OK, so restoring trust in U.S. corporations may require more than the rapid adoption of plain English.

I looked at my previous post and wrinkled my nose -– on second read, it comes across a bit too simple-minded (however, self-kudos for including the Japanese symbol for trust; nice touch).

I followed up with Edelman to ask them about which survey results struck their Trust Barometer veterans. They pointed me to the reasons behind declining trust in U.S. corporations. more

Performance matters, especially these days. And the old B-school truism — you can’t manage what you can’t measure — still holds true. So today, CFOs are being asked to report and analyze all manner of financial measurements and nonfinancial metrics (data not traditionally collected, reported, and analyzed by the finance group). That means BPM, business performance management.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are changing, too. It is no longer enough, for example, to report last month’s sales. CFOs, instead, are fielding requests about which of those sales or accounts are profitable. Similarly, they are being called on to become forecasters, predicting, for instance, the financial impact of shedding seemingly less profitable accounts. Today’s new KPIs might measure the lifetime value of the customer relationship or the cost of adding suppliers.

Managers intent on managing performance will want data not typically found in the usual finance department reports. That leaves the CFO to scramble, often rushing to adopt costly BPM tools to measure, analyze, and report new performance metrics alongside traditional financial reporting. This race to the latest technology, however, can produce disappointing results. more

You know that brain-drain problem the Sibson Consulting VP mentioned here while pointing out flaws in the recently enacted pay caps for bailout executives?

Hogwash, says old-school investment banker John Gutfreund, who maintains that critics of the curb are whining.

“People got spoiled,” says Gutfreund, the former Solomon Brothers head honcho who was famously portrayed in Michael Lewis’s brilliant 1989 book Liar’s Poker. “There’s always someone else coming up the ladder.”

Gutfreund and another (in)famous Wall Street personality provide fresh and slightly contrarian analyses of the bailout executive-pay limits. You might not like the latter figure’s personal governance record, but his insights on executive pay limits are well supported.

In his new role as a Slate business columnist, former New York governor Eliot Spitzer lays bare what’s wrong with President Obama’s $500,000 compensation cap for senior bailout executives and what can be done about it. more

A recent Dilbert comic strip crystallizes a workforce challenge that could soon result in more business regulation.

Thanks to the bruising blows their retirement accounts have taken, baby boomers now say they intend to remain in the workforce longer than they expected to just a few years ago. The Senate Special Committee on Aging, headed by Milwaukee Bucks owner/Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), met today to discuss the downturn’s effect on retirement security.

The centerpiece of today’s meeting is a new 50-page report from the Government Accountability Office whose title conveys its content: “Enhanced Communication Among Federal Agencies Could Improve Strategies for Hiring and Retaining Experienced Workers.”

Several bills, which could impose new regulations on companies related to how they hire and manage older workers, will be introduced this week. more