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Copyright: © 2013 The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
For cable TV companies in the U.S. August 28 was a day to celebrate. Ending several years of regulatory battles a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals came down in favor of Philadelphia-based Comcast which sought to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s contentious 30% market share limit on cable TV operators. Not everyone is happy about the ruling fearing it will lead to cable monopolies. In contrast Peter S. Fader professor of marketing and co-director of the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative sees this as a ”golden age” for the industry and consumers alike. Fader spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about why the recent ruling is likely to make the landscape more not less competitive.
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Thailand’s Bumrungrad International Hospital is one of a growing number of institutions making a name for themselves among ”medical tourists” by offering patients from Boston to Bahrain a combination of lower-cost state-of-the-art medical care along with service worthy of a five-star hotel. But what will it take for such hospitals to gain acceptance among national policy makers major insurers and employers? Mack Banner CEO of Bumrungrad and Kenneth Mays the hospital’s director of marketing recently met with Ravi Aron a senior fellow at Wharton to discuss the future of offshore health care.
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When the United Arab Emirates (UAE) became a nation in the early 1970s it had neither a formal education system nor a university to call its own. Today however with new private and public universities springing up across the emirates the UAE sees a larger role for itself as a promoter of peace and economic development through education according to Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan the nation’s minister of higher education and scientific research. In an interview with Knowledge at Wharton Sheikh Nahayan discusses various UAE education initiatives the impact of technology in and outside the classroom and what he would envision to be an ideal education system.
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Entrepreneur Farhad Mohit is hardly resting on his laurels although he could. In 1996 he launched BizRate a consumer rating site and then in 2004 Shopzilla a shopping search engine. His latest venture is DotSpots a service that lets people update the news in real-time with dots or distributed objects of thought. These could include mini-blog posts containing text videos images documents perspectives from the blogosphere or eye-witness accounts from the scene. Mohit talked with Knowledge at Wharton about DotSpots the publishing industry the wisdom of crowds what he learned from his previous successes and the importance of finding the right team among other topics.
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Although some upbeat economic news in recent weeks might indicate the beginning of the end of the recession there’s still plenty of ”wreckage” to deal with says Wharton real estate professor Peter D. Linneman. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the housing and commercial property sectors which have taken one of their worst beatings ever. In an interview with Knowledge at Wharton Linneman draws on policy missteps of the past to caution the Obama administration to tread carefully and avoid ”trying to cure things they can’t cure ” while contending that the U.S. might have more in common with countries like Venezuela Russia and Japan than most observers think.
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What’s in a name? Plenty when you’re an entrepreneur starting up a new business says Tayeb Kamali who recalls the struggle to convince others in the early days of the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) that the United Arab Emirates’ new government-sponsored university needed a name that would be associated with leading-edge education in the Arab region. However as HCT’s Abu Dhabi-based vice chancellor explains in an interview with Knowledge at Wharton that particular challenge was short-lived given the rapid recognition -- in academia and industry -- of the growing importance that the Internet and other technologies have in developing future generations of global business leaders.
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Economic progress ethics and social entrepreneurship are three themes that have long had a place on the agenda of the World Economic Forum (WEF) well before phrases like ”subprime lending” had crossed the lips of bankers and Wall Street investors. But how can these and other global topics remain relevant during today’s market turbulence? To answer that question Knoweldge@Wharton spoke with Gilbert Probst WEF managing director and dean of the Geneva-based non-profit think tank’s Global Leadership Fellows program; Tiffany West associate director and Global Leadership Fellow Program Development team; and Ana Karinna Sepulveda project manager for the WEF’s Global Education Initiative.
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Following a high-profile career in finance in which he became one of the first well-known hedge fund managers Michael Steinhardt began the Taglit-Birthright Israel program a philanthropic enterprise which has provided free 10-day trips to Israel for some 220 000 Jewish youth to learn more about their heritage. Steinhardt spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about how the program helps to improve the country’s image and the challenges of what he calls a deteriorating educational system in Israel -- marked by a brain drain in higher education. Steinhardt also discussed the country’s culture of business innovation and how deep democratic roots can sometimes slow progress.
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Anyone who follows current events sees images of Israel that suggest a country defined by conflict and violence. Yet Israel has also made substantial contributions to the global marketplace in such industries as technology and medicine. The challenge for Israel going forward is to make the world more aware of its hospitable business environment. Marketing professor Yoram (Jerry) Wind and David Pottruck former CEO of Charles Schwab & Co. and now chairman and CEO of Red Eagle Ventures talked with Knowledge at Wharton about steps Israel can take to improve its image.
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According to Wharton finance professor Richard J. Herring more than half of the lending to households over the last five to six years ”has come from the securitization market not from banks’ balance sheets.” For that reason Herring and Allen Levinson founder and principal of Credit Risk Advisors say that the Obama administration’s efforts to resuscitate the ailing economy should be focused not only on restoring bank lending but also on enabling ”the flow of securitizations.” This can be accomplished through the establishment of a private-sector oversight committee that ”reflects the full range of stakeholders in the securitization process” -- a market-based solution costing taxpayers nothing they argue.
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