Although the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been in effect for 35 years as of Dec. 19, many companies still have a long way to go in complying with it. Indeed, 44.6 percent of professionals say either that their companies are not making improvements to prevent and detect corrupt activity or that they don't know if their company is doing so, according to a survey by Deloitte.

The discussion of American manufacturing is often a muddled one, steeped in nostalgia for a bygone era and accompanied by a certain misty-eyed conviction that it is a sector in ceaseless decline. A new study from the McKinsey Global Institute adds some welcome clarity. In 184 pages, the global consulting giant presents a picture of manufacturing as among the most dynamic sectors of the U.S. and global economies, driving higher productivity and standards of living. But it also shows that what we usually think of as a traditional manufacturing job isn't coming back.

A new Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA) has been launched to accelerate the growth of urban manufacturing across the U.S. and to capitalize on the sector's ability to create stable, high-quality jobs.

Corporations spinning off businesses, private equity investment in retail, continued cross-border activity and expansion into e-commerce drove retail and consumer merger and acquisition activity in the third quarter of 2012, according to PwC's US retail and consumer M+A insights report.

As U.S. cornfields withered under drought conditions last summer, Brazil's once-empty Cerrado region produced a bumper crop of the grain, helping feed livestock on U.S. farms and ease a drought-related spike in prices.

Even as companies are relying more on technology to come up with innovative business models and fresh ideas for finding new revenue, many boards of directors don't understand enough about IT to keep up.

It's an often overlooked area of the supply chain, with a woeful record of success. Josefin Aspegren, marketing director with Optilon, talks about the challenge of assessing the efficacy of trade-promotion programs.

You can love CRM as a discipline, but don't have any illusions about its ability to survive in the cruel world. The reality is that customer relationships are fragile things; they need the right environment to flourish and be profitable.