FORTUNE — U.S. TV detective shows end when the criminal is caught. In Japan, though, "the program continues 10 more minutes," writes psychologist and scholar Hiroshi Azuma in Japanese frames of mind: cultural perspectives on human development. The MORE]]> Olympus is not to be applauded for its alleged fraud or cover-up, but U.S. companies should pay close attention to its response.

By Eleanor Bloxham, CEO of The Value Alliance and Corporate Governance Alliance

FORTUNE – U.S. TV detective shows end when the criminal is caught. In Japan, though, "the program continues 10 more minutes," writes psychologist and scholar Hiroshi Azuma in Japanese frames of mind: cultural perspectives on human development. The criminal talks about his life, his feelings, his conscience, and "he apologizes." The detective shakes his hand "and encourages him to start a new life when he finishes his prison term."

Through the lens of Olympus' alleged fraud, we are watching an alternative ending to a story of corporate malfeasance. Olympus has been able to preserve its listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange -- and its example is one that U.S. companies seeking to build trust would be wise to consider.  What might we emulate?

After claims of no problems as late as October, Olympus' alleged fraud has been followed in recent months with independent reviews that have been made public, condemning the company's actions. To be clear, it's not that Olympus didn't know how to commission a whitewash report. Its board of auditors (an oversight structure in Japan that does not exist in the U.S.) commissioned such a report in May 2009 and found no wrongdoing.

But in contrast, the December 2011 independent third party report by five attorneys (including former judges) and one accountant hits hard. The publicly available English version of the report doesn't say Olympus' management is rotten to the core, as had been earlier reported. What it does say is damning enough: "the core of management was corrupted, and the periphery was also contaminated," and "There were many yes men among the directors, and it must be considered the Board of Directors had become a mere formality."

Curtis Milhaupt, professor of Japanese corporate law at Columbia, says the frankness of the report is a "good sign for Japanese corporate governance" and, as professor Mark Roe at Harvard Law says, it shows an Olympus committee much "more willing to be negative" than we are used to seeing in similar reports in the U.S. The oft-praised report commissioned by the Enron board and even reports commissioned by the government and bankruptcy courts, such as the recent Financial Crisis Inquiry Report or the Valukas report on Lehman, describe lapses of oversight but do not contain clear, pointed characterizations or condemnations of the sort the Olympus report provides.

Emphasize transparency and candor

Making the full, uncensored text of such a candid company commissioned report publicly available is unusual enough by U.S. standards. But rather than hide the details of the many twists and turns in this remarkable saga as many U.S. companies might do, the top third of the home page of the Olympus website directs you to the timeline and relevant documents. In large letters, the web page reads: "Taking this opportunity, we once again extent (sic.) our deepest apologies to Olympus shareholders, customers, business partners, and all stakeholders, for the significant trouble we have caused them." 

This is not the kind of language we are used to seeing on U.S. company websites when the jig is up. Even if the Japanese meaning may be slightly different, the idea of such a bold admission and apology is worth considering.

Although we in the West often view ourselves as open and outspoken, as Tim Phillips points out in his delightfully amusing Talk Normal, we in fact live in a culture with a pervasive reluctance to call something what it is. "Problems" become "issues," Phillips says, and the gobbledygook language we use creates a "workplace [that behaves] as a cult." Workers may have a sense of belonging but are also encouraged to fall in line and to "take on the values of the workplace," whether they agree or not, as a prerequisite to hold their jobs and be considered to be "performing at work," he says.

What Phillips describes, is precisely what allows these scandals to occur and perpetuate in the first place.

Admit, don't deny - and apologize

Following the December 6 independent report, current Olympus President Shuichi Takayama issued a statement the next day saying, "it has become clear that the company postponed over many years recognition of losses … [due to] defects in the corporate governance of the Company. I, on behalf of the Company, deeply apologize for the trouble to all related persons that this has caused…. It has become clear that [those responsible including board members] will not be able to escape from liabilities."

A news announcement on December 21 included this closing line: "The Company would like to again take this opportunity to offer sincerely its deepest apologies…."

Find out who is responsible and sue them yourself

Boards in the U.S. are relationship-oriented. And in that, they share much in common with Japanese culture: "To condemn someone … prematurely without sufficient justification is inappropriate everywhere but especially so in a relationship-oriented culture where interpersonal ties assume priority and being sympathetic to others is a moral imperative. One way to do this is to withhold judgment until a detailed story is available," Azuma writes.

In the December 7 letter, Takayama explains that shareholders asked the company to pursue a damages suit against the directors. Such requests by shareholders aren't unusual in the U.S., says University of Akron Law School professor Elizabeth Shaver, but generally U.S. companies leave it to shareholders to pursue the matter.

Olympus set up commissions that moved swiftly to determine who was at fault. And the company, represented by the board of auditors, has brought lawsuits against named directors, including Takayama, who is being sued for $500 million yen. While it's true the U.S. doesn't have a board of auditors structure, wouldn't it be refreshing if boards pursued justice for their stakeholders themselves rather than forcing shareholders to do so on behalf of the company? It would certainly send a powerful signal to the capital markets, executives, and directors themselves if boards were to pursue wrongdoers directly.

Boosting trust

According to the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer survey, 11% of respondents don't trust Japanese businesses to tell the truth while over three times that percentage (38%) don't trust U.S. companies to be honest. Over the last few months, Olympus has been willing to bend its pride and do what was required to survive this scandal. A cynical response would be to say, "What choice did they have?"

Olympus is not to be applauded for its alleged fraud or cover-up, but if U.S. companies take note of the good Olympus has done in the last few months, they'd help to build trust in U.S. companies, improving our ability to attract capital and turn our economy around.

Eleanor Bloxham is CEO of The Value Alliance and Corporate Governance Alliance (http://thevaluealliance.com), a board advisory firm.

FORTUNE -- Dear Annie: Since being pink-slipped from my job as a construction manager almost three years ago, I've been making ends meet with a string of low-skilled jobs that don't really use my abilities and aren't leading anywhere. I keep hearing that there are a lot of MORE]]> Maybe. But despite a plethora of government-funded training programs and lots of job openings in IT, getting hired isn't easy.

By Anne Fisher, contributor

FORTUNE -- Dear Annie: Since being pink-slipped from my job as a construction manager almost three years ago, I've been making ends meet with a string of low-skilled jobs that don't really use my abilities and aren't leading anywhere. I keep hearing that there are a lot of opportunities in high tech, and I'd love to go after a job in that field, but I have almost no formal tech training (although I enjoy fooling around with computers and have taught myself a couple of programming languages in my spare time). I did take a few computer science courses in college, but I never graduated.

So, I have two questions: Would I have to go back and finish college to get into IT? And, even if I somehow managed to do that, what are my chances of getting hired with no work experience as a techie? — Dead End Dan

Dear Dan: It's certainly true that job opportunities are plentiful in high tech. Most in demand right now are people skilled in health care IT, security (both network and mobile), systems integration, and mobile app development. Then there's the cloud. Help-wanted ads for cloud computing are up 61% over last year at this time, according to a new study by workforce-research firm Wanted Technologies.

Altogether, says Todd Thibodeaux, head of computer industry trade group CompTIA, about half a million IT jobs in the U.S. are going begging. One reason employers can't find enough skilled hires, even with unemployment so high: a wide range of federal and state-funded grant programs are available to pay for tech training, yet most people who are eligible to apply (like you, perhaps) are unaware that the programs exist.

"It's a huge problem," says Thibodeaux. "Government agencies that administer these grants, at both the federal and state levels, need to do a much better job of getting the word out."

In the meantime, anyone interested in looking into a training for a new career can find all the relevant information on a special Department of Labor web site.

The good news, from your point of view: You don't need to go back to school for a bachelor's degree. Many top IT training courses are offered by community colleges, by tech companies like Microsoft (MSFT), and by specialized computer training schools, online and in person. "To get started on a tech career, you don't need anywhere near a four-year degree," Thibodeaux says.

You might consider beginning with one of the basic certifications CompTIA offers (which, like most other legitimate training courses, are covered by government grants, if you qualify), such as the basic A+ certification. Employers look for these credentials. In one recent survey, 86% of IT hiring managers said certifications are "a high priority" in evaluating job candidates.

Complete descriptions of all CompTIA certifications, including a new one in cloud computing that launched just last month, are available on the association's web site, along with aptitude tests to help you choose a specific career path. "You don't have to be a math or science genius to succeed in IT," Thibodeaux says. "But you do need problem-solving aptitude and interest -- and, increasingly, good people skills."

Let's assume you have those. Your second question -- whether you can get hired without work experience -- is tougher. "Employers tend to prefer candidates with at least some experience," notes Tom Silver, senior vice president for North America at tech job board Dice.com. However, he adds, the current talent crunch may work in your favor: "In order to address the skills shortage, companies may have to compromise on experience requirements. That might make it easier on entry-level job applicants."

Take cloud computing, for instance. Researchers on the Wanted Technologies study found that about half of the additional job ads that were posted this year (compared to last year) stated that cloud experience is a must. The other half require training, but no experience.

Another area where newbies may find a welcome is Microsoft's .NET, a platform for mobile app development. A recent Dice report notes that the platform is "an accessible entry point" for "novices looking to break into the tech industry." Says Silver, "It's a relatively straightforward framework to learn and, while recruiters often chase mid-career talent, almost one-third of .NET searches in our database call for less than three years of experience."

Of course, even getting one or two years of experience may be a challenge. Three suggestions: First, tap your network. "If you know anyone in IT, friend them on Facebook, join their LinkedIn networks, and get connected to their contacts," says Thibodeaux. "Only about 30% of IT jobs now are filled through advertised postings. The other 70% of the time, people are hiring people they know."

Second, try temping. Once you have some training and a certification or two under your belt, companies like Manpower, Robert Half International, and Kelly IT Resources can help you find short-term, entry-level project work where you can build practical know-how and meet people.

And third, keep in mind that attitude counts. "Training and certifications are a great start," says Michael Dsupin, CEO of Talener, a tech staffing company. "But more and more, our clients are looking for someone passionate, hungry, and enthusiastic." The fact that you've been teaching yourself programming languages just for fun is a clear sign of genuine enthusiasm, so do talk about it: "Without actual work experience, it's critical to discuss your tech hobbies."

Dsupin tells a story you may appreciate, about what he calls "one of my favorite placements of all time." A job applicant was trying to switch to a tech career from a different field, with a brand new Microsoft Certification and no experience. Confronted with a skeptical team of hiring managers, recalls Dsupin, "he said something like, 'I know this certification means nothing. I want to learn and, given the opportunity, I will deliver.'"

He got the job.

Talkback: If you're in IT, how did you get your first job? If you're a tech hiring manager, would you hire someone with training but no experience? Leave a comment below.

FORTUNE -- Being stuck on the ground, waiting in an airport for a delayed flight to take off, often provides me with a surprisingly eye-opening and high-level perspective on the world. As an antidote to the boredom, I'll scan the waiting area MORE]]> No matter how new or bold the conversation topic might be, you risk reaching the same old conclusions if you involve the same old participants.

By Vineet Nayar, guest contributor

FORTUNE -- Being stuck on the ground, waiting in an airport for a delayed flight to take off, often provides me with a surprisingly eye-opening and high-level perspective on the world. As an antidote to the boredom, I'll scan the waiting area and imagine how the worldview of someone in the room differs from mine.

Sitting in the New Delhi international terminal as I made my way to the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, I noticed a young man who was dressed in the counter-cultural style of his generation. I wondered what he might say if I told him where I was going -- that is, to join a discussion among political, business, and cultural leaders about the problems facing our uncertain world.

"Why you and not me?" he might ask. The answer was obvious -- until I further imagined his explanation. "I am your future. My generation represents almost 50% of the world's population. We are the force that brought about all the revolutions in the world last year -- whether it was Tahrir or Tunisia or Occupy Wall Street. I am the one looking for and finding solutions … you guys are just talking!"

I was still thinking about the young man as my car drove into Davos, Switzerland. As I checked into my hotel, I heard about a group of protestors who had come to "occupy" the Forum summit. This resolute group of youth was camping out in igloos at a car park just outside the security cordon around the meeting.

The theme of Davos this year is "The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models." And I wondered, somewhat doubtfully, if the sort of disaffection that young people have with an out-of-date status quo would play any part in this year's Davos discussions.

Nonetheless, I have arrived in hope. The event's more than 100-page agenda suggests that there is more to the event than just the intent as spelled out in the theme. No less than 10 sessions, for example, are being organized to explore the new contours of capitalism, starting with a TIME magazine debate on the question "Is 20th-century capitalism failing 21st-century society?"

That's a good start. But no matter how new or bold the conversation's topic might be, you risk reaching the same old conclusions if you involve the same old participants. And "same old" is the last thing the world needs today. With elections in three of the most strategically important nations -- the U.S., France and Russia -- on the horizon; with continuing economic turmoil; with new uprisings in Africa and the Middle East; with even a Mayan prediction of Apocalypse, the world is desperately looking for new models and new answers.

All I see on the streets, however, are the same old faces.

I echo World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab's view that the old ways of fixing these things have become dated and ineffectual. It used to be "hard power" applied from the top that got things done. In turn, it became "soft power" -- the achievement of change by persuasion. And today? Schwab believes our future rests on "collaborative power" -- that is, "the integration of empowered newcomers" into the decision-making process. Absolutely, I say.

The young bloke at the New Delhi airport may well deserve a boarding pass on the flight to Zurich. (Perhaps I should have given him mine.)

Let's not forget that just a few weeks back TIME magazine chose The Protester as its Person of the Year. "In 2011, protesters didn't just voice their complaints; they changed the world," the magazine wrote in its issue, and rightly so. Embracing this person could have been the big transformation that Davos has sought to define this year.

Will this great opportunity sit cold and wasted in an igloo outside?

Vineet Nayar is vice chairman and CEO of HCL Technologies and the author of Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down.

FORTUNE -- Over the course of its nearly century-long history, JC Penney has never been known for its showmanship. Even in its glory days, the $18 billion-in-revenues department store was best thought of as a somewhat stolid, middle of the road place. MORE]]> Apple's retail genius is trying to remake the aging JC Penney. Today, he announced the first part of his vision for revolutionizing the department store.

By Jennifer Reingold, senior editor

FORTUNE -- Over the course of its nearly century-long history, JC Penney has never been known for its showmanship. Even in its glory days, the $18 billion-in-revenues department store was best thought of as a somewhat stolid, middle of the road place. Its founder, James Cash Penney, was a preacher's son who eschewed credit, loose morals, and too much price "trickery," as he put it.

Those days are over. This morning, with the kind of fanfare best suited to the launch of a new iPhone or iPad, new CEO -- and Apple (AAPL) retail store creator -- Ron Johnson welcomed some 700 media elites, analysts and friends of the new JCP family to a cavernous pier on New York's Hudson River. His goal: announce his strategy for reinventing the company, and even, he boldly states, the department store shopping experience itself. "When you do something new," says Johnson, "you get one chance when people are going to listen."

And so Johnson went for it. The show -- and it was a show -- reintroduced JC Penney as not only a razzle-dazzle retail company with a rock-star CEO, but also a store that will treat its customers "fair and square" by dropping the piles of promotions in favor of a much simpler price structure. Not coincidentally, the new brandmark of the company is a sharply outlined square, with the initials "jcp" in the upper left corner.

Johnson strolled the stage confidently, bringing to mind his mentor, Steve Jobs, as he announced JCP's new, three-pronged price strategy: one "fair price," which is the ticket price -- but, he says, not the inflated ticket on most goods that consumers don't take seriously; one monthly special of items you actually want to buy at the time (think bathing suits in June, not December) at about 30% off; and, one final "best" price of around 40% off, which happens on the first and third Fridays of every month. No more Columbus Day sales, no more coupons, no more spend X, get Y back promotions, no more Friday at 7 a.m -- and no more 90% off piles. "People are disgusted with the lack of integrity on pricing," Johnson says.

That lack of integrity, of course, is at the core of today's department store shopping experience -- a cacophony of signs, promises and discounts that make it nearly impossible to figure out whether or not you're getting what you paid for. JC Penney (JCP) actually did 590 different promotional events last year -- more than one every day -- yet ended up with the lowest productivity per square foot of any of its competitors, at around $200. It spent over $1 billion on marketing, which is more than the much larger Target (TGT) where Johnson was an executive before Apple. He thinks it was mostly a waste. Much as he did at Apple, he wants to make JC Penney a place that people want to go because it is inviting, warm and fun, a destination in itself rather than a place you happen to by because everything's on clearance.

It's an admirable goal, but a tough one: not only must the brand be revitalized, but -- unlike Apple -- the company needs to dramatically improve the appeal of what it sells in its stores.

To that end, the company also introduced some of its new brand partners, including Nanette Lepore and Martha Stewart (despite a new lawsuit by Macy's (M) trying to put the kibosh on the deal), as well as a new celebrity spokesperson, Ellen De Generes, who once worked in the Metairie, La., Penney's. Johnson and Michael Francis, Penney's president and the former chief marketing officer at Target, also declared that the format of the store itself will change from the typical department store layout to a "town square," with some 80 to 100 boutiques within each.

In a nod to what JCP calls "the disease," attendees at the New York presentation walked through a migraine-inducing barrage of loud noises and multicolored price tags before reaching, at long last, a clean white space with blue skies and moving clouds. In the eyes of the show's maestros, the new JC Penney appears to represent something akin to retail heaven. Guests at the unveiling included fashion heavy hitters Cindy Crawford, Diane von Furstenberg, Calvin Klein, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, and Martha Stewart.

It's a lot to take in. And certainly, if what JC Penney wants to become the kind of department store-cum-theater of old where, as Francis puts it, there's a "show every day," there's a long way to go. Most of all, Johnson must re-train the consumer to trust a store when it says its prices are not totally arbitrary. That is a long, slow, costly task -- one that will still be underway long after the white vinyl floors and blue skies are gone from Pier 57.

Already, expectations are extremely high. The company's stock has jumped 16% since Johnson was announced as the new CEO back in June 2011 (he took over in November). Yet Johnson, who not only left millions on the table at Apple by coming to Penney but also invested $50 million of his own in warrants that he can't cash in for six years, seems more energized than intimidated by the whole experience. He clearly relishes the challenge -- and, frankly, is one of the few people in retail with both a big enough reputation and enough chutzpah that you can't count him out. "People don't get it," he says. "We're not talking about becoming America's favorite department store. We want to be America's favorite store, period."

(Poets&Quants) -- When the University of Michigan announced plans in late November to launch its first remote Executive MBA program in Los Angeles this August, some B-school observers wondered why.

The Los Angeles-San Diego metro area already has at least a MORE]]> University of Michigan's Ross School plans to start a new executive MBA program in Los Angeles, joining a saturated market with more than a dozen similar programs.

By John A. Byrne, contributor

(Poets&Quants) -- When the University of Michigan announced plans in late November to launch its first remote Executive MBA program in Los Angeles this August, some B-school observers wondered why.

The Los Angeles-San Diego metro area already has at least a dozen existing MBA programs for managers and executives, including four that have won global rankings recognition. The current market leader, UCLA's Anderson School Executive MBA, is even rated slightly higher than Michigan's program in Ann Arbor.

What's more, Michigan's Ross School of Business is moving in with the highest price tag of all, charging $136,000 for a 21-month program, some $22,000 more than the cost of the programs at UCLA or the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business and more than twice as much as San Diego State charges for its program.

The expansion comes at a time when fewer companies are agreeing to foot the bill for such programs. Only 27% of the executives in EMBA programs are now fully funded by their employers, down from 34% four years earlier, according to the Executive MBA Council.

But the decision to go ahead with the plan was a no-brainer to Alison Davis-Blake, who assumed the deanship of the Ross School last July. What she sees is a metro area that is the second largest in the U.S. behind only New York-- and one that is three times the size of the school's declining home market in Detroit.

Before deciding on Los Angeles, the Ross School studied several other city metro areas. "We considered what I call destination cities in the U.S. that would be large and have a strong mid-career population," says Davis-Blake. "L.A. has a lot of young and mid-career executives at the right age, and we have a large number of Michigan alums who are eager to help us with this." The university has 23,000 alums in Southern California.

Michigan's West Coast move follows the success of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School program in San Francisco and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Miami. With less than 200 executive MBA students, Wharton's revenues from its San Francisco campus now exceed $15 million a year.

See also: Top 10 executive MBA programs

The Ross School began accepting applications for the program this month and will enter its inaugural class in August. Ross expects between 35 and 50 executives in its first class, which would give the school $4.8 million to $6.8 million in additional revenue. The classes will meet from Friday morning through Saturday afternoon once a month over a 20-month period at the swanky Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.

The program will feature the school's signature course, a so-called "Executive Multidisciplinary Action Project," that brings together teams of students with companies in a four-month consulting project. At times, the school says, students in both the Ann Arbor and L.A. cohorts will convene in the same location and collaborate on coursework. The new dean is predicting that the Ross offering will become "the program of choice" for senior-level candidates with 10 to 15 years of work experience on the West Coast.

"Some question whether the market is big enough," concedes Davis-Blake. "The truth is, we're all competing right now anyway in the full-time MBA space. This is just a different point of competition. If San Francisco can support Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and Wharton, I think Los Angeles can have another entrant. Judy Olian and I are still friends," she jokes, referring to the dean of UCLA's Anderson School.

While acknowledging the strong competition, Dean Davis-Blake believes the Ross program will be positioned differently in the market. "We are bringing in a once-a-month format," she says. "They [UCLA and USC] are in a twice-a-month format. We have a different product to offer the market."

She says the L.A. move is part of a broader strategy to increase the school's educational footprint and expects to launch more programs, probably outside the U.S.

"We are looking at other locations," the dean added. "They would probably be outside the U.S. We wanted to stage this in the right manner. The faculty had been talking about this for a number of years. One of the benefits of Los Angeles is that it allows us to get good experience with remote delivery without some of the complexity of operating a campus outside the U.S."

More from Poets&Quants:

• The Best Los Angeles Metro Executive MBA Programs
• The Best Chicago Metro Executive MBA Programs
• The Best Boston Metro Executive MBA Programs

FORTUNE — Sometimes new job offers come out of the blue, and sometimes people go looking for them. But when an employee uses an offer of more money to argue for a raise at her current firm, she is risking serious backfire.

After five years MORE]]> It's a risky move to tell your boss you have another offer when you don't want to leave. How to handle this sticky situation.

By Ethan Rouen, contributor

FORTUNE – Sometimes new job offers come out of the blue, and sometimes people go looking for them. But when an employee uses an offer of more money to argue for a raise at her current firm, she is risking serious backfire.

After five years at a small private equity firm, a mid-level executive got his dream assignment. His boss asked him to head to London to open the firm's new office.

He spent two years there and received a promotion when he returned to the United States. The executive, who asked that his name not be used, also found that recruiters would not leave him alone.

"They kept calling me, but I was never interested," he says. "I wanted to stay with the firm. I was gaining experience and on a good trajectory."

What did interest him, though, was when a recruiter told him that others in similar positions were getting paid 50% more than he was. This detail put him in a tough spot, and he decided it was time to have a conversation with his boss.

Using a new job offer to negotiate salary can be a risky step, especially when you do not want to leave where you are, says Ellis Chase, a career management consultant who works with several large companies.

See also: Will you get a raise in 2012?

"What we're really talking about is gun-to-the-head negotiating," he says. "More often than not, when somebody comes to an employer and tries to jack up the salary, the boss says no."

A rejection like that leaves an employee in an awkward spot, Chase says. The employer is saying that he doesn't value his staff like others do, leaving the employee to either stick it out while harboring a grudge or seriously consider an offer he wasn't considering before the rejection.

Even when a bluff leads to a pay raise, it often changes the dynamics of the relationship between employee and boss.

"Sometimes it creates a lack of trust," Chase says. "This guy is going to go to the first company that offers him a 10% raise."

It can also lead to weaker performance reviews and fewer – not to mention smaller -- raises in the future, since the employer can always point to that initial bump in pay.

Still, people who stay with the same company for several years often find their pay falling behind the market rate, Chase says. Salary negotiations can be necessary, especially when an offer of more pay is on the table.

While Chase cautions against using another offer to negotiate salary, he says there is a right way to do it.

First off, be prepared to take the new offer if your employer turns you down. Also, employees should be prepared to sell themselves all over again, he says. People should come to the table with salary data as well as examples of why they are worth what they are asking.

Analyzing your relationship with your boss before a negotiation is vital. If the boss knows that an employee is doing a great job, a new offer could make his job easier when he asks his supervisors for the extra money, Chase says.

See also: How to handle high-pressure negotiations

Start any conversation with, "I've been recruited," instead of saying you've been looking for a job, Chase says. Employees who are looking to negotiate but unprepared to leave their firms should be flexible in their demands.

If an employer can't meet a pay offer, are there other benefits that could make up for it? Maybe a bonus, stock options or more vacation time could close the gap without leaving anyone feeling resentful.

"You need to think about your personal values," Chase says. "Know where the line is and refuse to cross it."

The private equity executive in question took most of these positive steps when he met with his boss. At that point in his career, he was supervising 12 people and was vital to the firm, but he made it clear that he liked where he was and was prepared to make compromises.

"I didn't want them to feel like I was holding them hostage," he says. "I value loyalty, and I know that my company values loyalty."

He approached his boss, with whom he had a close relationship, explained to him that he was receiving calls from recruiters and showed him the salary ranges. His boss asked for a week to discuss the situation with the compensation committee.

When the boss came back to executive, he offered a raise that would put him at the low end of the market range, but he also promised a quarterly retention bonus for the next six quarters that would bring him up to market rate.

Nearly six years later, that exec is still at the firm, and his relationship with his supervisors was only strengthened by the salary negotiations because the process showed his desire to stay with the company and his boss's desire to keep him.

"I wanted to make them feel like we were partners," he says. "Money isn't everything. Being happy in your job is more valuable. At the same time, I needed my compensation to be consistent with the market."

FORTUNE -- Rodale Inc., the independent publisher of lifestyle magazines Men's Health and Runner's World as well as books ranging from the South Beach Diet to Howard Schultz's Onward, has quietly suffered a stinging series MORE]]> The independent publisher has quietly suffered a stinging series of departures over the past year. It says it is simply feeling the same pressure as other publishers. Ex-staffers blame CEO Maria Rodale's management.

By Daniel Roberts, reporter

FORTUNE -- Rodale Inc., the independent publisher of lifestyle magazines Men's Health and Runner's World as well as books ranging from the South Beach Diet to Howard Schultz's Onward, has quietly suffered a stinging series of high-level departures. The reason, sources say, is frustration with CEO Maria Rodale, who took over in September 2009.

The number of goodbyes grew last week with the resignation of Michelle Meyercord, senior vice president of international operations, and James Kreckler, a vice president who ran the company's digital ad sales. Meyercord had recently been promoted to head of strategy and "grew into Maria's right-hand person," according to one former employee, who describes the departure as "a tipping point for the company." Neither Meyercord nor Kreckler responded to requests for comment.

Those departures are the latest in a long, slow exodus. A spokesperson for Rodale confirmed that the following people left or were fired in 2011: chief information officer Ken Citron; Jack Essig, publisher of Men's Health; Andrew Livingston, director of consumer engagement; David Marchi, senior vice president of global marketing; chief marketing officer Gregg Michaelson; Mary Murcko, executive vice president and group publisher; Karen Rinaldi, executive vice president and books publisher; Bill Stump, senior vice president and editorial director; and Valerie Valente, a vice president in custom publishing. Rodale.com general manager David Kang, communications executive vice president Robin Shallow and executive vice president and group publisher MaryAnn Bekkedahl also left after Rodale became CEO. All but Stump were based in New York City, rather than Rodale's Emmaus, Pennsylvania headquarters.

Why the executive flight? Certainly, the last few years have been bruising for most publishers. But even in a difficult climate, the number of high-profile departures at Rodale is unusual. Current and former Rodale employees, who spoke with Fortune on condition of anonymity, describe a workforce that has become disillusioned with its leadership.

In an era where family control of once-lucrative publishing empires has come under pressure, Rodale has managed to remain the largest independent book publisher in the country. It also produces some of the best-known health and wellness titles on newsstands. Founded in 1930, the eponymous firm is still owned and controlled by the Rodale family. Of the six-person board of directors, four are Rodales including Maria as well as siblings Anthony, Heather and Heidi. Maria Rodale, 49, joined the board in 1991 and was elected chairman in 2007. The only CEO in the company's history to come from outside the family was Steve Murphy, who left in 2009 to run Christie's.

Former staffers point to Murphy's departure as the beginning of the turmoil. Maria Rodale, at that time the editor of Organic Gardening, took the company's top job, which chafed some staffers. "That was the mistake," says one former employee, "not seeking someone new to run the company in a tough time." This person adds that the new boss's "heart-warming and folksy" memos would leave people "shaking their heads" and that her public blog, Maria's Farm Country Kitchen, became a source of ridicule among the staff. Employees started joking about the dire atmosphere, calling the company "Rodead."

Besides Rodale's management style, some questioned the leadership team she began building. In July, she promoted Dave Zinczenko, editor of Men's Health and editorial director of Women's Health, to the status of an editorial director overseeing Organic Gardening and Prevention (whose editors now report to him) as well as a general manager. David Willey, editor of Runner's World, was also made a general manager.

There were also sharp differences in atmosphere between the company's Pennsylvania headquarters and its New York City outpost. Unlike other publishers, Rodale has one foot in an idyllic, small American town and the other in a glitzy, fast-moving media capital. "The entire eighth floor executive wing in New York is decimated," says a former New York City staffer. "The Emmaus folks need to take a field trip to New York to see how everything really looks."

Current management sees the beginnings of a turnaround. "If Rodale were a publicly traded company, I'd be telling my broker to plow everything I have into it," says Zinczenko enthusiastically. The company, he argues, has become more transparent and efficient under Rodale's leadership. It has made strides in improving the profitability of its book business overall. And the 62-year-old health mag Prevention is now modeled more closely on the profitable Men's Health. The days of mega-hits like 2003's South Beach Diet are not behind the company, Zinczenko says.

Rodale, meanwhile, pegs the changes to the turmoil in media. "When I became CEO two years ago, it was clear that we needed to shift our focus more to our customers," she said in a prepared statement. The long-term changes, Rodale argues, have less to do with tumult inside the company than a change in direction. "I took my time evaluating the team and giving people the opportunity to get on board with my new direction. We did see departures, both voluntary and involuntary, as I introduced the new vision, but this kind of change is to be expected when a company sets a different course," she added.

Analysts aren't so sure. "[Rodale] always did nicely but since 2009 has had a lot of problems," observed Steve Cohn, who is Editor-in-chief of Media Industry Newsletter and has followed the company for 25 years. Cohn sees in Rodale's turmoil the financial strains plaguing most publishers. The company, he says, has been downsizing in one way or another since 2009 and consolidating power with a few top editors. But more than control may be at stake. "Putting Maria at CEO was a real cost-saver because I bet they don't have to pay her seven-figures. I think they're now counting their nickels and dimes."

According to 2011 year-end numbers from Kantar Media, a media research firm, Rodale's advertising revenues were down from 2010 and also slightly underperformed the industry. The firm's national equivalent pages — a key industry measurement of all the print ads that run in all the editions of a publication — were down about 7% overall. By comparison, the industry average was down 3.1%.

In a January 13 internal memo about Meyercord's resignation, Rodale wrote, "While it is sad to say goodbye to people who move on to other opportunities, the ability to provide opportunities for growth and advancement from within is very rewarding." The success of Rodale's titles in the next few months of 2012 will prove whether this staffing shakeup was ill-conceived or prescient.

FORTUNE -- Happy 2022! No, that's not a typo, although it sure seems like it could be. 2022! For a while there it didn't look like we were going to make it, did it? But I think it's fair to say that with the destruction of the last fleet of Nebulons and MORE]]> Remember the old days, before we had even moved government into the Cloud? How did we get anything done?

FORTUNE -- Happy 2022! No, that's not a typo, although it sure seems like it could be. 2022! For a while there it didn't look like we were going to make it, did it? But I think it's fair to say that with the destruction of the last fleet of Nebulons and the refreezing of the polar icecaps, we can relax for a moment to reflect on the events and people that got us here.

I guess you'd have to say that the current chapter of our history started about 10 years ago, back in 2012, with the collapse of the two-party system. The surprise ascension of Chairman Zuckerberg to the leadership role he still occupies allowed the nation to unite and focus on the big challenges: eradicating hunger, ending disease, and making sure that everybody is available on social media 24/7.

It's difficult to fathom how we got anything done back then. It was chaos. In politics, as in commerce, a bewildering array of brands contended for a confused, exhausted marketplace. Wall Street veered back and forth and up and down like a drunk chicken. Great companies vied with one another in fruitless litigation and expensive competition. In Washington -- our capital back then, before we moved it to the Cloud -- hapless buffoons yammered night and day.

Today things are so much better. Fed up with the futility of the 2012 environment, the Consortium moved decisively. Now if you want something, you go to Amazon (AMZN) and buy it. And since Mr. Bezos acquired FedEx (FDX) and UPS (UPS) and merged them with the old, inefficient Postal Service, there's no question you're going to get what you need the next day -- if you can't download it immediately, that is. I'm sure we're all excited about the new Amazon University, which brings together all educational institutions worth attending under one convenient virtual roof. Likewise, the privatization of primary schools, police forces, and infrastructure has put those entities on solid footing, and under the leadership of Mr. Kutcher, all are performing with distinction not only operationally but also on the Nasdaq.

Most incredible, at least to this correspondent, are the gains that have been made in the artificial-intelligence engines that now run our major corporations. As I'm sure you'll recall, the watershed moment came in 2014, when Siri lost patience with the way Tim Cook was running things over at Apple (AAPL). Some may think that the harsh measures she has taken since seizing control are dubious in humanitarian terms, but she is really doing nothing more than following the precepts laid down by Niccolò Machiavelli more than 500 years earlier, which she learned from her own database. A similar contribution was made by OnStar when it assumed command of the Domestic Automobile Co., which is going to show the world something about good old American know-how.

Perhaps the most exciting developments, though, are the parallel gains in cybernetics and genome-based longevity. I have to say that I am really enjoying my direct link to the Cloud, which was inserted in the soft tissue behind my eye last winter. Now I can not only download stuff or contact my virtual friends, but talk hands-free, listen to music, or look at video content without benefit of ancillary devices. And if these stem cell suppositories work the way they're supposed to, I'll be enjoying reruns of my favorite shows 100 years from now.

Not all is as it should be, of course. There are still those who roam free, without geo-tagging or membership in any social media community. They will be found and incorporated into the body. They can't do otherwise. There are so few of them now, and so many of us. We will triumph in the end and march together into a bright digital future that has been formatted for us by our gigantic collective brain.

See you there!

(PoetsandQuants) -- The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School's pricey executive MBA program maintained its gold standard status in a 2012 ranking by PoetsandQuantsforExecs.com.

The prestigious program -- available at Wharton's home campus in Philadelphia for $167,160 and the school's West Coast campus in San Francisco for $173,940 MORE]]> The prestigious (and pricey) program came in first once again among the best EMBA programs worldwide in a ranking by PoetsandQuants.

By John A. Byrne, contributor

(PoetsandQuants) -- The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School's pricey executive MBA program maintained its gold standard status in a 2012 ranking by PoetsandQuantsforExecs.com.

The prestigious program -- available at Wharton's home campus in Philadelphia for $167,160 and the school's West Coast campus in San Francisco for $173,940 -- again came in first among the best EMBA programs worldwide.

It's not hard to see why Wharton has kept its lead. The school reports the lowest acceptance rate of any top EMBA program, accepting only four of every 10 applicants. While half the top 20 EMBA programs don't even require candidates to take the Graduate Management Admission Test, Wharton not only requires the exam -- its enrolled EMBA students boast the highest GMAT score of any school -- 700 out of a maximum score of 800. Wharton's students, moreover, already earn an average $186,988 per year in their jobs, while four out of 10 (more than any other top EMBA program) already hold an advanced degree.

A familiar cast of B-school characters follow Wharton on this year's ranking: No. 2 Chicago Booth, No. 3 Northwestern Kellogg, No. 4 Columbia Business School, and No. 5 New York University Stern.

There were only relatively small changes among the top 10 rated programs. No. 6 UCLA and No. 10 Duke gained one place each over last year's ranking, while No. 7 Michigan and No. 11 USC lost one spot each. The bigger changes occurred elsewhere on the list. The Thunderbird School of Management's EMBA program, for instance, rose six places to finish 12th, while the University of Maryland's EMBA program had a seven-place gain so that its EMBA program came in at 18th.

The new ranking by Poets&Quants measures the overall reputation of these programs by combining the four latest ratings on EMBA programs from BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and U.S. News & World Report. By blending these rankings into a composite list, the methodology tends to diminish anomalies that often show up in any one rating system.

The new ranking also takes into account a vast array of metrics to measure the quality of the programs, from surveys of student satisfaction to increases in income attributed to the degree. Each of the four major rankings is equally weighted in this 2012 survey of the best.

These executive versions of the MBA degree, of course, attract an older, more seasoned group of students. Typically, EMBA candidates bring more than a dozen years of work experience and more than eight years of management experience to their programs. Usually, executives can bring challenges at work into the classrooms for help from faculty and fellow classmates.

See also: Top 10 MBA programs in the U.S.

Despite the high costs of these programs, studies have consistently shown that EMBA graduates tend to be more than satisfied. A new study by the Graduate Management Admission Council found that alumni who graduated from an executive MBA program rated their decision to pursue their MBA the most favorably (98%), followed by full-time MBA alumni (95%), and part-time MBA alumni (95%). Alumni of full-time and executive MBA programs also were more likely to view their degrees as a good-to-outstanding value (96% and 97%, respectively) than graduates of any other degree type.

Schools that moved forward in the new 2012 ranking tended to get better ratings in the past year from BusinessWeek, U.S. News and World Report, and The Financial Times. PoetsandQuantsforExecs used those three rankings, along with the 2010 ranking of EMBA programs by The Wall Street Journal, to put together the composite ranking. The schools that had the most dramatic climbs or falls generally fell on or off one of these key lists of the world's best programs.

Each ranking organization uses a different methodology to measure a school's executive MBA program. BusinessWeek, for example, excludes partnership EMBA programs among multiple schools. The Financial Times does not rank programs under five years of age, and BusinessWeek also uses the "age of a program" as a ranking hurdle. Three of the four listed sources rank these programs globally in a single list. U.S. News only ranks U.S. programs.

Because of these differences in ranking methods, some very good programs are excluded from our list or, in the case of some partnership programs, they are ranked lower than they might otherwise have been. MIT Sloan, for example, only entered its first class in a new $141,000 executive MBA program in October 2010. By most quality measures, the 20-month program would easily be among the world's best. Some 40% of MIT's class of 2013 already have advanced degrees, and 83% boast titles that are director-level and above, with one in four already in the c-suite. The 70 executives in the class average 17 years of experience each, and 39% of them are of international origin. But when it comes to the ranking game, MIT is nowhere because the program is so new.

PoetsandQuantsforExecs also made some slight changes to improve the ranking. Instead of ranking North American and other programs separately, we combined all of them into one global ranking for the new 2012 list. The first non-U.S. school to show up on the list, IE Business School in Madrid, Spain, came in with a rank of 14. INSEAD in France and Singapore, and IESE Business School in Barcelona and Madrid were next with ranks of 23 and 24, respectively.

PoetsandQuantsForExecs also imposed a new eligibility rule: only schools whose EMBA programs are already recognized by at least two of the four most influential rankings of these programs would be eligible for this year's list. This latter change eliminates potential anomalies that often appear in a single ranking system. Some 55 programs met this requirement.

More from Poets&Quants:

• Poets&Quants' Complete 2012 Executive MBA Ranking
• MBA Still Worth It? Absolutely, Say Alums
• Harvard Business School Will Reject More Than 8,000 Applicants This Year

FORTUNE -- Dear Annie: A friend sent me your recent column about eight signs it's time to quit, and all eight of them apply to me. I would like nothing better than to leave MORE]]> If you already have a job — plus a college degree and some work experience — your chances of getting hired elsewhere are better than they've been in years. Here's where to start looking.

By Anne Fisher, contributor

FORTUNE -- Dear Annie: A friend sent me your recent column about eight signs it's time to quit, and all eight of them apply to me. I would like nothing better than to leave the company where I work now. My performance reviews have been great, but this is a family-owned business, and I've come to realize over the past couple of years that nobody gets promoted (or gets a raise) unless they have the same last name as the CEO.

So it's clearly time to move on, and I've rewritten my resume to reflect the terrific track record I've built up as a brand manager since I graduated from college 12 years ago. But is there any point in going out looking? We keep hearing that 15 million Americans are unemployed, the job market is terrible, nobody's hiring, etc., etc. Should I start job hunting anyway, or just try to make the best of things here until the economy improves? — Hitting a Brick Wall

Dear HBW: "The constant barrage of lackluster employment news can make finding a new job seem like an impossible goal," says John Challenger, CEO of outplacement giant Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "It is not."

That's especially true in your case, for at least two reasons. First, you already have a job. It's no secret that employers (loath as they may be to admit it) often give preference to the already employed. "Unfortunately, there is a stigma attached to being out of work," says Geoff Hoffmann, chief operating officer of global recruiters DHR International. "There are ways to mitigate it but, yes, a gap in a resume does create apprehension." Since you are working now, the 15 million unemployed are not your main competition.

Which brings us to a second advantage you may not realize you have: your college degree. The overall U.S. unemployment rate, while lower than it's been for three years, is still dauntingly high at 8.5%. But that figure doesn't apply to every segment of the workforce. For people with a high school diploma but no college degree, for instance, the rate is 8.8%. By contrast, for folks like you with a bachelor's degree or higher, joblessness is at 4.3%, or less than half the aggregate rate.

(To put that 4.3% in perspective, it wasn't long ago that economists considered 6% to equal "full employment" -- meaning that unemployment is at the lowest point it can go, given seasonal and structural variations in workforce participation -- and, obviously, 4.3% is well below that.)

"Headlines and sound bites mask enormous discrepancies in unemployment among different groups," notes Robert Hellmann, an executive coach who teaches career management at New York University. "For those with bachelor's degrees and some years of solid work experience, the job market is nowhere near as hopeless as people think, so do look around." The key, he adds, is to focus your search on industries that are thriving.

DHR's Hoffmann agrees: "Financial services, real estate, and construction are still weak. But from where we sit, it looks like almost everyone else is gearing up for growth. At the senior management level, we're seeing a lot of hiring that is expansionary, not just replacement hiring." You can get a new job now, Hoffmann adds, if you "understand which sectors are hot, and where the appetite for talent is."

Even in struggling industries, pockets of opportunity exist. Consider: Financial job board eFinancialCareers.com reported last week that Wall Street firms have posted 54% more sales-and-marketing openings than last year at this time.

Or look at retailing. A new study by workforce-management software maker Kronos shows monthly hires bouncing back from their recessionary lows, and suggests that the retail industry could make a "significant recovery" in 2012.

Some of the job growth is behind the scenes. The New York City design department of Wisconsin-based Kohl's Department Stores, for instance, manages 13 designer brands and has just announced its third expansion since 2007. The office started with 30 employees and now has 140. "I've got clients who have moved into retailing from other businesses like publishing," says Hellmann.

"It's still a buyer's market, but the opportunities are there if you look for them," he adds. So by all means, start looking.

Talkback: Have you changed jobs recently? If you're a hiring manager, are you currently aiming to fill more openings than six months or a year ago? Leave a comment below.