Knowledge at Wharton

As the polls had widely anticipated Democrats defeated the Republicans in Congress and also gained control of the Senate by a narrow margin in the U.S. mid-term elections in early November. As attention now turns to the Presidential elections of 2008 President George W. Bush will need to find ways to increase bi-partisan cooperation with Democrats like Nancy Pelosi who is poised to become the first female Speaker in U.S. history. What do the mid-term elections mean for investors and the stock markets? How will they affect American relationships with emerging economies like China and India? What will be the fate of Bush’s tax cuts? To discuss these questions and more Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel who leads Wharton Executive Education’s Securities Industry Institute program spoke with Knowledge at Wharton.

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One of the biggest complaints employees have according to Wharton management professor Sigal Barsade is that ”they are not sufficiently recognized by their organizations for the work they do .... When employees don’t feel that the organization respects and values them they tend to experience higher levels of burnout.” Barsade and doctoral student Lakshmi Ramarajan look at the role of respect in a paper titled ”What Makes the Job Tough? The Influence of Organizational Respect on Burnout in Human Services.”

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The recent elections have made Business Roundtable chairman Harold (Terry) McGraw III hopeful that a less partisan political atmosphere can lead to real progress in addressing America’s economic challenges. In a Wharton Leadership Series talk two days after the November 7 elections McGraw who is chairman president and CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies called for measures to lower trade barriers improve the competitiveness of the country’s work force modernize health care and ”level the playing field” for U.S. companies abroad -- subjects he elaborated on during an interview with Knowledge at Wharton before his talk.

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High definition televisions are expected to be hot sellers this holiday season but consumers are likely to have a tough time sorting out the newest generation video discs and the players that go with them. The culprit: Two competing high definition DVD formats -- Blu-ray and HD-DVD -- and no sign of a clear winner.

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Contrary to rumors about its imminent ”death” following the transfer of power from the British Hong Kong has emerged as the financial intermediary through which foreign investors seek to invest tens of billions of dollars into mainland China. Meanwhile once-booming Shanghai’s star is starting to fade. What happened? According to Wharton faculty and other experts while Hong Kong was crafting a strategy to position itself as both a legal and financial services center for China Shanghai was weighed down by corruption and a largely state-run financial services sector.

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To drive home the subject of his speech at the recent third annual Wharton Marketing conference Michael Polk president of Unilever United States flashed up a definition straight from the dictionary: ’Innovation: a new idea or method; a change in something established.’ Polk who manages such brands as Dove Axe Slim-Fast Country Crock Wishbone and Q-Tips said innovation not invention lies at the heart of successful marketing campaigns.

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Church pastors last year had a chance to win a free trip to London and $1 000 cash -- if they mentioned Disney’s film ”The Chronicles of Narnia” in their sermons. Chrysler hoping to target affluent African Americans with its new luxury SUV is sponsoring a Patti LaBelle gospel music tour through African-American megachurches nationwide. Advertising has begun to seep into churches according to religious marketing and academic experts pushing the boundaries by selling products with no intrinsic religious value.

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In mid-October the Chicago Board of Trade agreed to be purchased by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for about $8 billion topping a wave of exchange mergers in the U.S. and Europe. Two factors drove the deal: the enormous growth in the use of futures options and other derivatives to hedge risks and speculate and the need for economies of scale to compete with exchanges that have grown through mergers. Wharton professors analyze the deal.

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Ever since Netflix launched its online video rental service in 1999 conventional wisdom has suggested that the clock was ticking on its business model. First there were worries that Blockbuster would squash Netflix. Then it was Wal-Mart’s DVD rental service which Netflix absorbed in a partnership arrangement last year. Today Netflix is under fire from movie download services offered by powerhouses such as Amazon.com and Apple. Looking ahead what kind of sequel is likely for Netflix?

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Errors in corporate strategy are often self-inflicted and a singular focus on shareholder value is the ”Bermuda Triangle” of strategy according to Michael E. Porter director of Harvard’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness. Porter who recently spoke at Wharton as part of the school’s SEI Center Distinguished Lecture Series challenged managers to stop trying to be the best company in their industry and instead deliver ”a unique value” to their customers.

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