treasurer's black humor–delivered during a discussion we were having about Treasury & Risk Management's Alexander Hamilton Awards next

month–is as good a sign as any of these stressful times.

On the theory that you get enough bad news from internal memos about

expense reduction campaigns, layoffs, restructurings and earnings debacles, we asked Senior Writer Susan Kelly to track down a company

that is prospering. She visited Minneapolis and came back with a fascinating piece about Medtronic.

The company is doing quite nicely in these chaotic times, thank you, not

only because it is in a rarified manufacturing sector untouched by the general economy but also because its treasury area has stuck close to its

balance-sheet knitting throughout a period of rapid expansion.

As Susan's analysis shows, the company suffered for a time from too

much good news–letting days sales outstanding expand and paying its bills too quickly precisely because it had so much cash flow. But with an

experienced treasurer who doubles as controller and a savvy CFO at the helm, Medtronic has not only turned around these issues but is thinking

about even more creative ways to finance its future. Is anyone ready to lease his or her pacemaker? Read all about it in our

cover story, starting on

page 18.

Elsewhere in the issue, we present the results of our popular survey of

readers' attitudes toward their cash management banks. Pleeeze….don't ask about the effects of bank mergers on service quality. The revealing

results–which include rankings of most admired domestic and international banks as well as our perennially popular comparisons of banks to car

models–begin on page 26. See "Crash Management: Next Exit."

For a dose of reality, turn to contributing editor Russ Banham's piece on

the lessons risk managers are learning about their insurance underwriters as they try to extend policies. Strange to say, some thought the process

was all about long-term relationships rather than real business. "'Til Hard Markets Do Us Part" starts on page 43.