Investors reward companies that buy stand-alone brands they can market better than the sellers did.

 Ann Rhoades, author of Built on Values: Creating an Enviable Culture That Outperforms the Competition , introduces a lesson in attaining the full potential of employees from All In: How the Best Managers Create a Culture of Belief and Drive Big Results , by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton.

 Business strategy is best distinguished from corporate strategy by the different perspectives that business leaders and strategic planners must bring to bear. Business strategists must answer questions about customers and capabilities; corporate strategists about the overall portfolio of businesses.

 Most business leaders would be thrilled to achieve Steve Jobs's level of market success, but should they aspire to lead like him? Steve Jobs may have been, as Walter Isaacson says in his eponymous biography, "the greatest business executive of our era," but he was a mercurial, demanding, and tyrannical one. Applied to the wrong strategy, market, or product, his behaviors could sink a company. In the end, what made Jobs such a successful leader was his much-lauded talent for envisioning and delivering breakthrough products and services.

 Companies with founders still on board did best during the Great Recession.

 Three key factors can delay -- or accelerate -- an announcement.

 The CEO and CHRO of the Middle East telecom operator Etisalat explain how they recruit and retain people for frontier markets -- the most challenging business environments in the world.

 What is the right number of direct reports for any incoming C-level executive? It depends on your company's purpose, the length of your tenure, and other factors. This article leads readers to Booz & Company's Span of Control online tool, which can help determine an appropriate span of control, based on the leader's specific situation.

 Membership engages customers, who spend more across the board.