Knowledge at Wharton

K. V. Kamath CEO of India’s second largest banking and financial services conglomerate ICICI is a man in a hurry. When he occupied the driver’s seat at ICICI more than a decade ago it was a financial institution hamstrung by political constraints. As a key member of the top team at ICICI that led the organization into new businesses such as insurance and banking Kamath used technology effectively to pry open market expansion. Today his top challenge is to retain the talent ICICI trains which is keenly sought by other financial services players. In an interview with Michael Useem Wharton professor of management and director of the school’s Center for Leadership & Change Management Kamath discusses ICICI’s foray into rural banking and other challenges. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As most travelers to Europe know French workers tend to take the month of August off shutting down many of their shops and cutting back the hours of some museums. But the French aren’t alone. People in much of Western Europe can afford to check out for a month because they receive an average of nearly two months a year in paid leave a combination of vacation and government holidays. That distinguishes them from citizens of the United States who despite a similarly productive economy and a comparable standard of living enjoy about half as much paid time off. What gives? Why are Americans reluctant or unable to extricate themselves from their jobs and sign up for some serious vacation time? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While a lot of research has been done in the past two decades on work-family conflicts few studies have looked closely at how mood affects workers’ performance. Wharton management professor Nancy Rothbard and co-author Steffanie Wilk wanted to find out which mood-altering events have the biggest effect if any -- those that influence one’s outlook at the start of the day or those that nudge one’s mood up or down as the workday advances. The results of Rothbard and Wilk’s study are reported in their paper ”Walking in the Door: Sources and Consequences of Employee Mood on Work Performance.” Among their key findings: The mood you bring with you to work has a stronger effect on the day’s mood -- and on work performance -- than mood changes caused by events in the workplace. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Music physical movement technology and being cool have long gone hand in hand. Now two iconic brands Apple Computer and Nike are collaborating on a new system of gizmos that take exercising and digital-music players to a new level. The Nike+iPod Sport Kit allows runners and walkers to listen to songs and to record store and share information (such as speed distance covered and calories burned) with others about their exercise sessions. The system also ”talks” to runners in real time providing information as they jog along. Members of Wharton’s marketing department say it’s a winning combination that will bolster each company’s image and open the door to other co-branding opportunities. But they disagree as to whether the joint effort will actually sell more iPods and Nike shoes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On July 7 General Motors’ board of directors voted to study the pros and cons of entering into a three-way alliance with automakers Nissan and Renault. The alliance was proposed by GM shareholder Kirk Kerkorian who sees it as a way to revive the struggling company and expedite the restructuring taking place under GM’s current chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner. Another central figure in this drama is Carlos Ghosn CEO of Nissan and Renault who is credited with turning around Nissan and who is seen by Kerkorian and others as holding the keys to GM’s future. What would a three-way alliance mean for GM and for the auto industry in general? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a recent newsletter Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel noted that ”everything is coming up roses for the equity markets -- except for the latest developments in the commodities markets.” What does that imply for the economy and stock markets? Siegel who is also the author of the book The Future for Investors notes that the economy is heading for a soft landing which means it is slowing down. ”But we’re not going to a recession by any means ” he told Knowledge at Wharton in a recent discussion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The commercial real estate market has been on a tear in the last few years. Banks insurance companies and institutional investors have funneled money into the market because its returns in an environment of low interest rates exceeded those of other asset classes. As interest rates begin to climb how will that situation change? Experts discussed those issues at a recent conference on Innovation and Risk Management in Real Estate Markets organized by the Wharton Financial Institutions Center and Mercer Oliver Wyman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The biggest takeover battle in the global steel industry came to an end in late June when Mittal Steel the world’s biggest steelmaker acquired Arcelor the industry’s second-largest company. For five months before shareholders signed off on the $32.2 billion transaction both sides were engaged in an acrimonious fight. At times it seemed as though the deal would collapse but finally after Mittal Steel significantly increased its offer it went through. What was Mittal Steel’s strategy in pursuing this acquisition? When the company encountered resistance how did it frame its negotiation strategy? What will the deal mean for the world steel industry? Aditya Mittal president and chief financial officer of Mittal Steel -- and son of founder Lakshmi Mittal -- spoke recently with Knowledge at Wharton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the 41 million Mexican voters who went to the polls on July 2 the major decision was whether they were going to continue to follow the same free-market model with limited spending and greater foreign investment that the country has had for the past six years or opt for change. Ultimately in one of the most expensive and contentious elections in the history of the country Mexicans chose the continuity represented by Felipe Calderón -- by a mere margin of 236 000 votes. Now that the election is over tensions are running high and the defeated candidate leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador has rejected the results announcing that he will appeal the election in the courts. Scholars and other analysts believe that Calderón has no other course but to sit down and negotiate with the opposition so that the country can move forward on the most urgent reforms that it needs. In the process Calderón also has to try to convince the half of the population that did not vote for him that he can redistribute wealth more effectively create jobs and foster stable economic development. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2004 engineers at Massachusetts-based Bose Corp. a maker of stereo speakers and other audio equipment introduced a startling new product that had nothing to do with sound: an automobile suspension. Bose’s founder Amar Bose had suspected that his company’s knowledge of the physics of acoustics could also help drivers defeat bumps and potholes. The suspension now ready for the mass market exemplifies a technique known as knowledge bridging -- taking expertise from one field applying it to a completely different one and thus creating an unprecedented product or service. A recent study co-authored by Wharton management professor David Hsu ”Knowledge Bridging by Biotechnology Startups ” suggests that knowledge bridging can help companies bring products to market faster and raise money more quickly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.