Knowledge at Wharton

When Rebecca Rimel president and CEO of the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts describes the challenges she faces running a $4.6 billion organization she uses the same words one hears from leaders in the for-profit world: ”highly strategic ” ”politically aware ” ”leveraged” and ”accountable.” But her bottom line is impact not profits. ”We are highly driven to make a difference in the key issues that matter to the health and happiness of our stakeholders -- the public ” she said during a recent leadership talk at Wharton. Running an effective organization Rimel told her audience requires hard-nosed decisions about which projects to fund which people to hire and what battles to walk away from. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For Oracle the past few months have been one big shopping spree. On January 31 the enterprise software giant purchased longtime rival Siebel Systems the leading provider of customer relationship management software. On February 14 it acquired Sleepycat an ”open source” database maker; two days later it bought HotSip AB a Swedish telecommunications software provider. For many companies Oracle’s month would have been a year’s worth of merger and acquisition activity but for the Redwood Shores Calif.-based firm it’s the norm. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison made a big splash in 2004 by announcing he would consolidate the software industry starting with archrival PeopleSoft and he has been true to his word. The real test however lies ahead: Can Oracle attract new customers? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During her first few months in office German Chancellor Angela Merkel has attained the kind of approval rating that politicians the world over dream about largely due to the way she has handled herself on international matters in visits to Washington Moscow and Brussels. But her main challenge is Germany’s economy Europe’s largest and the world’s third biggest. It is a challenge that has been staring German leaders in the face for a long time for a number of reasons: lackluster GDP growth over the last five years; a vast overburdened welfare state; an anemic service sector; stubborn protectionist sentiment and an aging population that will place greater strain on the nation’s budget in years to come. In whatever policies she proposes Merkel will have to tread softly to avoid alarming citizens and trade unions wary of change say scholars at Wharton and business schools in Europe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do images of a crew team geese flying in formation trees silly putty and a steering wheel have in common? They all are part of how undergraduate business students at Wharton depict and describe the essence of leadership. Since 2000 Wharton freshmen have been required to participate in Images of Leadership a project sponsored by Wharton’s undergraduate leadership program led by director Anne M. Greenhalgh and associate director Christopher I. Maxwell. In a recent report called Images of Leadership: The Story Emerging Leaders Tell Greenhalgh and Maxwell discuss the students’ responses -- and biases -- as expressed in both pictures and words. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When consumers have a bad shopping experience they are likely to spread the word not to the store manager or salesperson but to friends family and colleagues. Overall if 100 people have a bad experience a retailer stands to lose between 32 and 36 current or potential customers. These are some of the conclusions of The Retail Customer Dissatisfaction Study 2006 conducted by The Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative at Wharton and The Verde Group a Toronto consulting firm in the weeks before and after Christmas 2005. The biggest source of consumer dissatisfaction? Parking lots. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Professional athletes face unusual challenges related to financial management especially since their peak earning period lasts a relatively short time often just a few years. Knowledge at Wharton asked Ken Shropshire professor of legal studies and business ethics and director of the Wharton sports business initiative to discuss this topic with Kailee Wong linebacker for the Houston Texans. Wong attended an executive education program at Wharton co-sponsored by the NFL and NFLPA. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Business leaders from two hot investment sectors -- real estate and energy -- discussed possible consolidation in their industries and other trends during two panels at the February 1 Wharton Economic Summit in New York City. The first panel entitled ”Real Estate: Where It’s at and Where It’s Headed. A Discussion with Three Legends ” included William Mack Sam Zell and Mortimer Zuckerman. The second panel ”The State of Energy Investing: What’s Fueling Consolidation? ” included a range of experts who debated the role of private equity and hedge funds in consolidation the rise of both global demand and global players the role of renewable energy and the possibility of a windfall profits tax on energy producers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It took prosecutors just over four years to work their way up the Enron food chain but now the failed energy company’s top former executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling are facing a jury in a federal criminal fraud trial expected to last at least four months. How can each side best present a complex story that involves exotic derivatives products off-books accounting and strange subsidiaries with names like Raptor? Experts say they should apply lessons learned in the other high-profile corporate fraud cases of the Enron era: Keep it simple. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carl Icahn’s battle for Time Warner has just intensified. Icahn the corporate takeover specialist attempting to win control of the media giant held a press conference yesterday to announce a plan to break Time Warner into four separate companies and buy back $20 billion in stock -- all part of his crusade to oust management for the benefit of shareholders. His press conference followed a speech last week at the 2006 Wharton Economic Summit in which he denied that he is an ”imperial shareholder” out to rip companies apart for quick gains. Icahn was responding to remarks made earlier at the Summit by corporate lawyer Martin Lipton who argued that a new breed of aggressive shareholder is pressuring companies to produce short-term gains at the expense of long-term growth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since announcing on October 6 2004 that it had signed Howard Stern to a five-year deal Sirius Satellite Radio has added approximately 2.7 million subscribers and become a household name in the satellite radio world. The tab: Close to $700 million. Is Stern worth it? Can the popular and raunchy talk show host catapult Sirius ahead of rival XM Satellite Radio or are there other issues to consider such as the threat of new technologies the need to provide good content and the continuing popularity of conventional radio? Wharton faculty and others debate the different strategies of Sirius and XM and the challenges that both face. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.