Knowledge@wharton

After refusing to bail out Lehman Brothers the government agreed to an $85 billion loan to insurance giant AIG effectively taking over the company. Knowledge at Wharton talked to Wharton insurance professors Olivia Mitchell and Kent Smetters to find out how the world’s largest insurer got into this situation and how it can be prevented from happening again. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The rescues bankruptcies and dizzying write-downs for Fannie Mae Freddie Mac Lehman Brothers Merrill Lynch AIG and other giants of international finance signal a reckoning for Wall Street wizards who engineered the ongoing credit crisis with opaque securities based on risky subprime home loans and the assumption that housing prices would never decline according to a panel of Wharton professors. The flood of bad debt they add won’t subside anytime soon. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Big market downturns and jarring volatility have left small investors feeling whipsawed -- and nervous. But it would be a mistake to abandon classic long-term personal finance principles in the face of recent challenges. The 60% stocks 30% bonds and 10% cash approach remains the best strategy. Wharton finance professors Jeremy Siegel Richard Marston and Franklin Allen explain why. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Executives at AIG Bear Stearns Lehman Brothers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may have ignored or failed to see the level of risk their companies were taking on in a crusade to enhance results and their own compensation according to Wharton faculty and industry analysts. In some cases the management crisis was fueled by managers simply choosing not to lead. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The government’s refusal to save Lehman Brothers begs a question: Why did it step in only a week earlier to risk up to $200 billion in taxpayer money to shore up mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Wharton faculty say the government made the right move -- and offer suggestions for the next step. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Casual observers may have concluded that Google’s introduction this week of its ’Chrome’ web browser was a direct assault on the dominance of Microsoft’s Explorer. But Wharton professors David Hsu and Kevin Werbach see a longer-term strategy at work. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

New York-based teen apparel retailer Aéropostale has had a bullish summer with second-quarter net income rising 43% over the previous year. Meanwhile other teen-focused retailers including The Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch have suffered losses. Experts from Wharton and elsewhere suggest that teen retailers are competing intensely for attention in hard economic times even as these new conditions are giving rise to a changing landscape of winners and losers. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Now that the FCC has approved a merger of the two satellite radio companies Sirius XM’s big challenges are to stop the flow of red ink and settle on a strategy to compete with the myriad of other portable music providers. Says one Wharton professor: ”They may have one more shot at a Hail Mary pass.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rather than hire experienced people from outside many companies might be better off training fresh recruits with little experience in the industry. That approach can give the firm more control over how the new workers adapt to their employer’s corporate strategy and culture according to a research paper by Wharton management professor Nancy Rothbard titled ”Unpacking Prior Experience: How Career History Affects Job Performance.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One research firm estimates that at least 2% of global atmospheric carbon emissions can be traced to the information technology industry because of the electricity consumed by PCs servers cooling systems telecommunications gear and printers. Now under pressure from tightening global anti-pollution standards the threat of environmental lawsuits and more awareness of corporate responsibility many technology firms are racing to place a ”green” stamp of environmental approval on their operations and products. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the past business in Africa behaved like a ”caterpillar” -- uninteresting slow moving and easy to step on says Eric Kacou managing director of OTF Group a U.S.-based consulting firm focused on emerging economies. Today the continent is poised for a metamorphosis that requires a ”new mindset” relying less on natural resources and more on innovation and private sector growth. At the Wharton Global Alumni Forum in Cape Town South Africa Kacou was among the speakers on two panels exploring the potential for new business models and ”smart” capital to change Africa’s economy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In a year when airlines all over the world are reeling from the double whammy of high oil prices and a faltering economy Embraer -- the Brazil based aircraft maker -- doubled its net income in the second quarter. The company’s growth during difficult economic times offers an example of the way that companies from rapidly developing economies are reshaping global business say Harold L. Sirkin James W. Hemerling and Arindam K. Bhattacharya in their new book Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything. Sirkin and his co-authors identify 100 such ”challenger” firms that are expanding rapidly spell out the reasons why and analyze the implications for the way business will be done in the future. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sandeep Jauhar’s book Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation is the unsettling account of his medical residency at a New York hospital largely focused on his first year. It represents his take on his internship interweaving that experience with something of his childhood family history previous studies and work experiences. In the process Jauhar tells us about himself medical education and health care. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

While many companies are scrambling to gain competitive advantage by finding ways to innovate using technology the film industry -- as characterized in Scott Kirsner’s book Inventing the Movies -- has had a century-long history of shunning innovation and eschewing technological progress. Subtitled Hollywood’s Epic Battle Between Innovation and the Status Quo from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs the book is a case study in the difficulties of introducing technological change in an industry that carefully guards its well-entrenched business models. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Does reforming institutions always result in benefits to the system regardless of when and how they take place? Are some institutions more important than others? Elena Panaritis’s debut work Prosperity Unbound not only answers these questions but targets what the writer believes to be the most valuable institution necessary for growth -- the property system and its underpinning laws and regulations. Panaritis who heads Panel Group a Washington D.C. based organization that works with governments to unlock illiquid markets also offers a diagnostic tool to give policy makers guidelines in reforming a property system. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How can a company deliver continuous exceptional growth year after year? J. C. Larreche a professor of marketing at INSEAD answers that question in his book The Momentum Effect: How to Ignite Exceptional Growth. According to the author’s research momentum-powered firms delivered 80% more shareholder value than their slower rivals. ”Momentum leaders are not lucky -- they are smart ” he writes in this excerpt. ”They have discovered the source of momentum and with it the beginnings of a smarter way to exceptional growth. Managers often talk about ’riding the wave.’ Momentum leaders aren’t that passive. They live by this motto: First build your wave then ride it.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In their book Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track authors Russell L. Ackoff and Daniel Greenberg point out that today’s education system is seriously flawed -- it focuses on teaching rather than learning. ”Why should children -- or adults -- be asked to do something computers and related equipment can do much better than they can?” the authors ask in an excerpt from the book. ”Why doesn’t education focus on what humans can do better than the machines and instruments they create?” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Why don’t we see the truck racing toward us or the treasure of gold beneath our feet? Are these just invisible events? In this excerpt from the book It Starts with One: Changing Individuals Changes Organizations authors J. Stewart Black and Hal B. Gregersen offer examples from the mobile phone industry and from the Spanish exploration of America in the 16th century to explain why organizations and individuals fail to see the need for change. ”Why do we fail to see the need for change?” the authors ask. Their answer: ”Fundamentally we fail to see because we are blinded by the light of what we already see.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Scrabble -- the board game in which you compete with other players in making words -- has become a familiar household name since it was introduced in 1948. Its unofficial online double Scrabulous has become one of the most popular applications on Facebook since it was launched in July 2007. Now both games are making waves as Hasbro the copyright holder for Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada has filed a lawsuit against the creators of Scrabulous -- following which Scrabulous was yanked off Facebook in late July. But in today’s fast-changing social networking environment Hasbro’s lawsuit and its attempt to control its online image may not be the right move Wharton faculty say. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Progress toward unfettered international commerce stumbled last week with the collapse of the World Trade Organization’s Doha talks a seven-year effort to establish new global trade rules. The lengthy talks were complicated by the rapid emergence of China and India as major economic powers with commercial and strategic interests to protect and the clout to do so.  Many observers say the talks’ collapse is a setback for poorer nations which need access to larger markets in order for their economies to grow. Wharton professors Stephen Kobrin whose research interests include globalization and Marshall Meyer an authority on China’s economy recently spoke to Knowledge at Wharton about the talks’ collapse global commerce and China’s interest in the rules governing trade. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.