Sustainability can involve a global effort to calculate carbon emissions across the entire supply chain. Or it can mean the changing of a few light bulbs.

In retail, the holidays are the best of times and the worst of times. The trick to troubleshooting shipping issues is to manage for the best scenario but expect the worst, especially during peak intervals.

Four times in the last five years, the Pentagon's inspector general has found that Boeing Co. collected excessive or unjustified payments on U.S. defense contracts. In the latest of four audits since 2008, the watchdog office said the Chicago company charged the Army for new helicopter parts while installing used ones.

In a post-Rana Plaza world, one can only wonder how best to gauge the ethics and worker safety behind our garment-manufacturing industry. The Goliath that the fashion industry has become begs the question whether it's even possible to ensure suppliers do the right thing.

Total Quality Management. Quality circles. Quality with a capital "Q." It all seems so...20th Century.

As the saying goes: "One does not get promoted based on cost avoidance." One of the reasons is that costs avoided do not show up on financial statements. On the other hand, costs incurred - including security outlays - are visible, and often become prime targets for the CFO's cost-cutting knife.