Knowledge at Wharton

When Carleton (Carly) S. Fiorina joined Hewlett-Packard as its chairman and CEO in 1999 she was widely regarded as a charismatic leader who would help HP get out of its high-tech rut. Six years later however Fiorina has been forced out of her position at HP’s helm and the company is still languishing. What happened? According to Wharton professors while Fiorina has several strengths the merger she...

In his 1994 best seller Stocks for the Long Run Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel showed investors that stocks rather than bonds or cash are the most profitable long-term investments and he endorsed index-style investing. But investors wanted to know more. ”I gave scores of talks across the country on Stocks for the Long Run ” Siegel recalled recently. ”The two questions I received most were...

The days when an executive could look forward to a leisurely retirement out on the golf course are over thanks to a possible looming job shortage a graying population low savings rates and an insecure Social Security system. The impact of these factors on both workers and companies was the subject of the Symposium on Older Workers co-sponsored recently by the AARP Global Aging Program along with W...

The stock market rises and falls based on investors’ perceptions about how the economy is doing. CEOs make investment decisions -- opening a new plant hiring more workers -- based on their expectations about how markets will perform in the future. How can they keep tabs on whether their expectations are realistic? Bernard Baumohl author of The Secrets of Economic Indicators provides some insights...

In a new study that compares Fortune 100 executives in 1980 with their counterparts in 2001 Peter Cappelli director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources and colleague Monika Hamori document what many CEOs and other senior managers have no doubt already witnessed: The road to the executive suite and the characteristics of the executives who get there have changed significantly over the last two...

There’s a new marketing catchphrase that’s getting rave word-of-mouth reviews. From articles in the popular press to conversations in the classroom huge companies to boutique marketing firms suddenly it seems you can’t talk about new products without addressing ’buzz marketing.’ ”People are buzzing about buzzing ” says Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn who adds along with others that word-o...

Marketers are happy speaking their own language replete with jargon like ”awareness ” ”share of requirements” and ”customer satisfaction.” Such terminology works fine in the marketing department and with the advertising professionals who execute marketing plans. But there’s a translation problem between that language and the language of profitability and stock price which is the mother tongue of c...

Wharton management professor Michael Useem director of the school’s Center for Leadership and Change Management notes that one of the key mantras in corporate crisis management is: ”Hide nothing tell all.” Less than a week after Merck & Co.’s voluntary withdrawal of its blockbuster arthritis pain medication Vioxx following an extended clinical trial that linked the drug to heart attacks and st...

Last week Microsoft unveiled the new version of its Windows Media Player firing the opening shots in a long-anticipated battle against Apple Computer for supremacy in the online music business. Both companies are targeting the fast-growing market whose sales are expected to be $270 million this year but could grow to $1.7 billion by 2009. Experts at Wharton and elsewhere say that for now Apple who...

Imagine that you have been assigned to a six-person team in your company and asked to complete a top-priority project on a very short deadline. Some of the people have never worked together before team members change every hour or so leadership constantly shifts between three different individuals and any mistake could have disastrous even fatal consequences for the project. Wharton management pro...

Schools companies and nonprofit organizations around the country including educators at Wharton say helping children and teenagers learn the rudiments of free markets entrepreneurship credit spending saving and investing is one of the most important - and neglected - components of a young person’s education. Yet for kids from both affluent and poor neighborhoods it’s difficult to find financial li...

From childhood on individuals are told that setting goals for themselves will make them more successful in whatever they set out to do – whether it’s win tennis games ace their exams or become CEO of their company. But goal-setting also has a dark side to it according to a recent research paper by a Wharton faculty member and two colleagues. In addition to motivating constructive behavior goal set...

Why do so many smokers keep smoking despite decades of health warnings? Why do Harley Davidson motorcycles and Ralph Lauren clothing engender such loyalty among very specific types of people? Why do teens and parents always seem to fight and never seem to hear what the other is saying? Wharton marketing professors Lisa Bolton and Americus Reed have found through their research that judgments linke...

Impossible thinking. It is what put men on the moon allowed Starbucks to turn a commodity product into a powerful global business and permitted Roger Bannister to run the four-minute mile. While not every “impossible thought” can become a reality very often the greatest obstacle to transforming our organizations society and personal lives is our own thinking. This may seem to be a simple idea in t...

Wal-Mart Target and other companies see radio-frequency identification (RFID) as a technology that will usher in the next revolution in the world of retailing. How real is this revolution? And what does it mean for retailers and customers? Experts at Wharton and elsewhere say that RFID is a potentially powerful technology that is on the brink of having a big impact. Still several hurdles remain th...

Pricing the intersection at which untold numbers of buyers and sellers meet every day lies at the core of any business. Yet it remains misunderstood and poorly managed according to The Price Advantage a new book by three consultants at McKinsey & Co. Even executives at successful companies may not fully appreciate how small changes in price can lead to large changes in profitability. Wharton m...

It’s no surprise that the front lines of a corporate call center are unusually stressful but companies don’t always account for that when hiring and training workers for this critical customer contact role according to speakers at a recent Call Center Industry Forum sponsored by Wharton’s Financial Institutions Center. Given that an estimated 3% of the U.S. workforce is employed in call centers an...

The demographics of today’s workforce employee expectations about retirement and the types of retirement options offered are all in a state of flux making retirement policy a moving target for those charged with researching and administering pension plans. That was the message at a recent Wharton conference titled “Reinventing the Retirement Paradigm” co-hosted by Wharton’s The Pension Research Co...

Baby boomers are amassing trillions of dollars in stocks bonds and mutual funds for retirement. But when they quit work and start selling those assets will there be enough buyers? Or will supply outstrip demand driving down prices and leaving the retirees with far less than they had expected? Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel addressed these issues during a presentation at Wharton on May 15...

Networking services – Internet companies that let users share personal profiles as a way to make social and professional contacts – are the hot e-businesses of the moment. Close to two dozen of these online communities are furiously recruiting members who in turn recruit their friends relatives co-workers and just about anyone seeking an introduction to or reference from someone who might matter....

After adapting information technology to develop ever more sophisticated research methods marketers are taking a second look at more human qualitative approaches to tapping into the hearts and minds of consumers. As one Wharton marketing professor says: “We can put each customer’s order on a microchip but as far as having a sense of what’s inside making him tick ” the answers remain elusive. He an...

Those who have been following the controversy over ”offshoring” U.S. service jobs to low-cost markets like India now have new developments to consider: The takeover this month by U.S. business giants -- IBM and Citigroup -- of two major providers of business process outsourcing (BPO) services in India. These developments seem to validate a new study by consulting firm A.T. Kearney which ranks Indi...

Wal-Mart’s appearance for the third time in a row at the top of the Fortune 500 list of largest U.S. companies would seem to confirm what many have long suspected: This retailing behemoth is all-powerful and unstoppable. But industry experts and others are beginning to scrutinize some of Wal-Mart’s latest initiatives and its critics point to recent complaints about the company’s labor practices an...

Hubris can help a CEO build a business empire and it can also cause its downfall. When business leaders don’t know themselves as well as they should and they are unable to manage their ego and emotions they fail say experts from Wharton and elsewhere. A Wharton conference on self-awareness will explore these themes further next month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Special Report by CNET News.com and Knowledge at Wharton  With the economy rebounding and the technology sector once again focused on new partners products and opportunities the Wharton Technology Conference on Feb. 27 emphasized the future with the theme: “From Survival to Growth: The Emerging Face of Technology.” Panelists and speakers from industry the government and academia discussed entrep...