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Copyright: © 2013 The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
The ability to ”connect the dots” -- work the connections between local conditions and global forces and between the non-profit private and government sectors -- is necessary whether you work in the private sector or for a conservation group according to Carter S. Roberts president and CEO of the U.S. World Wildlife Fund (WWF). During a recent Wharton Leadership Lecture Roberts spoke about corporations’ responsibility to promote environmental initiatives the need for communication skills the WWF’s latest successes and the importance of thinking about in advance ”what you want your legacy to be.”
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The January 3 Iowa caucuses and the January 8 New Hampshire primary showcased the 2008 presidential campaign’s ongoing political dogfight as candidates battled for their parties’ nominations. Under the surface however the scrum represents a tipping point in the use of the Internet as a campaign tool say experts at Wharton. In many respects the 2008 race resembles any sophisticated Internet marketing campaign that lets consumers swap information connect with friends and perhaps make a purchase -- or in this case a donation. Indeed selling a candidate may not be much different than selling any other high-end item although possibly less effective.
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Contrary to management theories developed in the Industrial Age employee satisfaction is an important ingredient for financial success according to a new research paper by Wharton finance professor Alex Edmans. His findings also challenge the importance of short-term financial results and may have implications for investors interested in targeting socially responsible companies. The paper is titled ”Does the Stock Market Fully Value Intangibles? Employee Satisfaction and Equity Prices.”
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Western companies looking to do business in Asia especially in China don’t always confront a homogenous market and the ways that consumers make decisions about what to buy aren’t always predictable according to a group of marketing experts who spoke at the 2007 Wharton Asia Business Forum. Like developed-world consumers many urban Chinese people are technologically savvy and comfortable seeking product information on the web. But unlike them they don’t typically show brand loyalty and are often more motivated by price than perceptions of product quality or prestige. Panelists included executives from Estee Lauder Bain & Co. Colgate Palmolive and Swain Tours.
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This month more than half of Americans probably made health-related New Year’s resolutions but few are likely to stick to them. Employees at CFI Westgate Resorts in Orlando Fla. might consider themselves lucky: They have an incentive to get healthy. If they join in the company-wide weight-loss contest and reach their goals they could win cash prizes or a luxury vacation. Westgate isn’t the only employer trying to push employees especially obese ones into healthy lifestyles. But using incentives and in some cases penalties to change employee behavior raises a host of legal moral and practical questions according to Wharton experts and others.
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For the third time in the past few months the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee has chosen to cut short-term interest rates by a quarter percent or 25 basis points. The Fed cut its main short-term rate target to 4.25% and the ”discount rate” charged on direct Fed loans to commercial banks to 4.75%. In its statement justifying the decision the Fed noted ”Incoming information suggests that economic growth is slowing reflecting the intensification of the housing correction and some softening in business and consumer spending. Moreover strains in financial markets have increased in recent weeks. Today’s action combined with the policy actions taken earlier should help promote moderate growth over time.” Will the Fed’s decision help promote ”moderate growth?” Knowledge at Wharton asked Jeremy Siegel a professor of finance at Wharton and author of The Future for Investors to analyze the Fed’s decision and its impact on the markets.
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Fansumers viral videos and social computing -- these are just some of the many buzzwords pinging around the marketing world today. While making sense of them isn’t easy the concept behind them is clear: Online technologies allow customers to communicate in new ways with one another and companies must decide whether to ignore co-opt or dive into these new waters of interactivity. ”Consumers want to feel they are being heard and they love having an impact on the future development of products ” says one Wharton professor. ”To the extent that they can air grievances or understand the company’s position that can be beneficial for the company itself.”
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On November 6 Facebook outlined a strategy to integrate more targeted advertising into its popular social networking website. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw the new initiative as an opportunity for users to refer products to each other and allow friends to share information as they shopped online and visited other websites. The system called Beacon was also intended to lead to more relevant -- and profitable -- advertising through precise targeting based on a user’s buying habits social circle and geography. But on December 5 after receiving numerous complaints Zuckerberg issued an apology and changed the way Beacon operates. The whole incident according to Wharton experts raises questions about privacy marketing tactics and what consumers can expect in the future.
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The Abu Dhabi government is buying a 4.9% stake in Citigroup for $7.5 billion. UBS is selling a 10.8% share to the government of Singapore and an unnamed Middle Eastern investor for $11.5 billion. Two Middle Eastern government funds now own a third of the London Stock Exchange. Governments through investment pools known as sovereign wealth funds have put tens of billions of dollars into Western financial firms this year. But is foreign ownership -- or more precisely foreign government ownership -- really a good thing? Many experts think this mushrooming trend bears watching especially for any sign that these funds are evolving from pure investment vehicles into tools for exerting political pressure on the ”target” countries.
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Fire your bad customers. That piece of advice has become widely accepted in recent years as companies have sought to manage their relationships with customers in more sophisticated ways. The rationale is clear-cut: Low-value customers end up costing more money than they provide. So why not jettison them and focus your customer-relationship efforts on more profitable individuals? Or as an alternative why not try to increase the worth of the low-value customers to your firm? Not so fast suggests a new study by two Wharton marketing professors -- Jagmohan Raju and Z. John Zhang -- which concludes that firing low-value customers actually decreases firm profits and that trying to increase the value of these customers may be counterproductive.
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