Wharton 125 Events

Faculty Tours Begin in North America
To celebrate the School's 125th anniversary as the world's first collegiate business school, faculty members will be touring the world to meet with alumni and give presentations. Last month, Professor Kenneth Shropshire visited Atlanta and Professor Peter Linneman visited Miami. Other tour locations this month include Cleveland, Seattle and Dallas.

For more 125th events and information, visit the Wharton 125 website.

School News

First-Ever Global Alumni Forum in India
Held Jan. 6-7
The first-ever Global Alumni Forum in India was held Jan. 6-7 in Mumbai, featuring an array of participants including Penn President Amy Gutmann, Dean Patrick Harker, and finance minister of India, P. Chidambaram. Topics included critical issues affecting India — such as outsourcing, foreign investments, and Indian pharmaceuticals — as well as more general topics, including the future of telecom, alternative medicine, and social entrepreneurship. read news release

India Knowledge@Wharton Launched
Knowledge@Wharton will soon make available a version focused on India. The special version, which will be published in English, will produce articles on topics such as business process outsourcing, family business and R&D for management leaders interested in learning more about one of the world's fastest growing economies. read news release

Wharton Faculty Head to Davos for World Economic Forum
Several Wharton faculty headed to Davos, Switzerland in January for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Participants included professors Ravi Aron, Stephen Kobrin, Howard Kunreuther, John Paul MacDuffie, Jeremy Siegel, and Michael Useem.
visit the World Economic Forum website

Faculty Examine Lessons from Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina raised fundamental questions about how the nation can, and should, deal with the inevitable problems of economic risk and social responsibility. A new book from Penn Press, On Risk and Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina, co-edited by Wharton professor Howard Kunreuther, gathers leading experts to examine lessons from Hurricane Katrina. Contributing writers include Wharton professors Kunreuther, Robert Meyer, and Scott Harrington. read more

Global Consulting Practicum Starts Projects in China
For the first time, the Global Consulting Practicum now has projects in China. The GCP has a pilot partnership in the North with the Guanghua School of Management (Peking University) and in the South with Fudan's School of Management. The GCP also participated in the first ever Wine Export Conference with Israel's wine industry. Students are working with leading beverage experts, brand experts and Israeli wineries to enhance exports to the U.S. read more

WEP Debuts Online Chat with Shopzilla Co-Founder Farhad Mohit
Alumnus Farhad Mohit is coming "virtually" back to campus for a morning of learning and sharing on Feb. 24 in an online chat with students and alumni. Mohit, WG'96, is the co-founder — with partners including Wharton classmate Henri Asseily — of BizRate.com, now known as Shopzilla. read more

Executive Education Runs First Program at All INSEAD Alliance Sites
"Leading the Effective Sales Force" has become the first Executive Education program to run at all four of the INSEAD Alliance sites - Philadelphia (Wharton), San Francisco (Wharton West), Singapore (INSEAD), and Fontainebleau, France (INSEAD). In this program, co-directors Professor Leonard Lodish and INSEAD Professor Erin Anderson address how to cut costs while raising sales. read more about the program

WRDS Licensed to 150 Educational and Governmental Institutions Worldwide
When the Indian School of Business became its 150th institutional subscriber, Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) solidified its place as the de facto standard for quantitative business research. WRDS offers a comprehensive, web-based data management system that allows faculty, students and researchers to easily retrieve information from a wide variety of financial, economic, and marketing data sources, and is recognized around the world by the academic and financial research community as the leading business intelligence tool. read news release

Heard on Campus
A number of executives came to Wharton in December and January to discuss business and leadership. Speakers included:

Dec. 1  — Hal Real, president, Real Entertainment Group
Dec. 1  — Ann Fudge, chair and CEO, Young & Rubicam Brands
Dec. 5  — Janet Hanson, founder, 85 Broads Networks and Milestone Capital Management
Dec. 6  — General Peter Pace, chairman, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
Jan. 10 — David Abrams, Abrams Capital
Jan. 12 — Mark Sutton, member of Group Executive Board and chairman, CEO Americas, UBS
Jan. 17 — Marc Kaplan, WG'00, director of strategy, Textron, Inc.
Jan. 17 — Raph Koster, chief creative officer/game designer, Sony Online Entertainment
Jan. 20 — Joseph Landy, co-president, Warburg Pincus

Recognition

Prof. Tucker Awarded Sloan Foundation Fellowship
Professor Anita Tucker has been awarded a Sloan Industry Studies Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for her path-breaking research to increase knowledge of the complex influences that shape today's industrial enterprises. read more about the Sloan Foundation

Winners of Knowledge@Wharton Essay Contest Announced
The winners of the Knowledge@Wharton International Essay Contest on "What can India and China learn from each other?" have been announced. The top five winners in China included Wu Gong from the China Europe International Business School, YuSi Wu from the South Western University of Finance and Economics, NingWei Cai from East China University of Science & Technology, Xiaoping Chen from Renmin University of China, and Biao Hu from Shanghai International Studies University. The top five winners in India were Vaibhay Jambhekar from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, Pradipto Kamal Tagore from the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, in Bombay, Jayant Kumar from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, Shumit Mongha from XLRI Jamshedpur, and Ravi Birhman from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta.

Winners of Wharton-Infosys Business Transformation Awards Announced for Asia Pacific
The winners have been announced of the Wharton-Infosys Business Transformation Awards 2006, Asia Pacific. The awards recognize visionaries and organizations that use technology in an innovative and creative manner to revolutionize their businesses. Cyworld, a South Korean social network service comprising nearly 17 million people, received the "Enterprise Business Transformation Award." Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder of Biocon India, received the "Technology Change Agent Award." read more

Knowledge@Wharton

Digital Rights Management (DRM): Media Companies' Next Flop?
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. read more

The Home-video Market: Who Rents, Who Buys and Why
When the door to a TLA Entertainment video store swings open, the primary question facing most consumers shuffling inside is relatively simple: "What movie will I take home tonight?" read more

Unlike Death and Taxes, Pensions Are No Longer Guaranteed
IBM. Verizon. Sears. Hewlett-Packard. Motorola. The list of corporations that have put a halt to guaranteed pension plans comes as a jolt to Baby Boom employees entering what they thought would be their peak pension-building years. read more

Wharton School Publishing

Paperbacks Now Available
Paperbacks are now available from Wharton School Publishing. The first paperback release will be The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, the groundbreaking book by CK Prahalad. This release will be followed by paperback versions of Nightly Business Report Presents Lasting Leadership, The Chinese Century and The Power of Impossible Thinking.

New Book Released by Peter Navarro
Wharton School Publishing has announced a recently released book by Peter Navarro, author of the bestselling investment book, If It's Raining in Brazil, Buy Starbucks. In The Well Timed Strategy: Managing the Business Cycle for Competitive Advantage, the author shows how to manage not just the business and industry cycles but also today's unprecedented level of macroeconomic turbulence.

Prof. Lawrence Hrebiniak Featured on Economist.com Web Cast
Lawrence Hrebiniak, author of Making Strategy Work: Leading Effective Execution and Change, is featured in a special web cast series from the Economist.com, titled From Plans to Performance: Putting Great Strategy to Work. This special audio forum explores common roadblocks to effective strategy execution and steps executives can take to overcome them.

Wharton students can take advantage of WSP expanded benefits, including discounts and free shipping. Those who register to become a member of Whartonsp.com can get free access to audio summaries and author interviews and a range of interesting and valuable member only content. Visit http://www.whartonsp.com/students to register and access benefits. All WSP books also are available at the Penn Bookstore.

For more, visit the Wharton School Publishing website.

Wharton in the News

Smart Money
December 1, 2005 — Susan Wachter, Richard B. Worley Professor of Financial Management; Professor of Real Estate, Finance and City and Regional Planning, was quoted in an article about the housing market in 2005.

The Wall Street Journal
December 2, 2005 — Stephen Hoch, Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor; Professor of Marketing, was quoted in an article about holiday shopping trends in discount department stores. (A similar article appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, 12/2/05.)

The Economist
December 10, 2005 — Justin Wolfers, assistant professor of business and public policy, was quoted in an article about prediction markets in the technology industry.

Business Week
December 12, 2005 — David Bell, associate professor of marketing, was quoted in an article about marketing strategies to the online consumer.

The New York Times
December 15, 2005 — Geoffrey Tate, assistant professor of finance, was quoted in an article about how managers invest.

Alumni in the News

Richard Stearns, WG'75, was featured in an article about his career as president of International Christian Relief Charity. (The Post Standard (Syracuse, 12/3/05); Donald Humphreys, WG'76, was featured in an article about his appointment as senior vice president and treasurer of Exxon Mobil Corporation. (Asia Pulse, 12/5/05); Subramanian Sundaresh, WG'83, was featured in an article about his position as CEO of Adaptec, a maker of storage equipment for computers. (Barron's, 12/5/05); Peter Nicholas, WG'68, founder of Boston Scientific, was featured in an article about the company, which produces medical equipment. (The Wall Street Journal, 12/7/05); Timothy Tompkins, WG'93, was featured in an article about his career as president of the Times Square Alliance, and his involvement in the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square. (The New York Sun, 12/30/05).

Wharton Economic Summit
February 1, 2006
Senior faculty, alumni leaders and other business luminaries convene in New York City for this inaugural event.

Follies Reunion
February 11-12, 2006
The 30th anniversary of the Wharton Follies presents "a sardonic view of Wharton life."

Faculty Tour: Atlanta
February 16, 2006
Professor Ken Shropshire on Sports Business.

Faculty Tour: Miami
February 23, 2006
Professor Peter Linneman on Real Estate.