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Copyright: © 2013 The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie has a long and storied history of technological innovation with accomplishments that include creating Lotus Notes and founding Groove Networks. But Ozzie may now be facing the most daunting challenge of his career: coordinating the work of Microsoft’s various product groups to keep the world’s largest software company agile enough to address the challenge of the next generation of Internet-enabled software. Knowledge at Wharton recently met with Ozzie to talk about his vision for the future of networked computing.
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The newsroom at washingtonpost.com the website of The Washington Post is not so different from that of a print newspaper with one notable exception: At a time when newsrooms across the country have empty desks from recent buyouts and layoffs staff numbers here are expanding to fill every available nook and cranny. Washingtonpost.com is a success story in an industry where the divide between vibrant online ventures and shrinking print products is increasingly sharp. But even the Post has no idea how long that success will last how much money it can make from the venture or who exactly its competition is.
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At American Airlines’ AAdvantge e-shopping site more than 200 vendors -- including Bergdorf Goodman Home Depot and Petco -- offer bonus miles to shoppers. At the Apple Store a dollar spent earns one mile while Hallmark pays 10 miles for each $1 in sales. Continental’s OnePass program allows members to earn two miles for every $1 paid for electricity from Gexa Energy of Houston. The list goes on. But while the number of programs is increasing they don’t always provide a big payout for all their participants according to Wharton marketing faculty.
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A system to gauge whether loan recipients are escaping poverty an overhaul of the loan making system and a bold plan to use the infrastructure of microfinance to tackle other social woes are some of the ways that microfinance is evolving despite continuing criticism from those who doubt its effectiveness in the struggle against poverty. Alex Counts CEO of the Grameen Foundation and keynote speaker at the recent Wharton Social Impact Conference 2007 explained the progress that both the Grameen Bank and the Grameen Foundation are making in promoting entrepreneurship around the world.
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For the last couple of years auto analysts and others have focused most of their attention on the troubles in Detroit home of General Motors and Ford two American car companies that have been struggling to regain their footing in the auto industry. But what has been going on in Wolfsburg the headquarters of Volkswagen a quintessential German automaker and in Stuttgart headquarters of DaimlerChrysler a German-American hybrid? Quite a bit actually. Knowledge at Wharton looks at the situation at VW now that Porsche has upped its ownership stake in the company and also at Chrysler acquired by DaimlerBenz nine years ago in a partnership deal that may finally be coming to an end.
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Bill George probably best known in the business community for his former position as chairman and CEO of Medtronic is also an author. In 2003 he published a book called Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value. This month he published his second book titled True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership described by George and his co-author Peter Sims as a way to ”locate the internal compass that guides you successfully through life.” George is also a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. He and Michael Useem director of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management recently talked with Knowledge at Wharton about authentic leadership both the book and the concept.
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Although the German government provides its citizens with a generous family-leave policy being a working mother in Germany is harder than in many other industrialized countries according to faculty members at Wharton and German business schools as well as German corporate officials. This is partly because the culture still to some degree frowns upon the idea of mothers not taking care of their small children at home. But changes are on the way led by corporations German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the women themselves.
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German corporations have long prided themselves on being above-board but scandals at some of the country’s multinational icons have seriously tarnished that reputation. The scandals allegedly involve hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes the procurement of prostitutes and misbehavior by some of the country’s most senior executives including officials at Siemens Volkswagen Deutsche Bank and other firms. The situation is so grave that it may prompt German executives to adopt Anglo-American style corporate-governance principles according to governance and business ethics experts at Wharton and in Germany.
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Talk about good timing. With Germany assuming the rotating presidencies of the European Union and the Group of Eight (G8) developed nations the country is enjoying an economic resurgence. It remains a formidable exporter of goods worldwide its unemployment rate has eased and a recent major tax increase has not dampened economic activity as much as many had feared. Still there is some question whether the recovery is sustainable and whether Germany is up to meeting such long-term challenges as an aging population and a declining birth rate according to faculty members at Wharton and German business schools as well as other experts.
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All eyes and ears were on the two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) that ended on March 21. While most observers did not expect interest rates to change the markets were keen to know what language the Fed would use about inflation in its statement on economic and monetary policy. The U.S. economy has seen mixed signals lately and concerns about recession have been replaced by worries about ”stagflation” -- or stagnation combined with inflation. Is stagflation really looming and if so what will it mean for investors? To answer these questions Knowledge at Wharton spoke with Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel.
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