Marketing: New Internet Pricing Models Bring Pain, and Fortune, to Retailers
With the click of a mouse, the ability of consumers to compare prices for everything from a new car to a new condo to a new coat has been dramatically transformed. Businesses in turn have had to throw out old, static pricing models and find new ways to respond to customers’ digital dexterity. Results have been mixed.
Human Resources: How Online Recruiting Changes the Hiring Game
Online recruiting is changing the way employers think about finding good employees and the way employees think about their jobs and their employers. Indeed, the Internet may completely change the way companies manage human resources, says Peter Cappelli, a professor of management at Wharton. But while the Internet makes it easy to find resumés of passive applicants – people who are happy with their current jobs but who might be induced to move to a better one – it also raises serious ethical questions about privacy.
Leadership and Change: Six Rules of the Road From a Well-Traveled Businesswoman
“Don’t let other people’s diminished expectations for you be the truth about your life,” Pamela Thomas-Graham, CEO of CNBC.com and executive vice president of NBC, told participants at Wharton’s Whitney M. Young, Jr. Memorial Conference Jan. 19-20. Thomas-Graham, the first African-American woman to be made a partner at McKinsey & Co., urged her audience to always push themselves to take chances, to constantly network and to search out those all-important mentors.
Public Policy and Management: The British Railway System: Hell on Wheels
Imagine riding a train between two major cities that leaves two hours late and goes 20 mph the whole way except when it stops entirely due to a broken piece of track that had been flagged for repairs three times during the last 10 months. That sums up the current state of the British rail system, and there’s not much relief in sight. The meltdown offers a stark case study of how not to privatize a transportation system.
Insurance and Pensions: A New Look at the Payoff from Annuity Investments
Investors often regard annuities as a poor substitute for mutual funds and other investments. A new study by Wharton’s Pension Research Council shows, however, that middle-income investors approaching retirement age may be missing a good bet if they overlook annuities. “Mutual funds don’t protect you against the risk of outliving your assets,” says Olivia S. Mitchell, the council’s executive director.
