From the pinnacles of power by Fortune editor at large Patricia Sellers
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January 12, 2009, 6:36 pm

Power Point: Don’t wait for the worst-case scenario

“You identify areas where you think you can be more efficient by assuming the worst-case scenario. Then you end up saying, Why don’t we just do that anyhow?”

–Intuit (INTU) CEO Brad Smith, from the article “How to manage your business in a recesssion,” in the current issue of Fortune. The article may be helpful reading for bosses reporting fourth-quarter earnings.

Alcoa (AA), one of the 30 companies that makes up the Dow Jones Industrial Average, kicked off the reporting period with a loss of $929 million for the quarter. Meanwhile Citigroup (C), which next week is expected to report a $3.8 billion fourth-quarter loss, saw its stock plunge 17% as investors showed little faith in its plan to sell part of Smith Barney to Morgan Stanley (MS). More bleak news sent the Dow down 125 points.

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Pattie SellersPatricia Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Can Meg Whitman Save California?", Melinda Gates ("The $100 Billion Woman"), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). And she has broken ground with insightful pieces on career management issues such as ego ("Get Over Yourself!"), and "Charisma: Do You Need It? Can You Get It?" Pattie chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. And she has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" cover package since its launch in 1998. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big consumer brand companies.
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