Heads up! Your company has been targeted for a takeover, and senior leadership needs to handle with grace and ideally, limited negative media. How can the board position the company well with multiple sets of internal forecasts? And how can the board whittle them down to one, defensible forecast before a lawsuit hits?

While bank fundamentals remain strong, current valuations are the lowest since 2004, well before the financial crisis. That could spell bad news across industries, because the health of the financial services sector remains a harbinger of the overall health of global markets. Although there are a few reasons to feel cautiously optimistic about the economy, recession triggers abound.