Knowledge@wharton

Big media players are accustomed to watching the ratings for the most popular music video and book content but perhaps they should pay more attention to how consumers feel about three letters at the bottom of most charts -- DRM which stands for digital rights management. Broadly defined DRM encompasses multiple technologies that control the use of software music movies or any other piece of digital content. But media companies are risking a consumer backlash by deploying overzealous systems with draconian restrictions say experts at Wharton who also question whether DRM is worth the effort whether it will survive and what the best approach is for balancing the rights of consumers with the rights of content creators. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

China’s securities industry is just one of the sectors moving ahead at a dizzying pace as the country readies itself for full entry into the World Trade Organization this year according to participants in the recent Wharton Global Business Forum’s Asia Conference. Not surprisingly China dominated discussion at the conference with many speakers noting the speed with which the country is advancing. But growth is not just confined to China. The 21st century said one panelist will be the ”Asian century ” powered by among other things a highly educated and motivated population and increased travel and tourism. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The turmoil and uncertainty among auto manufacturers and their suppliers have left people wondering when a shakeout can be expected. According to Wharton management professor John Paul MacDuffie and Christopher Benko director of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Automotive Institute in Detroit consolidation will take place among suppliers to a much greater extent than among carmakers which may not experience mergers and acquisitions at all in the near term but will be engaged in ever-shifting strategic alliances and joint ventures. Additionally these experts say many Western parts suppliers are under immense pressure from lower-cost Chinese parts producers and need to consolidate to strengthen their chances of survival. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As the Gulf Coast attempts to recover from the emotional and physical scars of Hurricane Katrina the nation’s most expensive natural disaster Wharton and University of Pennsylvania faculty are raising questions about how society should assess and perceive risk and how it should compensate victims when disaster strikes. A new book entitled On Risk and Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina by University of Pennsylvania provost Ronald J. Daniels political science professor Donald F. Kettl and Howard C. Kunreuther Wharton professor of operations and information management argues that the U.S. government has become an insurer of last resort and questions whether that unofficial policy is contributing to larger and costlier disasters. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Can an industry that has spent a fortune on TV ads featuring mud wrestlers and talking frogs suddenly change its stripes to appeal to the wine-and-cheese single-malt Scotch crowd? The makers of Budweiser and other brands of beer hope so. Anheuser-Busch and its competitors are developing an industry-wide marketing campaign aimed at overhauling the image of the humble beer and staunching its declining share of the alcoholic beverage market. But Wharton faculty members say that such a radical makeover might be too tall an order even though the effort could enhance the appeal of microbreweries and perhaps some mass-market beers like Michelob that have already carved out a higher-end image. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It’s not easy being Wikipedia a free web encyclopedia created and edited by anonymous contributors. Just ask founder Jimmy Wales who has seen his creation come under fire in just a few short months as the site fends off vandalism and charges of inaccurate entries. But Wikipedia founded in 2001 as a non-profit organization has become a big enough presence that it raises a number of interesting questions including: Just how accurate is free content given recent events at Wikipedia? Does the aggregate ’wisdom of the crowd’ trump the expertise of knowledgeable individuals? Does Wikipedia’s policing mechanism work? And does the controversy over Wikipedia merely reflect further tension between old and new media? Wharton experts along with Wales offer some answers. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The chairman of the largest software house in Ghana spoke approvingly of the ”Wild West” aspects of doing business there. One of that country’s cabinet ministers saw signs that ”constitutional democracies are gaining roots” on the African continent. A prominent Nigerian lawyer spoke of profit margins all but impossible in the United States or Europe. These three panelists appeared recently at the 2005 Wharton Global Business Forum Africa Conference entitled ”Unveiling the Value; Demystifying the Risk.” Speakers described the continent as bursting with opportunities challenges and pitfalls for local and foreign companies but the emphasis was decidedly on the word ”opportunity.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

David Sirota co-author of The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want (Wharton School Publishing) believes far too many managers stifle employee enthusiasm across the board by using bureaucratic or punitive techniques that should be reserved for a troublesome few. Yet his book written with Louis A. Mischkind and Michael Irwin Meltzer finds that firms where employee morale is high -- such as Intuit and Barron’s -- tend to outperform competitors. In an interview with Knowledge at Wharton Sirota talks about employees’ three basic goals how to deal with employees who are ”allergic” to work and how managers can inspire greater loyalty and productivity from their workforce. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For nearly 30 years Wharton management professor Lawrence G. Hrebiniak has taken the art of business strategy and put it under a microscope. Over time he has brought one critical element into irrefutable focus: Creating strategy is easy but implementing it is very difficult. In his new book Making Strategy Work: Leading Effective Execution and Change (Wharton School Publishing) Hrebiniak presents a comprehensive model to help business leaders bridge the gap between strategy making and successful strategy execution. He challenges executives to recognize that making strategy work is more difficult than setting a strategic course - but also more important -- and he documents the obstacles that get in the way of successful performance. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When Carleton (Carly) S. Fiorina joined Hewlett-Packard as its chairman and CEO in 1999 she was widely regarded as a charismatic leader who would help HP get out of its high-tech rut. Six years later however Fiorina has been forced out of her position at HP’s helm and the company is still languishing. What happened? According to Wharton professors while Fiorina has several strengths the merger she engineered with Compaq not only failed to deliver on its promises it actually made matters worse. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In his 1994 best seller Stocks for the Long Run Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel showed investors that stocks rather than bonds or cash are the most profitable long-term investments and he endorsed index-style investing. But investors wanted to know more. ”I gave scores of talks across the country on Stocks for the Long Run ” Siegel recalled recently. ”The two questions I received most were: ’Which stocks for the long run?’ and ’What about the age wave and the baby boom?’” Siegel’s response was voluminous research for his new book The Future for Investors: Why the Tried and True Triumph Over the Bold and the New. Some of its conclusions surprised even him. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The days when an executive could look forward to a leisurely retirement out on the golf course are over thanks to a possible looming job shortage a graying population low savings rates and an insecure Social Security system. The impact of these factors on both workers and companies was the subject of the Symposium on Older Workers co-sponsored recently by the AARP Global Aging Program along with Wharton’s Center for Human Resources and Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research. Speakers included AARP CEO William D. Novelli Olivia Mitchell executive director of Wharton’s Pension Research Council and Thomas Dowd a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The stock market rises and falls based on investors’ perceptions about how the economy is doing. CEOs make investment decisions -- opening a new plant hiring more workers -- based on their expectations about how markets will perform in the future. How can they keep tabs on whether their expectations are realistic? Bernard Baumohl author of The Secrets of Economic Indicators provides some insights into how investors and CEOs alike can pick up on statistical signals about the economy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In a new study that compares Fortune 100 executives in 1980 with their counterparts in 2001 Peter Cappelli director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources and colleague Monika Hamori document what many CEOs and other senior managers have no doubt already witnessed: The road to the executive suite and the characteristics of the executives who get there have changed significantly over the last two decades. Among the researchers’ findings: Today’s executives are younger more likely to be female and less likely to have Ivy League educations. They get to the executive suite faster than ever hold fewer jobs along the way spend about five years less in their current organization before being promoted and are more likely to be hired from the outside. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There’s a new marketing catchphrase that’s getting rave word-of-mouth reviews. From articles in the popular press to conversations in the classroom huge companies to boutique marketing firms suddenly it seems you can’t talk about new products without addressing ’buzz marketing.’ ”People are buzzing about buzzing ” says Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn who adds along with others that word-of-mouth marketing has long been recognized as a way to influence consumer behavior. What’s new about buzz marketing is the structure and hype surrounding it and the attempts to measure its effectiveness on sales. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Marketers are happy speaking their own language replete with jargon like ”awareness ” ”share of requirements” and ”customer satisfaction.” Such terminology works fine in the marketing department and with the advertising professionals who execute marketing plans. But there’s a translation problem between that language and the language of profitability and stock price which is the mother tongue of corporate CEOs. ”CEOs want to know what a 5% increase in customer satisfaction will do for the bottom line ” says Wharton marketing professor David Reibstein who talked about ”Linking Marketing Metrics to Financial Consequences” at the Wharton Marketing Conference on October 15. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Wharton management professor Michael Useem director of the school’s Center for Leadership and Change Management notes that one of the key mantras in corporate crisis management is: ”Hide nothing tell all.” Less than a week after Merck & Co.’s voluntary withdrawal of its blockbuster arthritis pain medication Vioxx following an extended clinical trial that linked the drug to heart attacks and strokes the jury is still out on whether the pharmaceutical giant followed this cardinal rule. Wharton professors debate Merck’s response to the crisis and the impact of the recall. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Last week Microsoft unveiled the new version of its Windows Media Player firing the opening shots in a long-anticipated battle against Apple Computer for supremacy in the online music business. Both companies are targeting the fast-growing market whose sales are expected to be $270 million this year but could grow to $1.7 billion by 2009. Experts at Wharton and elsewhere say that for now Apple whose iTunes music service commands a 70% market share has an impressive lead. Over time however two strategic issues make Apple vulnerable to being dislodged by Microsoft or other rivals. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Imagine that you have been assigned to a six-person team in your company and asked to complete a top-priority project on a very short deadline. Some of the people have never worked together before team members change every hour or so leadership constantly shifts between three different individuals and any mistake could have disastrous even fatal consequences for the project. Wharton management professor Katherine J. Klein spent 10 months studying such teams in action at the Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore Md. Her research presented in a new co-authored paper suggests a novel view of leadership different from that offered in traditional leadership models. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Schools companies and nonprofit organizations around the country including educators at Wharton say helping children and teenagers learn the rudiments of free markets entrepreneurship credit spending saving and investing is one of the most important - and neglected - components of a young person’s education. Yet for kids from both affluent and poor neighborhoods it’s difficult to find financial literacy courses not just in their schools but outside the classroom as well. Several organizations are hoping to change that. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.