S. Treasury's $250 billion capital-purchase program, and senior executives at one after another have announced that they'll waive their annual bonuses. The pressure is on, but JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has only hinted that he would follow suit. If the cacophony of humility has you confused, this chart helps to sort it out. Financial Times (free content) (12/14)     

The Strategic Impact of Support and Services on Company Revenue The Association of Support Professionals (ASP) reports how support-related services typically generate more than a third of all corporate revenue. Read this complimentary white paper to see results from ASP's extensive audit on a select group of companies that have successfully tapped into revenue-generating services.

Innovation and Creativity

• The obnoxious champion
  New ideas meet so much resistance that they're often smothered at birth -- unless a hero steps in to press the cause. The corporate champion is a credit to innovation but frequently not the most popular in the room: "The champion is obnoxious, impatient, egotistic, and perhaps a bit irrational in organizational terms," says James Brian Quinn, a professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. The Economist (12/15)     

Building a Seamless Retail System In the fast-paced fashion industry, many companies are challenged as they try to balance the business and creative sides of their enterprise. Click here for a free case study to learn how industry leader Perry Ellis achieves 20 percent revenue growth each year by leveraging a best of breed system from Oracle.

Top five news stories selected by SmartBrief on Leadership readers in the past week.

• How Chicago became so corrupt (Slate)

• 5 shrewd management calls (BNET)

• 10 CEOs likely to get the heave-ho (24/7 Wall St.)

• Detroit bailout dies in Senate (Financial Times (free content))

• Corporate contrition: GM's mea culpa (The Washington Post)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

• Time's 10 scandals of the year
  Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards, the great Beijing lip-sync -- the scandals were rolling in so fast Time magazine could hardly keep up. Surely Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich should bump teen star Miley Cyrus, no? TIME (subscription required) (12/9)     

Position Title Company Name Location Director, International Logistics PETCO San Diego, CA Senior Financial Analyst - HQS Continental Airlines Headquarters - Houston, TX Vice President of Distribution Uline Waukegan, IL Click here to view more job listings.

You have to be a zealot at times in order to keep interest alive, because it will die off." --Spence Silver, 3M's champion of the Post-It note