Until very recently, Brad Casper was the president and CEO of The Dial Corporation, a part of Henkel AG & Co.

If you use a cell phone or buy household electronics, there's a good chance you own a device with one or more components distributed by Avnet.

What does it take to be an effective leader of a corporation? What must a chief executive officer do to energize employees and inspire them to go beyond what is normally expected? How does a CEO motivate employees to truly commit to a company?

Some small firms have weathered the economic storm by cutting expenses and reducing staff. But others have continued forward by focusing on what they do best: exemplary customer service, employee excellence and innovation. They tweaked their business plans to react to the new economic realities.

Recessions are especially hard on small businesses. Few small firms have the resources to stay the course and wait out the bad times. Credit is scarce, and budget cutting difficult. In a small operation, there are not that many places to cut.

Last month the world was rocked by the news of a series of workplace suicides at Foxconn Technology in Shenzhen, China.

Recently a senior executive at a large financial services firm struggled to answer whether the client's interests come first, reported Dean Robert Mittelstaedt of the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University in his remarks at the convocation on May 13, 2010.

In the national debate over how to make U.S. health care more efficient, one promising area for reform is often overlooked: supplies.

To be a fly on the wall in the board rooms of corporate America would be worth a mint. To understand the social psychology behind boards' strategic decisions would be priceless. David H. Zhu has done that.

"Please hold — your call is important to us."If you've ever heard that sentence then you know what it's like to be "on hold" for customer service.