The more merchandise a department store carries, the better. Broad inventory filled with brand names boosts a retailer's chances of "giving the lady what she wants"- the key to success, according to none other than Marshall Field. So it can't be a good sign that Converse Inc. has stopped selling shoes to Sears Holdings Corp.

Along with its warning that delaying action on climate change would cause enormous economic losses, the White House has announced a series of data-related initiatives to prepare U.S. food and water supplies - along with the industries and jobs that rely on them - for climate challenges.

Already China's biggest restaurant operator with 4,600 outlets, KFC is pursuing Chinese consumers so avidly it opens two more every day. That dramatic growth comes with a big catch: KFC's quality control is struggling to keep up.

Trevor Schick, senior vice president for the global supply chain enterprise group at Hewlett-Packard, explains the importance and challenges involved in eliminating "conflict minerals" from the supply chain and HP's commitment to this goal.

Chief financial officers of corporations that have already set up captive insurance companies or are thinking about setting one up should ponder the benefits of self-insuring cyber perils and supply chain business-interruption risks via a captive to supplement commercial insurance coverage.