From the editor.

Our cover interview with John Devine, CFO of General Motors, serves up information from one of the world's biggest companies and, perforce, one of the world's most influential CFOs. Devine, as many of you know, is in the saddle at GM after a long career at rival Ford Motor Co. His thoughts about the evolving CFO role, foreign markets, the car business and GM's corporate strategy make for interesting reading.

Productivity can be measured -- and potentially improved -- in a number of different ways. Consultant Donald L. Laurie sees innovation with venture partners as a key barometer of a company's ability to leverage its assets and improve productivity. Productivity can also be benchmarked in terms of efficiency, where outsourcing can generate dramatic outcomes -- if handled properly. In the second part of our special report, a panel of experts examines strategies and metrics involved in outsourcing finance functions.

Writer Dennis Blank spoke to a number of prominent CFOs and CEOs about their companies' approach to corporate ethics. Most of them maintain that they haven't made wholesale changes in recent months, but they do think there is a new focus on doing things right that will be critical to success in the years ahead.

In a piece from the FEI Research Foundation, FEI members from private companies talk about why their companies have elected to stay private. The reasons vary somewhat, but it's clear that these executives go to sleep at night thankful that their earnings aren't out there for public consumption or that someone, somewhere isn't shorting their stock.

Also, in Financial Reporting, Managing Editor Ellen Heffes interviews Samuel DiPiazza, CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who talks about corporate reporting, investor confidence and changes he'd like to see -- and is doing something about.

Financial Executive recently conducted a Web-based readership survey that drew responses from more than 900 of you in one day in mid-August -- a truly surprising and gratifying response. Besides collecting a great deal of demographic information, the survey also drew a goodly volume of comments about the magazine.

I'm happy to say that the vast majority of those are positive, some emphatically so. But we also found that a few members spend very little time with the magazine; some admitted they don't read it at all (which makes you wonder why they filled out a readership survey). I'm not in the business of self-congratulation, and as thankful as I am for the glowing comments, I take the less enthusiastic ones in stride. Quite a few readers had suggestions for making the magazine better, and we will be looking at those closely. My thanks go to all of you who took the time to fill out the survey.

One of the most intriguing findings from surveys like this is the diversity of opinion. Most respondents seem to prefer shorter articles, but a few took us to task, saying articles are too brief and they want more depth; it just goes to show you that you can't please all of the people all of the time. But I took heart in the profusion of comments about our content that used words like "timely," "concise," "relevant," "insightful" and "helps me do my job better." Those are important words that we strive to live up to in every issue.