Knowledge at Wharton

Companies like Hewlett-Packard Ernst & Young and Del Monte Pet Foods have more in common than one may think: They are all savvy participants in the growing trend of consumers’ use of social networking technologies to access information and get what they need. According to speakers at the recent Supernova conference in San Francisco too few companies study how people actually interact with the Internet and utilize online collaborative tools and are therefore not using the social networking phenomenon to their advantage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new global middle is rising up in emerging economies around the world providing competition for labor and resources along with enormous promise for multinationals eager to sell to the burgeoning ranks of first-time consumers. But don’t expect this new group to act in the same way -- and have the same preferences -- as prior generations of middle-class consumers suggest Wharton faculty and analysts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Companies spend too much time worrying about the burdens brought by global warming -- the possibility of carbon taxes and greater regulation of emissions -- and ignoring the potential commercial upside according to participants in a recent Wharton conference titled ”Winners and Losers in Green Technologies ” sponsored by the William and Phyllis Mack Center for Technological Innovation. To showcase a proactive approach to the issue two companies -- DuPont and NetJets -- shared their tales of ”going green.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since 2004 Steven R. Loranger has been chairman president and CEO of ITT a diversified high-technology engineering and manufacturing company that plays a key role in global defense and security. The company had $9 billion in 2007 sales $4.2 billion of which were generated by its defense electronics and services business and it ranks among the top 10 U.S. defense contractors. Loranger recently spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about how ITT has positioned itself for growth despite the economic slowdown the company’s response to environmental concerns and long-term trends for the defense industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Managing commodity risk has emerged as a key issue in today’s economy. Consider airlines which have seen fuel costs rise seven-fold over the last few years says Bob Tevelson a partner and managing director at BCG. In this interview Tevelson says commodity risks are associated with both price volatility and supply availability. More and more companies may wish to turn to hedging strategies to manage commodity risk he notes but such strategies can pose risks themselves unless they are properly implemented. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marshall W. Meyer professor of management at Wharton has made many trips to China to research the rapid growth of its economy and the successes and difficulties it has had in growing so quickly. In this interview Meyer discusses the recent controversy surrounding China’s exports of substandard toys and pharmaceuticals to the United States and the implications for supply-chain management. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Presidential candidates John McCain Republican senator from Arizona and Barack Obama Democratic senator from Illinois are staking out contrasting positions mostly along traditional party lines in their campaign to win election in November as the 44th president of the United States. One thing they have in common: Both offer tax and spending plans that would deepen the deficit. Wharton professors as well as commentators from around the globe weigh in on the economic views of each candidate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

According to David Gergen the man elected president of the United States in November will face the most daunting foreign and domestic challenges since Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s. Gergen who has been an advisor to four U.S. presidents and who currently directs the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government equated the presidency to ”feeling a little like Gulliver in Lilliput.... Giant accomplishments are expected” even as presidential powers are not always what they seem. Gergen discussed today’s presidential candidates as well as former presidents at the recent Wharton Leadership Conference. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Money to paraphrase the Beatles can’t buy you love. But it can certainly buy a lavish wedding as noted in Rebecca Mead’s new book One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding. Indeed according to Mead America’s wedding industry exceeds $161 billion annually -- an enormous sum that suggests how much weddings have become not only big business but big fantasy. Yet as our reviewer notes the wedding boom is not just confined to wealthy Western nations but has become a global phenomenon concerned with ”displaying and solidifying social position in a world where such things are fluid and changeable.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When you sit down you probably don’t check under your seat for a bomb. Even though it could kill you chances are slim that it’s there. A similar view of risk led bankers their regulators and other government officials to overlook dangerous investments and business models that contributed to the global credit crisis according to speakers at the financial risk roundtable held by the Wharton Financial Institutions Center and the Oliver Wyman Institute. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.