From the editor.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Editorial

Let's face it: Finance and marketing are a bit like oil and water in many organizations. Marketing is perceived as a cost center, and finance is the traffic cop forcing it to curtail its spending. But putting them together has been a key element in generating organic growth at a number of well-known companies, write two consultants from Marakon Associates in our cover story.

"The CFO, chief marketing officer and their direct reports often have to overcome significant cultural and sometimes structural barriers to working together: vast differences in thinking styles and perspectives, conflicting incentives and the occasional run-in," they write. But the rewards of doing so, they add, can be "potent," offering examples such as Genentech Inc., Best Buy Co. Inc., Barclays PLC and Roche Holding AG.

Developments in the past few years have clearly amplified the risks of serving as a corporate director. But attorney Paul Wolff believes that the risks shouldn't bar executives from doing board duty, provided they do their homework; he reviews a series of actions and questions to consider before agreeing to join a board, including the $64,000 question: is the board capable of firing the CEO?

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Succession often vaults into the headlines when a CEO is retiring or being forced out, but it's also vital at the director or manager level. Interviews with CFOs, recruiters and human resource specialists suggest that more companies are spending time on succession, and that planning and deliberation are central to a good succession process, in finance or elsewhere.

Has the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gone too far with its sped-up timetable for reporting quarterly and annual earnings? That's the question raised by David Copenhafer, director of EDGAR Services at Bowne & Co. He suggests that companies should consider petitioning the SEC to put on the brakes, arguing that the increased filing speed could come at...