March 2004
Media Coverage: March 2004
Media Coverage is a listing of current media placements featuring Smeal College faculty, staff and students. At the end of each month, items are moved into the Archive , accessible via the link at the end of this page.
Centre Daily Times , 3/28/2004 -- J. Randall Woolridge , Goldman Sachs and Frank Smeal professor of finance, discusses the Penn State Wall Street initiative and its influence in helping student land jobs in the financial services sector. Woolridge can't overemphasize the value of networking. "Our alumni know it's not easy to go from Penn State to Wall Street," he said. "You're competing with the best schools in the world ( It's Not Always What You Know, But Who ).
The Daily Collegian , 3/26/2004 -- The Penn State Wall Street Initiative, spearheaded by the Smeal College , is highlighted in an article. The initiative, launched in 1999, serves as a networking resource for students seeking positions in the financial services sector ( Alumni Create Program To Offer Wall Street Internships )
SmartPros , 3/22/2004 -- J. Edward Ketz , associate professor of accounting and MBA faculty director, says that members of Congress appear to be running interference for various business interests in the run-up to the release of proposed rules from the Financial Accounting Standards Board that require companies to expense stock options in their financial statements. According to Ketz, "These are members from districts with a lot of high-tech firms; California comes to mind or those politicians who have received a lot of campaign contributions from high-tech firms" ( FASB Braces For A Fight ).
The Daily Collegian , 3/22/2004 -- The Smeal College's slate of supply chain management educational programs offered to military personnel is mentioned in an article about Penn State's homeland security activities ( PSU's Homeland Security Role Discussed In NYC ).
HR Executive , 3/16/2004 -- Albert Vicere , executive education professor of strategic leadership, discusses the invigorated culture at 3M under CEO and chairman James McNerney. "In this day and age, a commitment of 17 days to development and training to take 3M to the next level is phenomenal," Vicere said. "You don't see many other corporations having that kind of ongoing level of commitment. It testifies to 3M's focus on developing a new generation of leaders in the company" ( Stuck On Change ).
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , 3/16/2004 -- Donald Hambrick , Smeal Chaired Professor of Management, discusses the practice of splitting the CEO and chairman roles. According to Hambrick, "A CEO needs to be accountable to somebody," but when the chairman's ties are too close to the organization as is the case when it's a former CEO, Hambrick says "It's not the kind of separation many advocates have in mind" ( Companies Split About Separating CEO, Chairman's Jobs ).
Scripps Howard News Service , 3/16/2004 -- Judy Olian , dean of the Smeal College, discusses in her twice-monthly column the variations in the corporate earning pyramid, noting that in some companies, employees out-earn top executives. Olian attributes these salary variations to performance, and explains that these differences are justified if the subordinates have a disproportionate impact on corporate value ( Highest Paid Isnt Always Person At Top ). The column also appeared in the Centre Daily Times and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette .
China Business Weekly , 3/10/2004 -- Fariborz Ghadar , director of the Center for Global Business Studies, discusses the economic situation in China, in particular the country's efforts to maintain economic stability in the face of international pressures to revalue the yuan. "My general impression is that the Chinese Government has done a good job of handling economic matters, including the pressure of dealing with the value of the currency," Ghadar said ( New Government Focused On People ).
Sacramento Bee , 3/09/2004 -- Fariborz Ghadar , director of the Center for Global Business Studies, discusses the recent surge of companies outsourcing jobs overseas. According to Ghadar, the public outcry has been heightened because "Instead of just manufacturing, these jobs (going offshore) have come from the service sector, and we're not used to that ( U.S. Overseas Payrolls Grow ).
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News , 3/08/2004, J. Edward Ketz , associate professor of accounting and MBA faculty director, discusses the fallout at Martha Stewart's company from the verdict against her. "My guess is they'll try to figure out how to disengage her name from the product," Ketz said (Company May Disown Martha Stewart). The story also appeared on The Miami Herald.com .
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , 3/8/2004 -- Albert Vicere , executive education professor of strategic leadership, says in a column that any decline of the long-venerated leadership retreat would be a shame. Vicere writes, "I can almost guarantee that the retreat, if structured well, will help you focus energy, build commitment and enhance networking across the leadership team. And at the end of the day, a focused, committed, interactive leadership team may be your company's most valuable asset" ( On Leadership: Retreats Can Build Focus, Committment ).
Baltimore Sun , 3/3/2004 J. Edward Ketz , associate professor of accounting and MBA faculty director, discusses the recent string of high-profile corporate corruption cases that have advanced to the trial phase in the past year. According to Ketz, most of the cases are a result of greed, and despite action by lawmakers, the scandals will continue because management believes it won't get caught ( Ex-WorldCom CEO Indicted In Securities Fraud; His Deputy Pleads Guilty, Agrees To Aid Prosecution ).
The Associated Press , 3/2/2004 -- Donald Hambrick , Smeal Chaired Professor of Management, and his research about the usefulness of the chief operating officer within the corporate structure are featured. "If you fashion yourself as a leader you would never put somebody else in charge, says Hambrick. The study, which is forthcoming in the Strategic Management Journal , finds that companies relying on both the CEO and COO for organizational leadership substantially under perform those with only a CEO (Business Watercooler Stories: Unwise No. 2s). The story appeared in The New York Times.com , MLive.com , the San Jose Mercury News , the Atlanta Journal Constitution , The News Journal (DE), the Naples Daily News (FL), the Stoughton Journal (MA), the Worcester Telegram (MA) the Springfield News Sun (OH), Boston.com , the Ocala Star-Banner (FL), the Times Daily (AL), the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL), the Lakeland Ledger (FL), the Contra Costa Times (CA), and the Macomb Daily (MI).
Scripps Howard News Service , 3/02/2004 -- Judy Olian , dean of the Smeal College, discusses in her twice-monthly column the value of negotiating skills. Olian writes, "Parties come to a negotiating table with an idea of the ultimate deal they'd like to strike and the risks if they don't. Rather than narrowing the scope of negotiation, they can broaden the issues to include other partners, assets or transactions that will follow if they get the deal they want, or that will be lost if they don't" ( Negotiations More Than Just Issue Of Value ). The column also appeared in the Centre Daily Times and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette .
San Diego Union-Tribune , 3/01/2004 -- Fariborz Ghadar , director of the Center for Global Business Studies, discusses the discovery on the part of British investors of the business opportunities in San Diego. According to many global business experts, the United Kingdom has become more hospitable to foreign investment. "Its venture capital industry is probably the best in Europe," says Ghadar of Great Britain ( Britain Offers S.D. Companies Capital Prospects ).
Marketing News , 3/1/2004 Smeal's Institute for the Study of Business Markets' study among marketing executives, educators, and researchers suggests that "achieving profitable growth" is the paramount challenge business marketers expect to confront this year and next. Ralph Oliva , ISBM executive director, explains that business-to-business marketers wanting to cash in on economic expansion and renewed business development will have to do so by innovating, crafting new business models, and growing their business through new products and new markets rather than by mergers and acquisitions ( Despite Economic Shifts, Biz Marketers Still View ROMI As No. 1 Concern ).
Infotoday.com , 3/1/2004 -- Lee Giles , associate director of research for Smeal's eBusiness Research Center and the David Reese Professor at Penn State's School of Information Sciences and Technology, and his work with the development of the Smeal-supported eBizSearch is profiled. The site crawls a broad range of Web sites, including universities, commercial institutions, government agencies, and research institutes and catalogs academic articles, working papers, consultant reports, magazine articles, statistics, etc. in the field of e-business ( Thomson ISI To Track Web-Based Scholarship With NECs CiteSeer ).
SmartPros , March 2004 -- J. Edward Ketz , associate professor of accounting and MBA faculty director, says in a regular column that the guilty verdict in the Martha Stewart case indicates that society seems closer to its goal of meting out justice in the financial meltdown that kicked off the new millennium. Ketz writes, "Is it possible that Martha really believes that she is innocent? Or worse, that the normal rules don't apply to her? Unfortunately, power corrupts, whether the power comes from money or politics or military might or from any other source" ( The Martha Stewart Verdict ).
REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu .
Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the eBusiness Research Center, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.
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