Knowledge at Wharton

When Google bought YouTube recently for $1.65 billion the world of business sat up to take serious notice of social networks. Today many companies are looking into how they can tap into -- or develop -- communities as a way to make better decisions and increase profits. Jon Spector a former Wharton vice dean and now CEO of the Conference Board spoke with participants at the Community 2.0 conference in Las Vegas earlier this year to explore how companies are trying to harness communities to reshape their businesses. In this podcast Spector speaks with Diane Davidson director of customer marketing at WebEx. Spector is a co-author with Barry Libert of the forthcoming Wharton School Publishing book We Are Smarter Than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business.

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Larry Huston was vice president of knowledge and innovation for many years at Procter & Gamble. During that time he was the architect of its Connect + Develop program the creator of P&G’s Brand Bootcamp operation and innovation leader for the company’s global fabric and homecare business among other initiatives. He is now managing partner of 4INNO and recently joined Wharton’s Mack Center for Technological Innovation as a senior fellow. Knowledge at Wharton asked Huston to talk about innovation and its role in the global economy.

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David G. Marshall CEO of Amerimar Realty in Philadelphia has made a career of seeking out bitter lemons and turning them into sweet -- and profitable -- lemonade. Through the years he has taken over distressed properties -- such as The Rittenhouse in Philadelphia Pier 39 in San Francisco and Denver Place in Colorado -- and made them into successful enterprises. Marshall recently went to Shanghai as part of the Wharton Fellows program and came to the conclusion that what is happening in Chinese real estate ought to be a wake-up call for the U.S. market. Knowledge at Wharton spoke to Marshall about his visit to China and other issues.

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When your family business involves an extended network of 52 family shareholders as it does for Bukit Kiara Properties a Malaysian real estate development firm simply pulling everyone together for family dinner can be hard work. But N.K. Tong who co-founded Bukit Kiara with his father says there’s just one person to call: ”My auntie.” Tong’s aunt plays a role some scholars describe as ”chief emotional officer ” an informal position usually filled by a family member or close advisor. But the topic is not as warm and fuzzy as it sounds: Not only can the job be stressful it can fall by the wayside as businesses are passed on to succeeding generations.

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In 1993 a television ad featuring ”Harry and Louise” -- a ”typical” American couple dismayed by the Clinton administration’s universal health care proposal -- helped to kill health care reform in the U.S. for the next decade. With the 2008 presidential election in sight the debate has resurfaced but are the prospects for universal health care any better today? In an ongoing study of health care systems spanning five countries Arnold J. Rosoff Wharton professor of legal studies and business ethics has identified a set of factors that in one combination or another come into play when a country commits to adopting universal health care. This time he says one thing seems likely: Instead of a health care ”revolution” in the U.S. change will come in increments.

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In 2000 Bill Browder manager of The Hermitage Fund sifted through reams of obscure Russian securities registration data to piece together a presentation outlining how managers of the Russian oil company Gazprom were shifting corporate assets to entities controlled by friends and relatives. Browder shared his findings with journalists who then wrote about the case leading to the firing of the firm’s CEO and subsequent reform. Hermitage’s role in the Gazprom shake-up is the basis of new research exploring the role of public shame in corporate governance. The research was presented at a recent Wharton Impact Conference sponsored by the Weiss Center for International Financial Research.

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Trying to determine what things are worth is a huge challenge in today’s business world where companies are increasingly being pressed to account for the changing values of complex financial instruments -- from insurance policies to employee stock options to exotic derivatives. Consequently firms are turning to ever more intricate financial models that attempt to deduce values using an array of indicators even though such models are complicated and can be easily manipulated. This dilemma was the topic of the Tenth Annual Wharton/Oliver Wyman Institute Risk Roundtable held on May 31-June 1.

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The bombs rocked the London Underground within 50 seconds of each other near the end of rush hour on July 7 2005 killing dozens of passengers and injuring hundreds more. It was the worst attack on London since World War II. But the majority of the Underground or the Tube as it’s known locally was operating again by the next morning according to Tim O’Toole the Underground’s managing director and chief executive who spoke at the recent 11th annual Wharton Leadership Conference. What made that possible O’Toole said was the response from the Underground’s frontline employees not just at the bomb sites ”but across the entire network.”

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One pitch for charity described the needs of Rokia a young girl in Africa who is desperately poor and faces starvation. Another pitch talks about food shortages affecting more than three million children many of whom are homeless. Which pitch is more effective? Not surprisingly it’s the first but Wharton marketing professor Deborah Small and two co-authors delve deeper into the issue of sympathy and how it relates to charitable giving. Their paper is titled ”Sympathy and Callousness: The Impact of Deliberative Thought on Donations to Identifiable and Statistical Victims.”

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U.S. financial markets were battered at the end of last week because of a dramatic sell-off of Treasury bonds. The yield on 10-year bonds which has been rising since May neared the critical barrier of 5.25% on June 8 -- the highest level in five years. Media reports suggest that turmoil in the bond market could continue this week making investors anxious about whether interest rates might go up and bring to an end the period of cheap money that has buoyed up asset markets and also funded a world-wide boom in mergers. Why are bond yields so high? What do these developments mean for stocks and other asset classes? Knowledge at Wharton discussed these questions with Jeremy Siegel a professor of finance at Wharton and author of The Future for Investors.

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