(FORTUNE Magazine) – CITIES/Cover Stories 48 THE BEST CITIES FOR BUSINESS Securing top employees will be the greatest challenge companies face in the Nineties. Here's where to find them. by Patricia Sellers

58 FORTUNE'S TOP TEN

65 THE REST OF THE MAJOR CITIES

75 HOW TO MAKE WORKERS BETTER A FORTUNE CEO Poll. by Andrew Erdman

CORPORATE PERFORMANCE 81 YET ANOTHER STRATEGY FOR APPLE CEO John Sculley is shaking up his company -- again. This time Apple will focus on low-cost computers, more productive R&D, and a pragmatic corporate culture. by Brenton R. Schlender

90 A NEW WAY TO WAKE UP A GIANT Alcoa CEO Paul O'Neill is fomenting revolution in an old company by putting safety first and sticking to his knitting. Could this be a model for U.S. basic industry? by Thomas A. Stewart

98 GETTING READY FOR THE ALUMINUM LIZZIE

106 CPC'S GLOBAL SPREAD In the eat-or-be-eaten world of big food, this company has the recipe for keeping shareholders content. by Richard S. Teitelbaum

110 COMPANIES TO WATCH Nichols Institute, which performs diagnostic tests, teaches lessons others can profit by. by Ret Autry

Also: Score Board, Kent Electronics, and Group 1 Software.

THE SOVIET UNION 113 WANNA MAKE A DEAL IN MOSCOW? FORTUNE's publisher looks beyond the red carpet. He tells what it was like when 14 top American CEOs went to Russia to talk investment with Mikhail Gorbachev. by James B. Hayes

115 OIL FROM RUSSIA Production is sliding. But with Western help, a Soviet gusher could someday lessen OPEC's power. by Ann Reilly Dowd

MANAGING 121 DO YOU PUSH YOUR PEOPLE TOO HARD? You don't have to. Job stress is epidemic in the lean 1990s as business cracks the whip in response to the labor shortage and global and domestic competition. Yet some companies know how to get more from their employees without driving them out -- or crazy. by Thomas A. Stewart

MANUFACTURING 132 JAPAN'S NEW PERSONALIZED PRODUCTION Using robots and computers, a Japanese bicycle company is helping usher in an era of customized manufacturing. Customers get what they crave most -- unique products -- choosing from among 11,231,862 variations of bicycle. Production is amazingly swift. by Susan Moffat

EASTERN EUROPE 137 GE IN HUNGARY: LET THERE BE LIGHT General Electric is bringing plenty of capitalist enlightenment to its new acquisition: a turn-of-the-century light bulb factory near Budapest, where ''profit'' is not so much a bad word as an unknown one. Installing Western management methods is a tall order. by Shawn Tully

EXECUTIVE LIFE 144 HOW EXECS GET FIT Many senior managers are becoming as serious about athletics and diet as they are about their work, and for good reason. While exercise used to be a weekly swing around the golf course, a daily regimen is now more common among the fittest. And it shows. by Faye Rice

DEPARTMENTS 4 EDITOR'S DESK 6 INDEX 10 NEWS/TRENDS Oil trading: a forecast of war? Japan's unhappy auto workers, big U.S. banks take a beating, the ''Edsel of the Eighties'' tries again, and more.

25 FORTUNE FORECAST The competitive capital goods industry will provide a crutch for the oil- shocked U.S. economy while making more gains abroad. by Joseph Spiers

31 PERSONAL INVESTING Buy battered bank stocks? Now? A few careful picks beckon. by Brett Duval Fromson

Also: A supermarket stock to top your shopping list, mutual funds for a safe play in oil, and Portfolio Talk with James S. Chanos of Ursus Partners.

155 FORTUNE PEOPLE GM's man in the new Germany, touting business in Monaco, a rolling stone is hired to save Emery Air Freight, and more. by Mark M. Colodny

156 ON THE RISE

165 BOOKS & IDEAS Research from MIT shows why Japan's carmakers are even better than you thought -- and how their techniques can be applied. by Alex Taylor III

181 LETTERS TO FORTUNE

183 KEEPING UP Our friends in the swamps, why words leave the language, the slot-machine cartel, and other matters. by Daniel Seligman

ABOVE: Louis Psihoyos (Matrix) took this photo of engineers in clean suits in Old Sacramento.

COVER: Workers like these keep companies in Salt Lake City out of deep water. Photographed by Psihoyos on the Great Salt Lake.