IS the worst of the Eurozone debt crisis over? No one is quite sure. The threat that hung over Europe's future a few months ago seemed to ease for a while. Politicians vow they will save the euro; economists dare to speak of a fragile recovery.

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said last week that the risks for Europe remain high, but the immediate need for money to prop up the region's financial system was less severe than leaders originally thought. Yet in Spain and Italy last week, bond yields were on the rise again, nudging up into territory that sends off alarm bells with investors.

However one looks at the situation, Europe's debt crisis offers important lessons for business leaders, according to Jordi Canals, Dean of IESE Business School in Barcelona.

On a visit to Shanghai's China-Europe International Business School last month, he shared some general thoughts on the situation in Europe and outlined five things that the corporate world can learn from one of the worst crises ever to threaten the modern financial system.

Q: How do you feel about present situation in Europe?

A: I am confident that it will overcome these problems, especially now that most of the measures (to stabilize the financial system) have been taken. In Europe, everything has been very slow: no point of view initially, rejection of the notion of a crisis, reluctant acceptance of the notion that a crisis was actually coming in. I think now my view is that all the major policies for solving the crisis are on the table. We still need to build a bigger firewall that could act as protection for weaker countries.

Q: How long will the recovery take?

A: I think the crisis will make the European Union stronger. Slowly, reluctantly, but I think it is going to be stronger. Barring a catastrophe, I think we are going to see a major turning point in the next 12 months.

Q: How does the European financial crisis compare with that of the United States?

A: It is a different type of crisis. In the US was a subprime crisis around the mortgage industry - essentially Europe was quite safe. The problem was that the financial crisis in Europe turned into a government debt crisis.

Q: You say excessive executive pay is part of the problem. Can you explain a bit more?

A: The question of CEO compensation is very complex. It varies greatly across industries.

Having said that, I think it is a mistake that some companies increase their CEOs' pay outrageously when the so many citizens are suffering from a crisis. I don't think regulating compensation is the way to solve the problem. I think business leaders need to restore the connection with society.

Five lessons from the financial crisis

1 Develop a point of view about the future.

At the height of the financial crisis in 2008, Hank Paulson, then US Treasury secretary, realized that the main problem was the lack of liquidity spreading throughout the financial system. He knew he had to restore confidence. So he convened a meeting with the CEOs of the top 12 banks of the US, and told them that they had to write down how much capital they needed, now. By doing this, he avoided a major crisis in the US. By contrast, in Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is trying to convince her counterparts in Germany and other governments, but everything is moving very slowly. This is one of the reasons why the US economy has been growing since 2009 and the EU is still in a shaky situation.

2 Have courage.

Human beings have a tendency to delay answers - to say: "This is not such a big crisis; things will be OK." What we don't realize is that the more we delay some of the answers, the worse the problem gets. When you have a corporate crisis, it's very important the management team develops credibility, otherwise it's very difficult to get things done.

If we look at Italian Premier Mario Monti and Greek Premier Lucas Papademos, both have long experience in European affairs and international financial policy. In three months, Monti has been able to restore credibility in Italy by showing determination to tackle the basic problems that the country is facing. Papademos has good views about the future of Greece, but he has not been able to implement the policies that the country needs. In the business world, it's very important you need to develop a point of view, communicate it and be ready to implement things as quick as possible.

3 Engage allies.

In Europe, we saw French President Sarkozy trying to help solve the financial crisis based on the assumption that the EU needed to ratify a fiscal compact that would bring everything under the control of the larger European countries. For Britain, that was too much; it still has a sense of independence from the European Union and Prime Minister David Cameron decided not to accept the proposal, generating a new crisis. Eventually the EU approved the proposal without unanimity.

In the corporate world when you want to change governance, you need not to just build consensus. You need an alliance. You need the generosity and sacrifice of many people. You need to show you are not going to be the one that actually gains the most from the proposal.

4 Remember ethical values.

When we think about the European financial crisis, we tend to think about a technical crisis - something has gone wrong and we need to fix that problem. Sometimes we need to have something deeper. It is a crisis of ethical values that brings in the meaning of work, of investing for the future and the meaning of being willing to make things better for the next generation. When you have economic growth, you need to look at the way it is distributed.

Look at the Occupy Wall Street movement that started in the United States. The reason for this movement is that the crisis has widened the gap between the top 1 percent of earners, who make the most, and the rest. Some CEOs are growing their compensation by up to 30 percent a year. Even if companies are doing very well, there is a widely felt sense that something is wrong. The reputation of the corporate world has fallen down.

5 Be accountable.

Institutions always have to be accountable to shareholders, but, in a crisis, it's even more important. In 2007 and 2008, Lehman Brothers and JPMorgan both faced the same financial crisis. The top management team at Lehman never wanted to disclose their situation publicly. They didn't tell anyone how serious the situation was until the crisis arrived, and so the top management had only a couple of weeks to solve the problem. And then it was too late.

On the other hand, JPMorgan was not risk-free, but it took prudent measures and was accountable. Chief executive Jamie Dimon was very clear about disclosing the banks' financial position in the different markets, especially in the subprime markets, and face the challenges. That actually saved JPMorgan.