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The paper argues that increasing litigation and expanding claims on both sides of the Atlantic are threatening the survival of even the largest accounting practices. In the UK, firms are so concerned that they are making reform of the liability system the price of accepting wider responsibility for their audit work.

The paper argues that the role of the finance director — hitherto confined primarily to ensuring that controls are complied with and that ‘the numbers’ add up — is going through a period of unprecedented change. As the job description is broadened to include such matters as fashioning corporate strategy and handling investor relations the training provided by the accountancy route is called into question.

Bruce Lloyd in discussion with Roger Trapp, author of Blunder Boss: How Britain’s Bosses are Failing You. In his book the author argues that there is too often a serious mismatch between what executives say and what they do. This is particularly relevant when those at the top maintain “people are our most important asset”. As a result, not only do we need to consider redefining “professionalism” but new attitudes are needed to passion and commitment, within the overall context of work providing meaning to people in their lives. These issues require greater focus on the long term, within a broader sense of social responsibility, rather than the tendency to be more and more pre‐occupied with the short term.

New research using the PIMS database of business performance shows that businesses delivering better value for money than their competitors are up to 200 percent more profitable than those which do not. The evidence very strongly indicates that where improvements in value for money can be made, profitability will increase over time. Previous research data demonstrate that market share is a key driver of profitability. The new study was therefore devised to assess the impact on market share of the two elements of value for money ‐ customer perceived quality and price. It reveals that, overall, quality is nearly 50 percent more important in driving market share upwards.

David R. Adamson has been appointed vice president of marketing and sales for de Havilland Canada. The appointment, which charges Adamson with the responsibility to steer the Canadian aircraft manufacturer's sales, sales engineering and marketing efforts worldwide, is effective immediately.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the future of corporate communication professionals and researchers; to present the findings of the Corporate Communication International (CCI) Corporate Communication Practices and Trends Study 2009; and to introduce the issues presented in the papers from the CCI Conference on Corporate Communication 2009 published in this special issue.

The paper presents a discussion of the future of the corporate communication and the findings of the CCI Corporate Communication Practices and Trends Study 2009.

The paper implies strategic knowledge of business processes and practice for effective corporate communication.

The paper implies several areas for further research.

The paper articulates complex challenges facing corporate communicators.

Describes the proposed “a history of the book in Britain” project to be published in seven volumes by Cambridge University Press. Describes the background to the project in relation to the disparate nature of studies of the history of the book in Britain and work already done. Presents an outline of the structure of the proposed publication.

The purpose of this paper is to present a method for computing voltage spikes endured by the insulation of the first coils of high-temperature (HT°) synchronous machines fed by PWM inverters that deliver fast-fronted voltage pulses.

The transient state following each steep edge is computed by SPICE using the global high-frequency (HF) equivalent circuit of the motor winding. This equivalent circuit is automatically built using the proposed elementary coil model. Two inorganic HT° technologies are compared: the first one uses a round copper wire insulated by a thin ceramic layer and the second one is made with an anodized aluminum strip.

The winding made with an anodized aluminum strip, which has a higher turn-to-turn capacitance, yields a better voltage distribution between coils of the machine.

The elementary coil equivalent circuit is computed from impedance measurements performed on an elementary coil. Another starting point could be developed with an FE analysis to determine the parameters of the HF equivalent circuit, which would avoid the need for a prototype coil before the machine design.

For inorganic motors, the insulation layers have poorer electrical characteristics compared with standard organic ones. Therefore, the computation of voltage spikes distribution along the coils of each phase represents a major issue in the design of HT° machines.

The presented approach is a step toward the design of HT° (400-500°C) actuators fed by PWM inverters based on fast SiC electronic switches.