Knowledge at Wharton

Raghda Shaheen who works for the Dubai International Finance Centre recently completed a four-week business and legal fellowship program at Wharton and the University of Pennsylvania law school. The program funded by the U.S. Department of State Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and supported by America-Mideast Educational and Training Services (AMIDEAST) teaches management business and legal skills to women from the Middle East and North Africa. This year 22 women from 11 countries attended the program. Shaheen will spend the next three months working at the Chicago Chamber of Commerce before returning to the UAE. She spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about her experiences in Gaza City Canada the U.S. and the Middle East Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Large financial institutions have failed with much higher frequency than is generally perceived says Andrew Kuritzkes a partner at Oliver Wyman and head of the management consulting firm’s public policy practice in North America. In this interview with Knowledge at Wharton Kuritzkes suggests some new guidelines that would greatly improve the financial system’s ability to absorb the inevitable if individually unpredictable shocks of big failures. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stocks have rebounded on Wall Street during the past two months. The pace of job losses seems to be slowing down. Even quarterly reports from banks suggest that the banking sector is slowly struggling back to its feet. Do these signs portend the first indicators of an economic recovery? Not yet according to experts at Wharton and elsewhere who insist that despite some of the hopeful data the recovery will be weaker and take longer to gain momentum than past slowdowns. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a world where jobs can be sent overseas tasks can be automated and the feverish pace of technology can render even last year’s innovation obsolete students will have to learn how to think differently than their parents in order to survive and prosper says Daniel H. Pink author of three bestselling books about the changing work environment. He spoke at the recent Wharton Evolution of Learning Symposium. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Venture capitalist consultant and former Apple software ”evangelist” Guy Kawasaki talked about ”the art of innovation” during a recent visit to the University of Pennsylvania. He offered 10 rules for entrepreneurs and innovators. Among them: Make meaning not money. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Superpreneur seems like a better label for Elon Musk. At 38 he has already been a co-founder of PayPal which sold for $1.5 billion and SpaceX which aims to commercialize the launching of payloads into orbit. He is also an initial investor in electric-car pioneer Tesla Motors and solar energy company SolarCity which sells and services solar energy equipment. In the second half of a two-part interview arranged by Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs he tells Knowledge at Wharton the story of his entrepreneurial beginnings and what he learned about the value of pinching pennies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New restrictions proposed for ratings agencies -- including Moody’s Fitch and Standard & Poor’s -- could have unintended consequences warn experts in the United States. Europe however has clamped down on the agencies whose stamps of approval on a broad spectrum of subprime mortgage securities helped pave the way to the credit crash of 2007 and the continuing global recession. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Executive compensation packages that provide huge payouts for short-term stock-market gains have been blamed for playing a role in the risky behavior that triggered the continuing financial crisis. In a new research paper a Wharton professor and several colleagues say they have come up with something better: A compensation structure based on long-term escrow accounts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just as computer operating systems vied for dominance back in the late 1970s and early 1980s smartphone makers these days are jostling for market share hoping that their mix of capabilities -- ranging from web surfing to email to calendar management -- will ensure them a critical mass of customers. What the makers of such mobile devices as the BlackBerry iPhone and Treo are trying to avoid is the outcome of that earlier race when one company -- Microsoft -- ended up the dominant player. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Entrepreneur Elon Musk has three passions: the Internet space exploration and clean energy. The first paid off handsomely for him in 2002 when he sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion in stock. The second is fueled by SpaceX a company that makes space launch vehicles. Musk’s third passion is Tesla Motors which makes the Tesla Roadster an electric sports car that claims to go 244 miles per charge and sells for $101 500 or more. In the first of a two-part interview with Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs and Knowledge at Wharton Musk speaks with management professor John Paul MacDuffie co-director of the International Motor Vehicle Program about electric cars hybrids the Tesla and the mysterious ways of Detroit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.