Knowledge at Wharton

After a year of financial shock and sharp economic loss 2009 is likely to be extremely difficult for the global economy with investors business leaders and policymakers struggling to find signs of recovery. Wharton faculty and other experts interviewed by the Knowledge at Wharton Network discuss the outlook for the U.S. Europe Latin America India China and Japan.

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President-elect Barack Obama’s infrastructure plan has drawn considerable debate but mostly over the details -- the size of the stimulus program how to structure the plan to create the most jobs in the shortest time and how to administer such a large program to limit corruption and pork-barrel projects. The bigger questions remain unanswered including to what extent new jobs will actually be created and how all this spending will affect the government’s long-term debt.

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It was a tough year for newspapers. The owner of The Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune declared bankruptcy; The New York Times borrowed against its headquarters and even accepted ads on its front page. Detroit’s two dailies announced the end of home delivery on all but three days of the week. According to Wharton faculty if newspapers can’t find a new business model quickly they may soon be printing final editions.

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Successful marketplaces -- indeed all social systems -- require a level of ethical behavior among their participants. In an interview with Knowledge at Wharton professors Maurice E. Schweitzer and G. Richard Shell who have conducted extensive research on the role of trust in markets explain why even the most sophisticated investors put their faith in Bernard Madoff the New York City financier recently accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. That breach of trust has damaged the broader markets Schweitzer and Shell say.

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After a trek in the Himalayas brought him face-to-face with extreme poverty and illiteracy John Wood left his position as a director of business development at Microsoft to found Room to Read an award-winning international education organization. Under his leadership more than 1.7 million children in the developing world now have access to enhanced educational opportunities. Room to Read to date has opened 725 schools and 7 000 bilingual libraries and funded more than 7 000 scholarships for girls. Wood talked with Knowledge at Wharton about the launch of Room to Read the book he wrote called Leaving Microsoft to Change the World and his personal definition of success.

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John Brock has come a long way since his first jobs working in his uncle’s dime store and later at a paper mill in Moss Point Miss. Today he is chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises the world’s largest marketer producer and distributor of Coca-Cola products. Brock has more than 25 years of experience in the beverage sales industry. In 2003 he was named CEO of Interbrew headquartered in Brussels Belgium. In 2006 he joined Coca-Cola Enterprises where he was appointed chairman in April 2008. Brock talked with Knowledge at Wharton about Coke’s philosophy on selling soda in schools helping the environment and recruiting teens to become devoted customers.

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Kate Roberts is the founder and director of YouthAIDS and Five & Alive two marketing programs implemented by Population Services International (PSI) where she is a vice president. Founded in 2001 YouthAIDS is a global education and prevention initiative that uses pop culture music theater movies and sports to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. The program reaches 600 million young people in more than 60 countries with life-saving products and services. In 2002 YouthAIDS partnered with MTV to produce the ”Staying Alive” concert a $3 million event broadcast worldwide and featured on all major news channels. Roberts spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about cause-related marketing the Indian film industry and an event in Africa that changed her life among other topics.

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In 1998 social entrepreneur Seth Goldman founded Honest Tea the nation’s best-selling and fastest-growing organic bottled tea company with a business professor from the Yale School of Management. Honest Tea sources from organic and fair trade tea estates and has partnered with community development groups ranging from the Crow Reservation in Montana to organizations in South Africa and Guatemala. Goldman talked with Knowlege@Wharton about carving out space in the competitive beverage market helping consumers embrace organics and how tea became the catalyst for following his life’s passion.

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From a childhood spent exploring the woods near his home to a career spent protecting habitats in the far corners of the earth Carter Roberts -- president and CEO of the non-profit World Wildlife Fund -- has fostered a connection to the natural world. His job is as diverse as the ecosystems he visits. One day he may be negotiating with the president of a corporation and the next he is sitting on a dirt floor talking with villagers about the importance of saving tigers.He spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about his passion for nature why companies should care about preserving natural resources and the value of story-telling.

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Octavio Lopes senior partner of private equity firm GP Investments is in the middle of raising what might be the largest private equity fund ever for Latin America. In a podcast recorded in Sao Paulo Lopes discusses the prospects for investing in Brazil and Latin America where he thinks commodity prices are headed and how the discovery of oil in places like Brazil Colombia and Mexico will affect the local and regional economy.

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