The so-called Great Recession, the longest and deepest since the Great Depression, may be over but you won’t feel relief unless you and your company are able to sell your products and services. Businesses and individuals may find relief in the idea that the Recession is finally ending, but trust me, you won’t feel any relief in how the market responds to your products and services unless you master selling, building the value-add propositions and closing the deal. Selling, not organizing, not planning, and not product development, is the most important skill of every company when coming out of a recession.


 
 Self-service account aggregation launched by CashEdge CashEdge Inc. is now making its AllData Advisor account aggregation service available to financial advisers via a self-service online subscription.

Recently, the following question was posed to me: “I work in strategy and business development within a major university. How can I change our mindset from a non-profit to a profit mentality?” This was such a provocative question, that I thought I’d share my answer. My first response is that this person should rephrase the goal! I served on the Board of the Peter Drucker Foundation (now the Leader to Leader Institute) for twelve years.


 
 Two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers charged with lying to investors always were honest about the risks of investing in securities linked to the volatile subprime mortgage market, a defense lawyer told a jury on Friday. A co-worker who testified at a federal trial in Brooklyn “couldn’t recall one meeting where they did not discuss the risks,” attorney Susan Brune said in closing arguments. Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin made sure investors knew that with their investment strategy there were “rewards, but there’s risks too,” Brune said.

Taking candy from a baby: A consortium of Chinese and American companies goes to Washington and announces plans to build a $1.5 billion windmill farm in West Texas using $450 million in U.S. Stimulus funds, which will create 2,330 jobs – 2,000 of them in China.


 
 Hedge fund and private equity firm The Blackstone Group LP on Friday posted a narrower loss for the third quarter, as its private equity holdings gained value and its real estate investments stabilized. Adjusted results topped expectations, and positive comments from its CEO helped lift the stock in afternoon trading. Blackstone said its loss after paying preferred dividends fell to $176.2 million, or 91 cents per common unit, from $340.3 million, or $1.56 per unit in the 2008 third quarter.

nytimes.com : Fewer Harvard M.B.A. graduates took jobs on Wall Street this year than in the past as a result of the sharp contraction in the financial services industry.