This Month From Knowledge@Wharton

Business Wire, August 30, 2007

Stories this month include "Leading for the Next Act: Why CEOs Must Evolve or Step Aside" and from India Knowledge@Wharton, "Responding to the Rising Rupee: Why Indian Firms Must Rethink Their Business Models"

Plus: Podcasts with Profs Jeremy Siegel and Marshall Meyer

PHILADELPHIA -- This past month some of the timely stories from Knowledge@Wharton , the Wharton School's online research and business analysis journal, which will soon launch a new India Knowledge@Wharton edition, include:

Leading for the Next Act: Why CEOs Must Evolve or Step Aside

The secret to long-term CEO success, according to David Nadler, is conceiving of a CEO's tenure as a performance with a series of distinct acts. "Each act requires the CEO to lead, think and behave in fundamentally different ways. The successful ones are those who are able to make the transitions," says Nadler, a consultant to boards and senior executives, who spoke during the recent 11th annual Wharton Leadership Conference. The theme of the conference, sponsored by the Center for Leadership and Change Management, the Center for Human Resources and Wharton Executive Education, was "Developing Leadership Talent."

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1784.cfm

Responding to the Rising Rupee: Why Indian Firms Must Rethink Their Business Models

In recent weeks, many Indian companies and industry organizations -- especially those that are export-oriented -- have been complaining about the strong rupee's negative effects on their operations. Some have urged the Reserve Bank of India to intervene. Jitendra V. Singh of Wharton's management department -- who takes over as dean of Singapore's Nanyang Business School on September 1 -- has a different view. In this opinion piece, Singh argues that Indian firms should use the rupee's strength to their advantage by adapting their business models in innovative ways, much as Japan's automakers did during the 1980s.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4218

What's Ahead for the Stock Market -- and Quant Funds

After weeks of skittishness and fear, investors showed signs on Tuesday of settling down. "Yesterday was one of the dullest days in the market that we've had in a while, and that's good in many ways," says Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel. Investors have been reeling from widespread problems in the subprime sector, stocks have fallen, yields on Treasury securities have dropped and some companies are finding it hard to borrow money -- all of which spurred the Federal Reserve last week to announce a cut in interest rates. Meanwhile, the upheaval has shown that quant funds, despite their computer power, aren't immune to mistakes and market downturns. So what can we expect in the weeks ahead?

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1797.cfm

Talking with the Receptionist, Pausing When You Speak and Other Secrets of Leadership Success

Several years ago, while visiting a regional branch of Lee Hecht Harrison, a global career management services company, then-president Stephen Harrison was stopped short by "Ray," his COO. "You didn't greet the receptionist," said Ray, who went on to explain that "a receptionist is a corporate concierge. They will talk to more important people in a day -- suppliers, customers, even CEOs -- than you will talk to all year." Harrison, speaking at the recent 11th annual Wharton Leadership Conference, contends that small acts like this are part of what makes for an ethical corporate culture. He was joined at the conference by public speaking coach Richard Greene, author of Words that Shook the World: 100 Years of Unforgettable Speeches and Events.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1792.cfm

'If Brands Are Built Over Years, Why Are They Managed Over Quarters?'

Wharton marketing professor Leonard Lodish admits he is somewhat to blame for the erosion in brand pricing power that has hit many consumer-goods companies -- but not entirely to blame. In 1993, as store-level scanning data started to become widely available, Lodish coauthored an article outlining its power to gauge the effect of price promotions on revenue. But he also warned that these tools were not the only determinant of brand power. In a new paper, Lodish and co-author Carl F. Mela show how widespread adoption of easy-to-harness, short-term measures has altered consumer behavior and made it harder for brand managers to compete.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1790.cfm

Podcasts

Looking for a Company to Run? Search Funds Could Be the Answer
Eyes on China: The Costs of Progress

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