From the editor.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey

Last September, our cover story looked at the ways in which CFOs and CIOs were coming together to focus on common interests that would help drive their companies' performance. That's not to say, of course, that this is a universal phenomenon--but in enlightened organizations, it can and does happen.

In this month's cover article, a PricewaterhouseCoopers partner and former global CIO, Mark Lutchen, argues that relatively few C-level executives recognize that if IT is to provide measurable business value, the IT organization must be managed and organized in a way "that gives it the change-embracing agility it needs to keep pace with constant volatility in the business and technology environments." He also maintains that CFOs and CIOs need to get together regularly and respect the others' expertise.

Relationships between companies and their outside auditing firms have become more remote in the wake of the laundry list of rules and standards coming out of reform measures like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, according to financial executives at some companies. Writer Gregory Millman samples opinions from a number of executives and auditors to try to understand what has changed and where things are headed.

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Fifth Third Bancorp., the regional banking giant based in Cincinnati, has long had an enviable record in the merger area--historically by buying far smaller banks and integrating them into its platform. Writer Paul Sweeney spoke with the bank's CFO, Mark Graf, and got considerable detail about how the bank approaches a merger, the role of investment bankers, its emphasis on local decision-making and more.

While executives spend a great deal of time discussing the design of products, services or product/service bundles, they do not see price as integral, according to a trio of writers from Marakon Associates. What happens then is that...