1.   Key executives make a commitment to pursue a new strategy, only to return to business as usual.

2.   Although executives have been making progress, according to people close to the talks, one noted that the negotiations could fall apart at any time.

3.   And company executives also made it clear that McGinn stands a good chance of succeeding Schacht in years to come.

4.   And Motorola executives made clear Wednesday that they were determined to fine-tune their technology.

5.   And thanks to downsizing, upper-echelon executives are now making many of the business trips formerly assigned to middle managers.

6.   Another hospital executive makes the case for reconfiguration more bluntly.

7.   As a result, executives cannot make mass layoffs easily.

8.   As stock option packages became more lucrative, top executives could make tens or hundreds of millions of dollars after only a year or two of good performance.

9.   At the Cannes Film Festival, an MGM executive made a speech saying that the picture proved that money should not be placed in the hands of creative people.

10.   B.A.T executives made it clear Sunday night that part of their motivation was to free their insurance business from its increasingly burdensome link with the besieged tobacco industry.