Internet Capital Group and Wharton Team Up to Master E-Business

With its ups, downs, sharp dips and crashes, the e-commerce terrain is difficult to navigate. To make sense of this evolving landscape and to maximize its opportunities, the Wharton School and Internet Capital Group (ICG) – a leading business-to- business e-commerce company – have announced an alliance that will accelerate Wharton’s e-Business Initiative (WeBI).

WeBI is a partnership among business leaders, faculty, and students to generate and disseminate knowledge about e-business through research, academic programs and a range of corporate programs. “One of the key strengths of WeBI is the ability to leverage the expertise of leading businesses around the world that are dealing with critical e-business issues in real-time,” said Wharton Dean Patrick T. Harker. “We sought a part-nership with ICG because this business builder has the vision, leadership, talent, and collective knowledge required for a serious dialogue about the future of business, particularly in the B2B market-place.”

Headquartered in Wayne, Pa., ICG provides operational assistance, critical support, industry expertise, and a network of business relationships intended to maximize the long-term potential of more than 70 business-to- business e-commerce companies. “ICG has spent the past five years building a far-reaching network of B2B companies,” said Walter Buckley, president and CEO of ICG, “and we welcome the opportunity to share our knowledge and experience to propel WeBI, while leveraging Wharton’s deep understanding of business evolution and the Fortune 500 to benefit the growth of our partner companies and the overall acceleration of e-business adoption.”

Financial Times Ranks Wharton Number One

In rankings that were released by the Financial Times in January, Wharton received the number-one spot, bumping long-standing Harvard Business School to number two. The publication stated that Wharton earned the position “through strong research capabilities and the international diversity of its students,” citing the fact that “46 percent of students in Wharton’s MBA program are from outside the U.S.”

The publication ranks 100 MBA programs according to 20 criteria, including diversity of faculty and students, research, alumni salaries, and alumni career progression.

Regional Alumni Forums Bring World into Focus

Touring London, relaxing on the beach resort of Phuket, Thailand, or vacationing in Rio de Janeiro – not bad ways to spend your time, especially if networking is thrown into the mix. This year, four international regional conferences will bring alumni together from around the world to reconnect with former classmates, form new ties, and meet Wharton faculty and senior executives while exploring issues of regional economic importance.

The first meeting, held from March 11 – 13, took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, and focused on the complex challenges of taking a high-tech start-up to a global success. The London meeting, scheduled for May 3 and 4, will focus on e-commerce and will give participants the opportunity to interact with leading alumni in the European community. Phuket, Thailand, will be the site of the eighth Asian regional alumni meeting on June 1 and 2, where speakers will address continuing issues in Asia’s economic recovery. Finally, on June 28 and 29, Rio de Janeiro will provide the backdrop for an exploration of regional economic integration in a Latin American context.

Leadership Conference To Be Held in June

With fast-changing environments and scarce resources, today’s organizations are struggling to develop effecive leaders. The solution to that problem can be found in – Shakespeare?

Author Kenneth Adelman and Carol Adelman, principals of the consulting firm Movers and Shakespeares, think so. The two will present their unique perspectives on the subject of leadership along with several other speakers at this year’s Wharton Leadership Conference, to be held on June 7 at the Inn at Penn in Philadelphia.

Now in its fifth year, the conference is sponsored by the Wharton Center for Human Resources and the Center for Leadership and Change Management and will be hosted by Wharton professors Peter Cappelli and Michael Useem. Speakers will include Robert Browning, director of global career planning and development at Colgate-Palmo-live Company; Admiral Henry G. Chiles, distinguished professor of leadership, U.S. Naval Academy; Jim Collins, co-author of Built to Last; and Anne M. Mulcahy, president and CEO of Xerox Corporation.

New Associate Dean of External Affairs Appointed

Steven Oliveira has been named Wharton’s associate dean for External Affairs. In his new position, Oliveira will lead and manage development, communications and alumni affairs programming, including comprehensive activities for the Campaign for Sustained Leadership.

As vice president for Development and Alumni Relations at the Darden School at the University of Virginia, Oliveira enjoyed tremendous success by rebuilding and revitalizing the school’s advancement program. Under his leadership, the Campaign for Darden surpassed its goal by over 100 percent, raised the largest single gift in the history of any business school, and had the first graduating class in the history of higher education to achieve 100 percent participation in its class gift. Prior to his position at Darden, Oliveira served as associate vice president and co-director of Development at Brown University where he was responsible for several of the largest gifts in Brown’s history. During his career, Oliveira has worked closely with some of the world’s leading philanthropists. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown and a JD from Suffolk University Law School. He is a member of the bar in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Wharton Students Win Global Competition

A team of five first-year Wharton MBA students has captured the $20,000 grand prize in an international competition, sponsored by global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, to develop the best e-business strategy and implementation plan for a hypothetical multi-national company.

Awarded in January, the prize went to Steve Dumaine, Dennis Feerick, Geoff Hart, Peter Niessen, and David Turretini, who competed with seven North American and six European teams. Focusing on the same case study, each team was charged with developing a plan for the “client” – played by A.T. Kearney consultants. The final product was judged by a panel of five vice presidents from the firm.

“We strive to make the case as realistic as possible,” said Robert Chrismer, director of global recruiting at A.T. Kearney. “We give the teams a chance to use interviewing skills and challenge them to think on their feet. Team members can solve the case only if they ask the right questions.”

The other three finalists in the competition were University of Michigan Business School, the Manchester Business School (U.K.), and the London Business School.

Helen Boaden, WG’99: Learning the Many Sides of Broadcasting at BBC Radio 4

Almost every free minute of Helen Boaden’s youth was spent glued to news radio. Not much has changed for the award-winning broadcast journalist and producer who turned a childhood pastime into her life’s work.This March marked one year since the well-respected Boaden, 44, was named controller of BBC Radio 4.

“I am the last generation that grew up with speech radio as my first medium,” says Boaden, who graduated from the WEMBA (Wharton Executive MBA)program in 1999. Today, in addition to commissioning the programs for Radio 4, overseeing an £80 million budget and creating a schedule for the network, Boaden still carves out room in her newest role to listen to the product. “The fact is,” she says. “I listen to an awful lot of radio, and Radio 4 has always been one of my pleasures in my home life and work life.”

And she’s not alone. Radio 4, considered one of the world’s premier speech radio stations, has a deep pocket of listeners across the U.K. and a burgeoning Internet audience in the U.S. “Opinion-formers listen to Radio 4, which offers a richness of programming including science, drama, business, writing, philosophy and comedy,” she says.

Boaden joined the BBC in 1983 as a news producer. In 1998, she became the first woman to be made head of Current Affairs. “When I was doing the AIDS story in Africa in 1984 we were really years ahead of anyone else. The London Times did the story and used our facts which was a real honor,” says Boaden, who was awarded the Sony for “Best Current Affairs Program” for the piece.

In her current leadership role, Boaden promised a reintroduction of the Childre’s Listening Hour on Radio 4 as one of her first goals. “The BBC turned its back on children’s radio and it’s been a great challenge to woo a new generation of children listeners,” says Boaden. Critics, who scoffed at the idea that today’s children would sit still in front of the radio instead of carousing with friends, have had to eat their hats. In December, Radio 4 ran an eight-and-a-half-hour reading of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone to an overwhelming audience response.

Her diverse roles in broadcasting, Boaden says, strengthened her management position because she’s earned the respect of her peers. “It’s unusual for someone to start out as a reporter, then producer and then go into management. But I’ve done it —I’ve been there and made the mistakes,” says Boaden.

Savoring the challenges is part of that, she says. When she learned she would make the transition to controller without toting along any of her own staff, Boaden took it in stride. “Politics is always complicated in any large organization and the staff was all well established. I think managing creative people is a challenge —you start by listening to their programs and understanding what they’re trying to do and then reinforce the positive. Being straight about what works and what doesn’t work is important. A lot of it is about standing along- side people. You have to enthuse, yet maintain standards,” Boaden says. “You have to keep hold of your experienced staff and still create spaces for bright, young things to come in.”

Boaden’s WEMBA experience helped. “It was fascinating,” says Boaden. “There were so many different sorts of people and ideas at Wharton. I’ve always been interested in business, and it increased my understanding of the challenges of the business world.”

For Boaden, “career and life do not live on separate planets.” But she and husband Stephen Burley, a newspaper journalist for London’s The Evening Standard, still know how to jump off the fast track of the news business. “We have a little house in Yorkshire with the sea on one side and the moors on the other. I like walking, cooking and eating good food. And spending time with my husband.”

Fasten Your Seatbelts: It’s Follies Time Again FAP Man, “Tiger Team Tony,” SNL’s Mary Catherine, and The Greek Lady Chorus are just samples of the dramatis personae who appeared in “All’s Fair in Love and Wharton,” the Silver Anniversary performance of the Wharton Follies which took place in February. The show’s plot followed two MBA students, Harriet and Stanley, from their first, fateful encounter in “Cohort B” through a whirlwind semester that includes a Field Application Project gone awry, intense recruiting, and madcap interviews, all culminating in a “Wharton Wedding.”

Two “boy bands” – one made up of faculty members – converged in a musical battle, singing “Buy Buy Buy” and “Markstrat’s Back.” Other notable musical numbers included “Oops I QC’ed Again,” sung to the tune of the ubiquitous Britney Spears hit “Oops I Did It Again”; a “Lunch Truck Medley,” examining the pros and cons of visiting the School’s most popular food vendors; and “The Odds Are Good (But the Goods Are Odd),” a piece about meeting men on campus sung by the women performers.

Two video interludes added to the hilarity: “Behind the Follies” – based on VH-1’s “Behind the Music” – and the cast’s own version of “Survivor.” Members of the non-Wharton community were treated to “Wharton for Dummies” super titles, so that they could keep up with the pace of the program.

And, of course, no Follies performance would be complete without a guest appearance by the Dean – this time Dean Patrick Harker in the form of a “rock-star superhero,” who rescues Harriet’s and Stanley’s relationship and saves the day.

“Buy Buy Buy”(Excerpt)
(Sung to ‘N Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye”)

Buy Buy Buy …

I’m choosing stocks tonight
Cause … profit is pure delight
I can’t stop trading shares because I’m
obsessed
Hey —Cisco or GM?
And … Intel or IBM?
So … Bloomberg, please tell me how
I should invest.
………………………

Keep beta levels in my range
Watch out for the traders on the stock
exchange
I will win if I buy low, sell high,
Gotta buy, buy, buy …

Don’t really need that job at all
I can make a living trading puts and calls
It might sound crazy, but it’s worth a try
Baby, buy, buy, buy

Oh, oh …
No time to go party
I’m watchin’CNBC
I’ve got to find out what’s the word on the
Street
Today I’m feeling great —
Fed lowered the interest rate
And my portfolio is looking so sweet …