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Copyright: © 2013 The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
The average person according to the experts makes 200 food-related choices a day. Actually make that 201 choices. Courtesy of a new campaign by a leading restaurant chain diners who are used to choices that make their meals bigger can now actually choose to order portions that are significantly smaller. This spring T.G.I. Friday’s announced what it called an ”unprecedented move in the casual dining industry” when the restaurant chain began offering smaller portions at lower prices for select dishes. The question now becomes: Will consumers bite? Or in this case bite less?
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While many Americans are worried that real estate prices have flattened and may even turn downward some of the country’s top commercial developers say there always is opportunity for those who manage their projects efficiently in a global market focus on areas with growing demand and have the staying power to wait out the downturns. This was the consensus of a 2007 Wharton Economic Summit real estate panel which included executives from Apollo Real Estate Advisors Sherwood Equities and Morgan Stanley’s Direct Investing Group.
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Trying to predict the next hit -- whether it’s an independent horror film a new recording group or a popular video game -- entails a high amount of risk in an industry that has been turned upside down by the Internet and the reconfiguration of longstanding distribution channels according to panelists at the recent 2007 Wharton Economic Summit. For that reason they noted many of the most successful equity players in Hollywood tend to look for broad-based venues -- a comprehensive film library vs. one director’s avant-garde film for example -- as the best investment vehicles for an industry in transition.
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In Venezuela President Hugo Chavez is threatening to take control of several major projects from American and European firms. In Russia the government recently strong-armed Royal Dutch Shell into relinquishing control of a large oil field. Across the oil-producing world governments are responding to higher petroleum prices by imposing new taxes on oil companies and forcing the renegotiation of contracts. According to speakers at the 2007 Wharton Economic Summit such developments augur a new age for oil producers where both the style and substance of doing business have changed.
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Blockbuster deals -- like YouTube’s recent sale to Google for $1.65 billion and Skype’s sale last year to eBay for $2.6 billion -- are giving venture investors new confidence in their ability to cash out said a group of venture capitalists who spoke on a panel at the 2007 Wharton Economic Summit. In addition new sectors like ”clean tech ” an umbrella term for environmentally friendly technologies and trends like the aging of populations in the developed world are creating promising investment opportunities. Even so times remain challenging for many venture capitalists the panelists warned. According to one participant ”15% of the firms have provided [about] 90% of the returns.”
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The U.S. population is getting older as the ”age wave” of baby boomers nears retirement. Will their 60s 70s and 80s be happy years marked by prosperity good health and fulfilling activities? There’s every chance of that according to two keynote speakers at Wharton’s 2007 Economic Summit: Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel and Michael Milken head of The Milken Institute a non-partisan think tank. But both men cautioned that their optimism relies on taking steps to ensure among other things open markets and an educated healthy workforce.
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Although mammoth executive compensation packages at hedge funds -- hundreds of millions of dollars a year for some managers with a select few topping $1 billion -- have recently been disclosed in the business press public outrage over soaring CEO pay has been growing for years. Do executive compensation figures reflect an efficient market or a failed one? Are pay levels adequately disclosed? Should shareholders have more say? And if top executives are overpaid what’s to be done about it? Executive compensation was the subject of a panel at the 2007 Wharton Economic Summit.
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The world of pro sports may look a lot more exciting than life in the office but in reality -- when you strip away the glamour and media attention -- the bottom line for success is not too different on the playing field than it is in the business world. Character is what counts the most whether you are scouting for a new quarterback in the NFL draft or hiring a young commodities trader. That was the message from top sports executives who participated in a 2007 Wharton Economic Summit panel called ”Leadership Lessons Learned from Sports ” sponsored by the Wharton Sports Business Initiative.
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Globalization is pulling tens of millions of people out of poverty annually and creating worldwide wealth unimaginable a generation ago. But its benefits are being shared unequally resulting in widespread public dissatisfaction that business leaders ignore at their peril two top executives told participants at the 2007 Wharton Economic Summit. Stan O’Neal chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch and Rajat Gupta a senior worldwide partner with McKinsey both called on their colleagues to pay attention to their social responsibilities as assiduously as they watch their bottom lines.
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Martin Varsavsky’s fans see him as a rebel who has often disrupted the telecommunications industry. An Argentine/Spanish entrepreneur who has launched seven companies in the past 20 years Varsavsky’s current venture is FON which he describes as a ”community-empowered company dedicated to building the world’s largest global WiFi network.” He has a few partners helping him get there -- Skype eBay and Google. In a podcast interview with Kevin Werbach a professor of legal studies and ethics at Wharton Varsavsky discusses how he invented the ”call back” (a cheap way of making international phone calls) the differences between American and European technology companies and several other issues. Varsavsky will speak at the Supernova conference that will be held in San Francisco on June 20-22.
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