Knowledge@wharton

Popular social network sites including MySpace and Facebook are changing the human fabric of the Internet and have the potential to pay off big for investors but -- given their youthful user base -- they are unusually vulnerable to the next new fad. As quickly as users flock to one trendy Internet site they can just as quickly move on to another with no advance warning according to Wharton faculty and Internet analysts who offer some ideas on how these new sites can both increase user loyalty and generate revenues. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

NutriSystem -- the Horsham Pa.-based online weight-loss company -- has bulked up. Its first-quarter 2006 revenues grew 292% to $146.8 million and net income rose 592% with analysts predicting continued sharp increases in 2006. Memories of its bankruptcy filing and litigation woes under previous owners have all but been erased even as the company plans to target new customer segments and expand internationally. And yet according to CEO Michael Hagan and president George Jankovic both of whom spoke at Wharton last month there has been as much luck and grit as glamour and glitz in the company’s rise from the ashes. ”Sometimes you learn more from your mistakes than from your successes ” says Jankovic. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When Lawton Robert Burns Wharton professor of health care systems began teaching healthcare management he found a hole in the academic literature. There was plenty of material on physicians hospitals government regulations and insurance. But there was no single source of good information on a key component of the industry -- the producers of healthcare products. Burns aims to fill that gap with his new book The Business of Healthcare Innovation. The book focuses on four sectors -- pharmaceuticals biotechnology medical devices and information technology -- and looks at the internal and external factors at work in determining whether a new pill or new pacemaker ends up in the hands of patients and doctors. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When companies talk about marketing these days they are talking about things like promotional strategy advertising and distribution; customer perception; market share; competitors’ power; margins and pricing; products and portfolios; customer profitability; and sales forces and channels. How does a company measure the effectiveness of the various components of its marketing strategy? What metrics are most effective and how can these help maximize profits? A new book out from Wharton School Publishing titled Marketing Metrics: 50 + Metrics Every Executive Should Master identifies the pros cons and tradeoffs associated with each metric. The book is by Paul Farris Neil Bendle Phillip Pfeifer and Dave Reibstein. Reibstein a marketing professor at Wharton agreed to talk with Mukul Pandya editor in chief of Knowledge at Wharton and Robbie Shell editorial director about this new book. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Disney the media giant announced earlier this month that the company would provide several major shows -- Desperate Housewives Lost Commander-in-Chief and Alias -- as free streaming video through the ABC network’s website. Also this month the Wall Street Journal reported that the Fox network has signed agreements with 187 of its affiliated stations to share revenues from reruns of its programs on the web. What is behind these moves? Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader spoke with Mukul Pandya editor-in-chief of Knowledge at Wharton and Kendall Whitehouse Knowledge at Wharton’s contributing editor in technology about these developments and what they mean for the media industry. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Interest rates are rising around the world. Last Thursday April 13 the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes closed at 5.05%. This was the first time in four years that the yield exceeded 5%. Moreover short-term interest rates in the U.S. are also going up: The federal funds rate (or the interest rate at which banks provide overnight loans to one another) has risen to 4.75% from some 1% a few years ago. In Europe and Japan stock prices have been falling last week and this week because of concerns that rising interest rates and higher oil prices will affect corporate earnings. What will this mean for the U.S. stock market and the economy? To answer this question Robbie Shell editorial director of Knowledge at Wharton and Mukul Pandya editor-in-chief talked with Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel author of the book The Future for Investors. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Foreign stocks are soaring and Americans are pouring money into them. But although overseas equities have captured investors’ fancy before there’s a twist this time: More investors are embracing passive index-style investing ignoring the long-held belief that active managers can beat indexers by uncovering bargains in inefficient foreign markets. Have conditions really changed enough to make indexing pay off as well in foreign markets as it has in the U.S.? It may be too soon to know for sure. But international equity markets and American investor behavior are clearly evolving according to Wharton finance professors. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras wrote their hugely popular 1994 book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies they began by stating clearly that they did not mean to write about visionary leaders. Their goal was to find visionary companies -- the crown jewels of their industries -- and discover what made them extraordinary. Then questions arose about the extent to which the principles of Built to Last might apply to individuals. That sparked another investigation that has now led to a follow-up book Success Built to Last which will be published by Wharton School Publishing later this year. Mark Thompson and Stewart Emery co-authors with Porras of Success Built to Last spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about their book. In addition the authors are conducting a global survey on how people think about success; a link to the survey can be found at the end of this interview. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the second of a two-part interview Azim Premji who owns more than 80% of Bangalore-based Wipro India’s third largest software exporter discusses why that country’s IT companies have done a better job at delivering services than developing products. Speaking with Wharton professor Ravi Aron he points out that customers are beginning to unbundle prices with the result that established IT and consulting firms are starting to see premiums disappear. ”Customers are trying to optimize value ” Premji says. ”The old boys’ club of closed tennis court relationships is on the way out.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The phrase ”free shipping” is like a siren song to many who shop on the Internet. For whatever reason a free shipping offer that saves a customer $6.99 is more appealing to many than a discount that cuts the purchase price by $10 says Wharton marketing professor David Bell. Bell noticed this phenomenon a few years ago while doing research for an online grocery store and the observation prompted him to look more closely at the ways Internet retailers use shipping charges -- or the lack thereof -- as a promotional tool. The result is a recent paper titled ”Free Shipping and Repeat Buying on the Internet: Theory and Evidence ” by Bell and colleagues Skander Essegaier from Koc University and Yinghui Yang from the University of California at Davis. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Consumers’ love affair with expensive customized cups of coffee shows no signs of abating even though most orders consist of little more than a cup of water a splash of milk a spoonful of coffee grinds and 30 seconds of labor. Indeed Starbucks has managed to turn its customers’ craving for caffeine into a $6.4 billion a year business with close to 6 000 company-owned coffeehouses already up and running and five new ones opening each day. All of which explains why so many coffee sellers seem intent on taking away some of Starbucks’ highly profitable market share. Yet according to Wharton marketing professors some companies are so obsessed with swiping business from Starbucks or losing customers to it that they may be abandoning a niche that has already proved profitable. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Corporate leaders must build international organizations to compete in today’s economy and be prepared to defend globalization at home according to Klaus Kleinfeld chief executive of the German electrical and engineering conglomerate Siemens AG. Speaking at a recent Wharton Leadership Lecture Kleinfeld said U.S. concerns about the sale of port assets to a Dubai-based firm and French resistance to the sale of yogurt-maker Danone -- which French officials called a ”national treasure” -- highlight growing fears that globalization comes at the cost of jobs in developed countries. He also addressed the need for labor unions to be more flexible offshoring concerns the benefits of conglomerates and the qualities he looks for in potential leaders. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When General Motors last month offered buyouts and early retirement packages to 113 000 hourly workers the move focused new attention on a key aspect of the continually evolving relationship between employers and employees. Buyouts often signal management’s decision to strategically change the company’s direction and start easing out those workers who are part of what is now considered the old regime. Meanwhile employees who stay behind suddenly recognize that they are replaceable parts with little job security and no long-term commitment from the company. What messages do buyouts send to employees? How are buyouts structured? Is there a ’right’ way and a ’wrong’ way to handle the buyout process? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Roy Vagelos a highly regarded pharmaceutical executive who spent two decades at Merck including 10 years as CEO has often said that ”research remains my life blood ” and indeed he has stayed active in the industry since his retirement from Merck in 1994. For example he is chairman of the board of two small drug companies Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Theravance and in 2004 co-authored a book entitled Medicine Science and Merck. Vagelos recently spoke with Robbie Shell editorial director of Knowledge at Wharton and Steve Guglielmi Knowledge at Wharton senior editor about the future of the pharmaceutical industry including competition from generics the impact of outsourcing biotech alliances pricing strategies and the next big drug breakthroughs. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Kevin Werbach a professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton spoke recently with David Yaun an IBM executive about the company’s Global Innovation Outlook project. According to Yaun ”traditionally companies have identified innovation with gadgets and gizmos but that thinking is being transformed.” The definition of innovation is being broadened -- it is becoming more open collaborative global and inter-disciplinary. ”The barriers to innovation and collaboration have come down dramatically ” Yaun says. This was the second in a series of interviews about themes to be featured at Supernova a conference Werbach organizes in collaboration with Wharton in San Francisco. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Everyone uses commodities such as wheat cocoa crude oil butter coal and electricity. But most investors know that speculating on commodities in the futures markets is only for the pros and no sensible amateur would bet his retirement or college funds on sugar silver orange juice or feeder cattle. But are commodities really that risky? Using the most comprehensive data on commodities futures returns ever assembled Wharton finance professor Gary Gorton and K. Geert Rouwenhorst finance professor at the Yale School of Management have reached a surprising conclusion -- that commodities offer the same returns as investors are accustomed to receiving with stocks. Gorton and Rouwenhorst present their findings in a paper titled ”Facts and Fantasies about Commodity Futures.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A talking chimp arriving in e-mail inboxes speaks in its sender’s voice through a telephone connection or recites a pre-recorded joke for the boss. Burger King’s ad campaign offers a ”subservient chicken” site where viewers can type in commands to a person in a chicken suit with red garters. JibJab is developing a new site called JokeBox where consumers and corporations can post and share funny videos or jokes online. These are among the latest viral marketing campaigns that blend advertisement and interactive entertainment across informal consumer networks. The convergence may be inevitable say Wharton faculty and others but it remains unclear whether such an approach is sustainable and measurable and whether it will actually generate new business. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Azim Premji 60 owns more than 80% of Bangalore-based Wipro India’s third largest software exporter which had annual revenues of $1.8 billion in 2005. Forbes magazine reckons that his net worth exceeds $13 billion and it places him at No. 25 in its most recent ranking of the world’s richest people. In the first of a two-part interview with Knowledge at Wharton Premji speaks with Ravi Aron a professor of operations and information management at Wharton about Wipro’s reorganization last year following the departure of its former CEO; why the company chose to move to a new structure based on so-called verticals; how Wipro’s business operations are changing; and the challenges the company faces in building management talent. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the debate over how to build better models to help the world’s neediest citizens supporters of for-profit social-impact organizations argue that their model is more sustainable than non-profit schemes. Non-profit and foundation executives agree that new paradigms are necessary but caution that for-profit models could ultimately put profit ahead of serving the poor. The issues surrounding this debate were further explored at the recent Wharton Social Impact Management (SIM) Conference whose theme -- ”Solutions to Social Problems Incident to our Civilization” -- borrowed a phrase used 125 years ago by school founder Joseph Wharton in his directive for business education. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When Google announced its Gmail email service two years ago a lot of people figured the company was joking. After all Google had been known to offer up the occasional gag like saying it was starting a research center on the moon. More importantly nobody believed that consumers would tolerate Google’s plan of scanning people’s emails and then delivering advertisements to them based on the emails’ contents. Two years later Gmail has tens of millions of users. But consumers’ initial disbelief underscores the web’s knotty privacy problem according to participants at the recent 2006 Wharton Technology Conference. Consumers say they want privacy online although they often behave in ways that contradict that statement; companies insist they will protect privacy although they sometimes fail to do so. And everybody is wary of increased government regulation. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.