Knowledge@WhartonKnowledge@Wharton is an online resource that offers the latest business insights, information, and research from a variety of sources. Content includes analysis of current business trends, interviews with industry leaders and faculty, articles based on the most recent business research, book reviews, conference and seminar reports, and links to other websites.Procurement -- Subcontracting and Product Quality in China- June 30, 2008 Marshall W. Meyer, professor of management at Wharton, has made many trips to China to research the rapid growth of its economy and the successes and difficulties it has had in growing so quickly. In this interview, Meyer discusses the recent controversy surrounding China's exports of substandard toys and pharmaceuticals to the United States, and the implications for supply-chain management.http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=2004 Obama and McCain: Different -- and Evolving -- Visions for the U.S. Economy- June 25, 2008 Presidential candidates John McCain, Republican senator from Arizona, and Barack Obama, Democratic senator from Illinois, are staking out contrasting positions, mostly along traditional party lines, in their campaign to win election in November as the 44th president of the United States. One thing they have in common: Both offer tax and spending plans that would deepen the deficit. Wharton professors, as well as commentators from around the globe, weigh in on the economic views of each...http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=2000 Privacy on the Web: Is It a Losing Battle- June 25, 2008 What if you visited an investment site and found advertising messages suggesting therapies for your recently diagnosed heart condition Chances are you would experience what Fran Maier, executive director of TrustE, a nonprofit advocate of online privacy, calls the "creepiness factor." Maier and several others discussed the challenges of maintaining online privacy -- amid rising Internet use and plummeting costs of data storage and tracking -- at the recent Supernova conference in San...http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=1999 The Credit Crisis and Failed Risk Analysis: 'We're Nowhere Near the End Here'- June 25, 2008 When you sit down, you probably don't check under your seat for a bomb. Even though it could kill you, chances are slim that it's there. A similar view of risk led bankers, their regulators and other government officials to overlook dangerous investments and business models that contributed to the global credit crisis, according to speakers at the financial risk roundtable held by the Wharton Financial Institutions Center and the Oliver Wyman Institute.http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=1998 Judgment, Character and Ambition: David Gergen on Leadership in the 2008 Presidential Race- June 25, 2008 According to David Gergen, the man elected president of the United States in November will face the most daunting foreign and domestic challenges since Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s. Gergen, who has been an advisor to four U.S. presidents and who currently directs the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, equated the presidency to "feeling a little like Gulliver in Lilliput.... Giant accomplishments are expected" even as presidential powers are not.http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=2001 Johnson & Johnson CEO William Weldon: Leadership in a Decentralized Company- June 25, 2008 Consumers tend to associate Johnson & Johnson with Band-Aids and baby shampoo, but those well-known products are only part of a much larger picture, according to William Weldon, chairman and CEO. In fact, Weldon has the mind-boggling task of overseeing more than 200 operating companies across three sectors, including consumer products, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. On June 18, Weldon spoke at the 2008 Wharton Leadership Conference about the challenges of running the...http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=2003 Will Technology Firms Bridge the Chasm Between Computer and TV- June 25, 2008 Hewlett-Packard, Netflix, Apple and others want to move content from the Internet to that big flat-screen TV in the living room. Wharton experts wonder if there is a market for this and indeed, whether consumers are even willing to accept interactive television. The best advice to companies for now: Hedge your bets.http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=2002 To Love, Honor, Cherish and Consume: The Selling of the American Wedding- June 25, 2008 Money, to paraphrase the Beatles, can't buy you love. But it can certainly buy a lavish wedding, as noted in Rebecca Mead's new book, One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding. Indeed, according to Mead, America's wedding industry exceeds $161 billion annually -- an enormous sum that suggests how much weddings have become not only big business, but big fantasy. Yet as our reviewer notes, the wedding boom is not just confined to wealthy Western nations, but has become a global...http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=1997 Procurement -- China Sourcing- June 23, 2008 Multinational corporations have been sourcing from China for years, but that doesn't mean that all the questions have been answered about how to engage in procurement activities in the world's fastest-growing economy. In this interview, David Lee, a partner and managing director at BCG, says that plenty of challenges remain. Among them: finding good suppliers that offer products at relatively low costs, and being willing and able to outsource a sufficient volume of one's business to Chinese...http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=1996 Opinion: Greed Reflects a Failure of Leadership- June 20, 2008 Hardly a day goes by without yet another twist or turn in the credit crisis that has engulfed the U.S. financial system for more than a year. Media reports suggest that the world's biggest financial institutions have absorbed more than $300 billion in asset write-downs and credit losses even as home foreclosures are at record high levels and Wall Street has laid off thousands of employees. While much of the discussion about the crisis has focused on its causes and the need for regulatory...http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=1987 |