Many of today's CEOs have been "shellshocked by crisis," making them extremely cautious and conservative, writes Monitor co-founder Joseph Fuller in Newsweek. “Companies will cast off their conservatism only when they accept that the standards they used to assess opportunities and evaluate risk in the past are no longer appropriate,” Fuller writes, adding that “the marketplace will ultimately reward those who stare down their fear and act.”

On Wall Street, bankers continue to speculate about a government role in their future compensation. Although policymakers shelved the issue during the health care showdown in the United States and the Greek debt crisis in Europe, that suspension is likely to be temporary. Seldom have the heads of the world’s leading economies demonstrated such unanimity of opinion on a controversy. President Obama expressed disgust over bankers’ bonuses. In London, City Minister Paul Myners, called “grotesque” the news that 5,000 London bankers would receive bonuses of 1 million pounds.  French President Nicolas Sarkozy received widespread applause at Davos when he stated that pay packages that “bear no relationship to merit” are “morally indefensible.” The scrutiny and torrent of criticism is bound to reemerge, as New York officials reported that Wall Street bonuses grew 17 percent in 2009 to surpass $20 billion. Rarely has any economic issue been better suited to populist political rhetoric.

In this essay for Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Monitor co-founder Joseph Fuller argues that leading Korean corporations, after weathering the economic downturn well, need fresh thinking to move ahead in the global economy.

In a panel discussion organized by the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Monitor co-founder Joseph Fuller and other experts talk about ways that pharmaceutical companies can change their business models, financing structures, corporate governance models and incentive systems to build sustainable, profitable futures.