Editor's page.

Management theories come and go, but the "command-and-control," top-down approach to budgeting and planning is sacrosanct at many companies. Now, however, those traditional methods are being challenged at companies like Southwest Airlines and American Express, which are attempting to use rolling forecasts and the empowerment of lower-ranking employees to drive better results.

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As writer Gregory Millman found, these companies and a few others are in the vanguard of what is sometimes called the "self-organization" approach to management. Some adherents to this philosophy go so far as to argue that top-down systems, driven by fixed annual budgets and tons of metrics, are tying up CFOs unnecessarily and are, if anything, crimping their success.

What does it take to keep a sports team or "tour" on a good operating footing? Good financial management, as a number of CFOs at various teams noted to Executive Editor Ellen M. Heffes and Cheryl Graziano of Financial Executives Research Foundation. But it also takes a bit of serendipity, like not losing a top player to injury, and the support of the local community (which winning teams have a habit of fostering). Long-term contracts with sponsors also go a long way toward keeping a good thing going.

It seems that the word "outsourcing" isn't much in vogue these days. Its replacement for many is "global sourcing." Two executives from Wipro Technologies write about how new sourcing capabilities and the help of sourcing partners are helping corporations operate business processes and develop products better, faster and at lower costs.

Getting a loan hasn't been exactly hard lately; it could be said that companies only need a pulse. It's a heady environment in which corporate defaults are at historically low levels and lenders of all kinds are eager to put their money to work. However, the roiling of global markets in late winter has some wondering how long these glory days will last.

A new electronic rights and publishing service has been installed on the FEI website recently, and it's worth calling to your attention. It's called iCopyright, and its intent is to streamline the whole process of securing rights, permissions and reprints. While that is primarily a benefit to FEI, as the publisher, it also offers useful services to members and other readers.

iCopyright is accessed by clicking on the magazine image on the website. If you call up an individual article, you'll see a menu of links at the top of the page--"email, print, save and license." A click on each one brings up a specific function. Say you want to email an article to colleagues. Clicking on "email" brings up a form for sending the article by simply filling in a few boxes. There is a fee schedule for bulk emails, just as there is for printing; a certain number are permitted free. Reprint requests can be launched through the "license" link.

The entire idea is to simplify the distribution of content among readers and their co-workers or other colleagues. No more wondering about whether mass copying at a copy machine is permissible (generally speaking, it isn't); no more having to save a link to an article and relay that to a distribution list. You can even save articles you come across for further review, via a free iCopyright service called Clip&Copy.

Before too long, probably, such services will be routine. For now, they are the exception, and Financial Executive is pleased to be able to offer them.