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This article presents the thoughts of some of the world's top investors their opinions on what 2007 may bring. Included are comments from Jeremey Grantham and Abby Joseph Cohen of Goldman Sachs, David Herro of Oakmark funds, Rich Bernstein of Merrill Lynch and Jack Rivkin, CIO of Neuberger Berman. The panel generally agreed that real estate is to be avoided and the long-term outlook is for slow growth. INSET: THE RECIPES.

This article describes the booming private equity business. With money from investors pouring in, suddenly no company is out of reach for certain firms. For instance, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts proposed buying Vivendi for $50 billion, and some speculate that giants like Dell and Home Depot could be next. Since they do not have to report compensation packages, private equity firms are free to bid the highest for the best executives.

This article discusses natural mental or physical ability, and debates whether success can be achieved without hard work. The article notes that the preeminent names in science, business, and sports all worked very hard to attain their position, and did not simply rely on their natural ability to achieve greatness.

The author reports that business models that have produced profits for decades no longer work, as executive chairman Bill Ford of Ford Motor Co. announced to his company. The resulting pressure on CEOs and boards of directors is intense and executive turnover is rising. Ways that large corporations can become comfortable with chaotic change are mentioned.

The article presents an interview with Michael Linton, chief marketing officer of Best Buy. When asked about the stress associated with being chief marketing officer, Linton refers to the difficulties of modern marketing. Linton believes that marketing is the most public of functions. New marketing tools, U.S. consumers, demographics, customer-centricity, Geek Squad, and other topics are discussed. INSET: THE VIEW FROM THE TOP OF CIRCUIT CITY.

The article reports on the future of the pension system in the U.S. and the reality that the generation about to retire will not experience the same kind of lifestyle as the one before it. Many corporations, even stable ones like IBM, are cutting pension funds and some younger companies are abandoning the entire notion. INSETS: SAY GOODBYE TO THE PENSION PLAN;HOW SAFE IS YOUR PENSION?;ANOTHER PERK JOINS THE ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST.

The article discusses the phenomenon of the "dream team in business, which seam good theoretically but often fail in practice. The reason for the failure of many dream teams are the fact that they are typically composed of those who have been successful individually, and are often dragged down by infighting and lack of teamwork. INSET: Lessons From the BUSINESS Playbook.

The article presents an interview with Citigroup chief financial officer Sallie Krawcheck. She discusses her reputation for honesty, gained at Sanford C. Bernstein, and the spate of financial scandals that followed the dot-com bust. She talks about the role of research in investing and working in the financial industry as a woman. Krawcheck also discusses why Citigroup's growth has stagnated for the past two years.

The article presents an interview with Rob Carter, chief information officer (CIO) at FedEx. Carter is in charge of all computer and communication systems in the company. It delivers six million packages a day in 220 countries, and has over 200 thousand employees. Carter is credited with helping make FedEx successful. Carter talks about using technology to generate revenue, customer satisfaction and strategic advantage. He speaks about the company's collaboration with U.S. and international law enforcement agencies to prevent terrorism.

This article presents opinions about General Electric (GE) from seven management experts, some of whom worked at GE, including Dell CEO Kevin Rollins who admires GE's consistent performance, Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer who appreciates GE's pride and honest assessments of business situations, Clay Christensen who believes GE is the best school of management but doesn't admire their innovation, and SPX CEO Chris Kearney who says that GE makes you look at things differently.

This article discusses the reasons that General Electric (GE) is consistently voted in surveys of businesspeople as the most admired and most respected company. Surveys by the "Financial Times" and "Barron's" come up with the same results. GE has been a leader in organizational design and management for all of its 100 years. CEO Jeff Immelt says that it's GE's ability to live in the moment and not be burdened by the past that is important. GE constantly reinvents itself and isn't afraid to change directions.

Introduces articles that profile 12 business leaders who could become chief executive officers of major corporations in the United States. DuPont's Ellen Kullman, Motorola's Greg Brown, and Coca-Cola's Mary Minnick are mentioned. The competition for executives is discussed. Examples include the Microsoft and Google recruiting battle over Kai-Fu Lee. Reasons for the shortage of qualified executives are mentioned. Companies that have produced the most CEO include Procter & Gamble which has produced 11 CEO, General Electric with ten, General Motors with seven, IBM, and McKinsey.

Profiles Jeff Immelt, chief executive officer of General Electric. Obstacle presented to Immelt by General Electric's poor stock performance; Observation that Immelt is a very demanding chief, and he quickly replaced high-level executives that he put in place, including Yoshiaki Fujimori and Gary Rogers; Comparison of Immelt to his predecessor, Jack Welch; Details of General Electric's financial position, with stocks down 15% while major market indexes are up 7% to 11%, which equates to a $100 billion gap in the company's worth. INSET: If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Oslo.

Discusses whether the United States is ready to compete in the global market. Belief by analysts that the U.S. standard of living could stall or begin to decline; Assertion that we're not building human capital the way we used to; How the U.S. can become stronger in a new economic world; Way that many companies already outsource work to other countries; Effect of globalization on American workers; Leadership of the Chinese in the technology industry; Need for the U.S. to spend more on research and development if they are to remain technologically dominant.

Discusses the role of advice in business literature. Historical perspective on business advice in books and periodicals for businesspeople; Importance of business advice to career growth and business success; Description of opposition to business advice by Henry Luce, founder of "Fortune" magazine; Influence of important publications, including "My Years with General Motors," by Alfred P. Sloan, and "In Search of Excellence," by Robert H. Waterman, Jr.; Similarities between effective business advice and effective life strategies.

Offers investment analysis of companies that place customers at the center of their businesses as of July 2004. Evaluation of the sales practices at Best Buy stores; Report that sales personnel at Best Buy understand the principles of return on invested capital; Reference to the book "Angel Customers & Demon Customers: Discover Which Is Which and Turbocharge Your Stock," by Larry Selden and others.

Discusses fads and fashions that companies in the Fortune 500 have tried over the year to help their business succeed. Inkblot tests given to job applicants 50 years ago; Attempt to use company websites as ways to generate new customers and revenue; Unexpected changes in business and society that interrupted forecasted business plans, such as the diminishing of railroads due to trucks and planes just years after the Santa Fe Railroad company had bought hundreds of acres of land around Los Angeles to ensure it would have enough land for building railroads; History of failed business innovations and plans by corporations over the past several decades.

Offers six suggestions for boosting a company's stock. Figuring out the needs of profitable customers; Importance of creativity; Telling customers how great the company's value propositions are.

Reports that companies gain competitive advantage when they determine which customers are profitable. Information on customers that can reduce the profit of a firm and shareholder value; Recommendation that companies manage the enterprise as a portfolio of customers; Discussion on customer-centric companies, such as Dell Computer Corp., Royal Bank of Canada and Hudson Bay Co. of Canada; Information on software that calculates customer profitability.

Discusses the salaries of chief executive officers (CEOs) in the United States as of June, 2001. Impact of the stock option as a form of salary; Role of board compensation committees on CEO salary; History of CEO salaries.

Offers advice for gauging the prospects of Internet initiatives for companies. Principles for evaluating a company; Role of the price/earnings ratio in planning; Importance of tracking operational measures that propel share price; Value proposition in comparison to competitors; Importance of employee understanding of the Internet and the business; Recommendations.

Discusses the challenges facing management in light of the slowdown in the United Discusses the economic conditions in the United States as of early 2001. Fundamental strategies of keeping a clear view of reality, focusing on the quality of employees, and improving productivity; Advice on how to use the downturn as an opportunity to evaluate people, to expand revenue sources, to build customer and supplier relationships, to generate and nurture new ideas, and to overhaul the budget process; Suggestion that managers be bold and act fast.

Presents 'Fortune's' nominations for the hottest business stories and people of 2001. AT&T chief Mike Armstrong and WorldCom chief executive officer (CEO) Bernie Ebbers; Role of economist Larry Lindsey in the United States President-elect George W. Bush's cabinet; DaimlerChrysler chairman Jurgen Schrempp; Others. INSETS: The Hot Jobs in The New New Economy;You Heard It Here First; We Dubbed Bush President 21 Months Ago.

Presents the 'Fortune' eighth annual directory of companies that produce wealth for investors. Rank of the 200 largest market capitalization firms compiled by the Stern Stewart consulting firm; Details of a method for predicting wealth-creating companies; Topics such as market value added, economic value added, net operating profit after tax, and future growth value; Observations about the market including profitable companies with negative ratios.

Presents an interview with Mercer Management consultants Adrian Slywotzky and David Morrison. Mention of their book 'How Digital Is Your Business'; Argument that digital success is using digital technology to create value that is consistent with a company's core goals; Answers to several questions related to companies going digital.

Introduces a series of articles about the uncertainty of the United States economy and markets and offers a guide to investing in the economy. Growth of the U.S. economy in the 115 months leading to September 2000; Unemployment and inflation statistics; Assertion that past history would indicate that the current economic conditions are impossible to sustain.

Discusses the changes in the consulting business. How companies are all focused on the Internet and electronic commerce; Importance of the advice on information technology that consultants are providing to companies; How consulting revenue's rose in the 1990s due to massive software implementation; Comments and examples from executives at Andersen Consulting.

The article presents an interview with Gerry Roche of Heidrick and Struggles, Tom Neff of SpencerStuart and Alan Seiler of Ramsey Beirne, the leading headhunters or searchers of corporate talent in the U.S. For Seiler, there is a trend for executives to be torn as they are recruited, especially if they are heavily courted by the current employer. According to Roche, the results of the talent war include an increase in the compensation package.

Focuses on what 'Fortune' magazine considers the six worst company boards of directors in the United States as of April 2000. Boards of Advanced Micro Devices, Archer Daniels Midland, Maxxam, Ogden, Rite Aid, and Warnaco; Description of these boards and what makes them so bad; Outlook. INSET: The Best Aren't Just Good--They're Terrific.

Focuses on why many boards of directors tend to pick poor successors to chief executive officers (CEO) at their companies. Examples of several CEO who have been bad fits for particular companies; How to reduce this risk; Outlook. INSETS: GE's Ten-Step Talent Plan;The Retirement Wave;How to Use a Headhunter.

Discusses various concepts of management and their implications on management during the 21st century. Views of Frederick Winslow Taylor, one of the most influential businessmen of the 20th century, and their effect on productivity; Requirements of working in large organizations and the advent of management as a concept; The role of values in management; Importance of human-centered management during the 21st century.

Examines how frequently and creatively the top ten companies on 'Fortune's' America's Most Admired Companies list use the Internet. How General Electric is using electronic commerce; The most sophisticated information technology company among the nontechnology members of the list; The least admired companies in the United States; Eight key attributes of reputation.

Identifies business people identified by `Fortune' as worth of attention in 2000. Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com; Mike Armstrong of AT&T; Jill Barad of Mattel; Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric; Michael Eisner of Disney; Steve Jobs of Apple; David Komansky of Merrill Lynch; John Reed, Robert Rubin and Sandy Weill of Citigroup; Bill Ford Jr. of Ford Motor Company; Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter; Others.

Introduces the 1999 `Fortune' ranking of the 50 Best Companies for Asians, Blacks and Hispanics in the United States. Comparison of the group's performance to that of the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index over five years; Diversity as a competitive advantage; Impact of a Texaco discrimination suit on corporate attention to diversity.

Suggests how to be a great electronic-corporation chief executive officer (CEO). Comments from Jomei Chang of Vitria Technology; Tom Jermoluk of @Home Network; Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com; John Chambers, Cisco Systems; Characteristics of e-CEOs; Wealth and age of some CEOs. INSET: The Hottest Job in the Old Economy.

Presents a photographic retrospective of business in the twentieth century. Major innovations like the automobile; Developments in transportation which brought viable commercial air travel; The United States as a consumer society; Advertising and marketing; The computer revolution; Communication; Public access to investment choices.

Focuses on the six companies selected by `Fortune' magazine as having the worst executive boards in 1998. Advanced Micro Devices; AMP; Archer Daniels Midland; Bank of America; Occidental Petroleum; Sybase; Why each company was chosen; Who their chief executives are; Stock performance of each company. INSETS: Al Dunlap: Booted for Being a Shareholder Hero;Four That Escaped Our List of Worst Boards;Bookmarks (favorite web sites of Joe Nacchio).

Reports on the surplus of money found in the economies of the world as of January 1999. How many credit card companies, in the United States, are offering money to consumers to sign up; The increased number of mergers in the world during 1998; Effects of the overcapacity found in industries; The amount of money spent on all the major mergers of 1998 combined; Mergers such as British Petroleum Co. PLC and Amoco Corp.; List of the top ten mergers of 1998.

Every company has unprofitable customers, but few dare to say goodbye to them, no matter how much they may be dragging down the stock price. Executives at a number of [...]

States that as the furor over chief executive officer (CEO) compensation widens, America's business chiefs and corporate boards can fix the system--or let the federal government in Washington whack at it. Strategies currently used at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Issues concerning stock options; Dealing with the board of directors. INSET: And abroad?.

Offers advice to baby boomers in the U.S. on how to prepare for their retirement. Problems to be faced by the boomers when they retire; Feasibility of investing in property; Usefulness of investing in a long-term healthcare policy; Practicability of investing in the stock market.

This article provides an interview with Boeing chief executive James McNerney. McNerney has delivered top financial performance at companies such as General Electric and 3M before being hired by Boeing in 2005. McNerney discusses his business philosophy, and cites former General Electric chief executive Jack Welch as one of his primary business influences.