Drinking and driving don’t mix but Absolut vodka and NASCAR now have something in common. The two companies were honored along with Nike as winners of the Excellence in Marketing awards at last week’s CMO Summit held at Wharton on Sept. 19-20. Knowledge at Wharton covered presentations describing the award-winning ad campaigns that have earned these brands global recognition. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 25, 2002•14 min
Linux is unlikely to dethrone Microsoft’s Windows as the ubiquitous operating system on desktop PCs anytime soon. But the open-source system will gradually become more attractive to consumers as more applications are written for it. The real growth of Linux will be in its chief market as an operating system for servers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 25, 2002•9 min
Peter Cappelli director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources began his research into employer-paid tuition programs with some skepticism. Why he wondered would employers pay for workers to develop a credential (education degree) that is useful to other employers and will raise the workers’ marketability? Furthermore if the employer’s goal is to give workers skills for their current job why not just offer training in-house? After several months of research Cappelli has found some surprising an...
Sep 11, 2002•9 min
Dell Computer the no-fuss PC sales machine has set the standard for a successful direct-distribution company. But Dell is now reworking its bare-bones formula in an attempt to branch out from the PC market into more sophisticated and profitable computer systems. It’s a risky strategy in a tough economic climate but experts suggest it’s Dell’s only option if it wants to keep growing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 28, 2002•8 min
Until recent times marketing was perhaps the only corporate department that did not use metrics that were meaningful to bottom-line-oriented CEOs and CFOs. But that indifference to metrics is becoming a thing of the past. Marketing executives are paying more attention than ever to ways in which they can measure the impact of marketing initiatives on their companies’ financial performance. Developing appropriate metrics to capture the financial impact of marketing will be a key topic for discussi...
Aug 14, 2002•10 min
As businesses struggle to differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded marketplace the challenge of choosing a company name looms large. How creative should a name be and what kind of image should it project? Knowledge at Wharton looked at some existing corporate names – old and new effective and not so effective – and asked marketing professors for their views of the corporate name game. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jul 17, 2002•9 min
The residential real estate market in many U.S. cities shows no signs of slowing down as eager home buyers continue to drive prices ever higher. Is this too good to be true? Are home prices a bubble that is soon to burst? Real estate experts at Wharton and in the private sector offer their predictions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 03, 2002•11 min
According to a recent study from the Information Technology Association of America U.S. companies will be short nearly 600 000 qualified IT professionals over the next 12 months. Unemployed IT workers find that hard to believe. Indeed the report has rekindled the debate over whether there are too few or too many skilled technology workers in this country and what role if any immigrant workers should play in filling tech jobs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jul 03, 2002•14 min
Yes but which one was it? On April 22 2002 eight finalist teams in the Wharton Business Plan Competition presented their business plans to a panel of six judges hoping their venture would win the $25 000 Grand Prize ($15 000 for second place $10 000 for third place). Read the summaries pick your winners and see if the judges agree. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 24, 2002•17 min
Ever since the Internet emerged as a sales channel in the 1990s it has been thought that one of the chief advantages of e-commerce would be its ability to facilitate the customization of goods and services for consumers. That promise however is not yet close to being realized according to experts at Wharton and an e-commerce research firm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 27, 2002•9 min
Now that an underperforming stock market and the excesses of Enron have focused new attention on the use and abuse of stock options as a way to incentivize senior managers what changes if any should companies make in their design of compensation packages? The answer depends on each company’s philosophy and goals but Wharton faculty and others suggest guidelines to help define the appropriate combination of executive incentives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 13, 2002•17 min
J. Scott Armstrong is a marketing professor at Wharton and author of the recent book Principles of Forecasting. In the article that follows he talks about role-playing as a tool for business and government leaders who face crucial decisions in situations ranging from military clashes to marketing challenges. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 13, 2002•5 min
When management professor Peter Cappelli and the executive search firm Spencer Stuart asked a group of investment bankers to name their top career objective the answer was hardly earth-shattering. The survey however also went on to look at the expectations and concerns of investment bankers at a time when their business has been rocked by recession and a terrorist attack. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 13, 2002•8 min
During the economic downturn that most of corporate America experienced in 2001 the following companies had something in common: Intel Texas Instruments Cirrus Logic and Hunt Wesson. What tied them together was their decision last year to go from a direct (in-house) sales force to a contract or outside sales agency for some or all of their major product lines. Marketing professors Erin Anderson at INSEAD and Len Lodish at Wharton say that outside sales agencies if properly managed can benefit co...
Jan 30, 2002•11 min
With more than 20 million people registered on the monster.com job search site it’s clear that we are a workforce on the move. In a recent executive education session Peter Cappelli director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources explained how a dramatically different labor market is changing not just the way people are hired and fired but how they view their jobs their employers and their careers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Dec 05, 2001•16 min
The dramatic disintegration of Enron has left a lot of people wondering how this huge publicly-traded company could have fallen so far so fast. Wharton faculty and others help explain what went on behind the scenes at Enron where it is now clear that management exploited loopholes in accounting procedures and created questionable partnerships involving top company officials among other tactics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 21, 2001•17 min
Only a few years ago B2B exchanges were expected to completely alter conventional buyer-supplier relationships. The reality has been otherwise. Only 10% of the 1 000 B2B exchanges launched in the past 18 months are reportedly still in operation. Meanwhile the important B2B action seems to have shifted to industry-wide exchanges run by incumbent firms such as Covisint in the auto industry and Transora in the consumer products sector. In a new research study Wharton management professor John Paul ...
Nov 21, 2001•12 min
Webvan the ambitious online grocer once bragged that it would set a new standard for Internet retailing. As most people now know for all its hubris the company has turned out to be one of the dot-com economy’s most spectacular failures. After burning its way through $1.2 billion in capital it declared bankruptcy in July. Does Webvan’s collapse mean that shoppers dislike buying groceries online? For a part of the answer look across the Atlantic to a Britain-based supermarket chain called Tesco. I...
Oct 10, 2001•22 min
Even as so many well-known search engines are struggling for survival Google.com continues to thrive actually turning a profit this year according to the privately-held company. What explains Google’s success and the loyalty of its users? “Performance not glitter ” sums up one Wharton professor. Plus a purist approach to advertising. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 26, 2001•9 min
Choose one: a slight pay raise or a shorter work week. If you chose the former you may be suffering from what authors John de Graaf David Wann and Thomas Naylor call “affluenza ” which is both the name of their new book and a reference to America’s worship of economic expansion. Think more shopping malls bigger homes more bankruptcies both monetary and spiritual. Affluenza our reviewer says is a riveting terrifying and inspiring analysis of what ails contemporary America. Hosted on Acast. See ac...
Aug 29, 2001•7 min
How can executives measure returns on investments they make in information technology? This complex issue touches everything from decisions about replacing desktop computers with laptop models to investments in complex software systems. Experts from Wharton and Intel the giant chip maker suggest some methods that may help executives approach these questions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 18, 2001•7 min
Customer relationship management or CRM is the buzzword du jour in business circles. To hear some proponents talk about it all a company needs to do is buy and install a sophisticated CRM software package to maximize its returns from customers. Wharton faculty members point out however that making CRM work involves doing a lot more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 04, 2001•9 min
Lee Iacocca was a level 4 leader: effective in running the company but often more committed to self-aggrandizement than the sustained future of the institution. Darwin Smith the little-known former head of Kimberly-Clark was a level 5 leader. James Collins author of Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies and the forthcoming book Good to Great explained the difference at a Wharton Leadership Conference earlier this month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informatio...
Jun 20, 2001•7 min
Given recent increases in the use of stock options by both “new economy” and “old economy” companies one might reasonably expect that employees – the beneficiaries of this perk - understand how options work. But according to recent research by Wharton professors David Larcker and Richard Lambert employees tend to be relatively uninformed as to the basic economics of stock options a finding that has important implications for employers boards of directors and management consultants. Hosted on Aca...
May 23, 2001•10 min
Approximately 60% of new ventures fail because of bad marketing decisions according to Wharton professor Leonard Lodish author of a new book entitled Entrepreneurial Marketing. The book explores the critical role marketing decisions – on everything from brand building and positioning to advertising and pricing - play in a company’s success. As Lodish says: “There are some business people who intuitively understanding marketing but there are a lot who do not.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva...
May 09, 2001•6 min
True or false: Leaders have followers but not all followers are subordinates. Quite true says Michael Useem director of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management. Indeed if managers wish to be effective they must learn how to lead the people they report to as well as the employees they oversee. Useem calls this process “leading up” and it is the subject of his upcoming book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 25, 2001•6 min
Entrepreneurs as most people know are risk-takers who thrive on uncertainty and change always on the lookout for their next startup. But according to new research from Wharton management professor Ian C. MacMillan and co-author Vipin Gupta entrepreneurs aren’t the only ones who should be able to operate in unpredictable high-risk environments. Drawing on an extensive worldwide survey of middle managers the two authors outline the qualities that define “entrepreneurial leaders.” Hosted on Acast. ...
Apr 25, 2001•8 min
Now that employees in many dot-com companies have suddenly found their stock options to be substantially “out of the money ” is it time to announce the death of stock options as an integral component of compensation packages? Not so fast argue Wharton accounting professors Christopher Ittner Richard Lambert and David Larcker in a new paper that studies whether the performance of new economy firms is related to the level of equity grants to employees. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mo...
Mar 19, 2001•8 min
“When people have a choice they choose service over anything else including price and product attributes ” says Pat House co-founder and executive vice president of Siebel Systems the world’s leading supplier of eBusiness application software. During a visit to Wharton earlier this month House explained the strategy that has allowed Siebel to thrive in a notoriously turbulent industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 17, 2001•8 min
Choosing performance measures is a challenge. Performance measurement systems play a key role in developing strategy evaluating the achievement of organizational objectives and compensating managers. Yet many managers feel traditional financially oriented systems no longer work adequately. A recent survey of U.S. financial services companies found most were not satisfied with their measurement systems. In an article on Oct. 16 2000 in the Financial Times’ Mastering Management series Wharton acco...
Dec 06, 2000•14 min
