Knowledge at Wharton
The Wharton School
The Knowledge at Wharton Network Acast feed serves as a curated showcase highlighting the best content from our podcast collection. Each week, we feature one standout episode from each show in the Wharton Podcast Network, giving listeners a comprehensive sample of our diverse business and academic content. This rotating selection allows audiences to discover new shows within our network while experiencing the depth and variety of Wharton's thought leadership across different topics and formats. It's your monthly gateway to explore the full spectrum of insights available through the Wharton Podcast Network. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Oct 18, 2006 • 13min
How Can Employers Improve Defined Contribution Plans?
If 401(k)s and similar plans are the main way Americans invest for retirement how can employers improve them? By making enrollment automatic minimizing the use of the employer’s stock expanding the role of annuities and improving employees’ financial knowledge according to a set of recommendations issued by the Financial Economists Roundtable a group of about 50 prominent economists including several Wharton faculty members. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 16, 2006 • 21min
’A Crucible of Competition’: The Emerging Chinese Company
Despite the hurdles they face in entering the global market companies emerging from the highly fragmented and competitive domestic market in China will have distinct advantages that many Western competitors are unprepared to deal with according to experts from Wharton and Boston Consulting Group. Among them: steep cost savings in wages and safety requirements and a widespread lack of concern or clear regulation regarding intellectual property protection. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 16, 2006 • 14min
Navigating the Labyrinth: Sales and Distribution in Today’s China
Experts from Wharton and Boston Consulting Group say that firms should not underestimate the skills they will need to navigate the labyrinthine networks of state-owned distribution companies and small private wholesalers in China -- particularly as they try to expand outside the country’s largest 30 or 40 cities into its 500-plus other large markets. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 16, 2006 • 20min
One Billion Three Hundred Million: The New Chinese Consumer
Despite rapid urbanization and the emergence of a strong status-conscious middle class experts from Boston Consulting Group and Wharton point out that China is still ”a country of extremes ” where it pays to understand the differing habits and mindsets of the rich and poor as well as the subtleties of consumer rationales for trading up and down when making purchases. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 16, 2006 • 16min
Selling to the Local Chinese Market: An Interview with Lenovo’s Deepak Advani and BCG’s Hal Sirkin
Because it is so difficult to generalize about Chinese consumers multinational companies using global ”one-size-fits-all” marketing strategies seem destined to fail in China. Knowledge at Wharton spoke with Deepak Advani senior vice president and chief marketing officer of computer manufacturer Lenovo and Hal Sirkin senior vice president of BCG and leader of the firm’s Global Operations Practice about strategies for selling to Chinese consumers. The key they point out is to tailor products and messages to local markets. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 4, 2006 • 11min
Dot-Com Bubble Part II? Why It’s So Hard to Value Social Networking Sites
Less than three years after emerging from nowhere the hot social networking website MySpace is on pace to be worth a whopping $15 billion in just three more years. Or is it? And is the much smaller Facebook really worth the $900 million or more Yahoo is reported to have offered for it? The problem say Wharton experts is a dearth of information -- including data on expected revenue generation and cost structure -- to plug into the standard valuation models. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 4, 2006 • 32min
Michael Useem’s ’The Go Point’: Knowing When It’s Time to Decide
In writing his latest book The Go Point: When It’s Time to Decide -- Knowing What to Do and When to Do It Michael Useem asked more than 100 leading decision-makers to analyze decisions they had made to name their best and worst decisions to describe how they reached them and to comment on what if anything they would change about how the decisions were arrived at. Useem director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at Wharton talks with Knowledge at Wharton about The Go Point. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 4, 2006 • 14min
Connecting the Dots between Innovation and Leadership
At a recent Wharton roundtable discussion on leadership and innovation panelists were asked how the two are linked and what single factor they think is most critical to innovation in their industry. The answers (in a word): culture passion marketing among others. The event during which panelists also reflected on their career choices was part of Wharton’s 125th anniversary celebration. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 4, 2006 • 37min
Henning Kagermann: Balancing Change and Stability in the Evolution of SAP’s Enterprise Software Platform
When Henning Kagermann became the sole CEO of SAP in 2003 a position he had formerly shared with company co-founder Hasso Plattner he faced a number of challenges including an economic slowdown that hurt SAP’s growth. Kagermann quickly reshaped the company’s product offerings and adjusted its market focus to position SAP for the next generation of software. But because SAP’s software is critical for many businesses change requires a delicate balance between progress and stability. Knowledge at Wharton recently sat down with Kagermann in New York City to discuss his vision of SAP’s future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 4, 2006 • 22min
Plateauing: Redefining Success at Work
It’s not work/life balance and it’s not career burnout. Instead some employees are starting to set career paths based on their own needs values and definitions of success. They are otherwise talented and energetic workers who are ”plateauing” -- setting boundaries around their ambitions rather than striving to climb the next step up the corporate ladder. Some companies are beginning to take notice providing new options and opportunities in the ongoing war for talent. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
