May 2004

Media Coverage: May 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.

The Morning Call (Allentown), 5/30/2004— James Miles , professor of finance, discusses the status of chipmaker Agere Systems, which was spunoff from Lucent Technologies two years ago. According to Miles, who is an expert of spinoffs, few publicly traded companies have two classes of stock as Agere does now. Said Miles, "'When you have high-vote stock outstanding and it is not held by management or family, that high vote makes it easier to take over the company'' ( Agere is Finally Free of Spinoff Restraints ).

Scripps Howard News Service , 5/30/2004— Judy Olian , dean of the Smeal College, discusses in her twice-monthly column the implications for employers when employees are called up for military service. "Whether the driver is the loss of reservists to Iraq or the reassignment of a key consulting team to a new area of business -- organizations with the flexibility and capacity to adapt their operating strategies rapidly will have a distinct market advantage," Olian writes. "In that sense, the troop call up may be a valuable business learning opportunity" ( Military Service: What It Means For Employers ).

WITF-FM (Harrisburg), 5/27/2004— J. Edward Ketz , associate professor of accounting and MBA faculty director, discusses in an interview the sentencing of chief executive officer Martin Grass for his role in the drug store chain's accounting scandal.

The Wall Street Journal , 5/24/2004— J. Edward Ketz , associate professor of accounting and MBA faculty director, discusses the tax-shelter inquiry of Ernst & Young being conducted by federal prosecutors. "It's another black eye for them," Ketz says, "and the question for us is: How many more black eyes can they take before it has some serious impacts on their relationships with their clients" ( Ernst & Young Faces Tax-Shelter Inquiry ).

Cox News Service , 5/23/2004— Fariborz Ghadar , director of the Center for Global Business Studies, discusses the implications in a society increasingly dependent on customization. "From an individual point of view, this is wonderful," Ghadar says, "but you have to step back from a society's view and say, 'What is this doing to us?' It's a major trend, and nobody's looking at it, and it's going to have some major effects on how our lives are run" ( Customization May Be Steering Us Into Isolation ).

Pennsylvania Business Central , 5/21/2004— Robin Stevens , director of corporate relations, discusses the importance of internships to the undergraduate experience. Smeal places about 750 interns each year. "As with anything else, you have some great experiences and some not so great," Stevens said. "When we have an internship that isnt working out, we try to work it out with the company [to improve the situation] ( Internships Provide Value For Students And Companies ).

Scripps Howard News Service , 5/21/2004— Albert Vicere , executive education professor of strategic leadership, says in a column that roles for leaders are changing. "Leaders must create new business models, new structures, new relationships. They must install new technologies and new processes. They must eradicate old-fashioned approaches that have worked for so long and replace them with new-fangled approaches, some of which may be unproven ( Roles Change For Leaders In A Changing World ). The column also appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette .

WPTT Radio: The Jerry Bowyer Show (Pittsburgh)— Judy Olian , dean of the Smeal College, discusses the importance of succession planning in a live interview.

Newhouse News Service , 5/18/2004— Fariborz Ghadar , director of the Center for Global Business Studies, discusses investments of foreign companies in the U.S. economy as is the case with Dutch-based Reed Elsevier and Luxottica, an Italian company. According to the Department of Development, both companies have announced investments in Ohio of more than $30 million apiece. "Would the expansion have occurred if the plants had remained with the U.S. company? We really don't know," Ghadar says. "That's why it's good food for thought for politicians" ( Foreign Companies Investing Money In America, Too ).

Scripps Howard News Service , 5/16/2004— Judy Olian , dean of the Smeal College, discusses in her twice-monthly column the importance of succession planning and the role the board of directors must play. "It is their most important obligation to shareholders -- to guarantee a smooth transition to a prepared, qualified successor," she writes. "On this issue, the buck stops with the board, not the CEO. Theyre accountable for the smooth transition once the CEO is gone. Otherwise, its Coke redux" ( Succession—Do It ). The column also appeared in the Centre Daily Times and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette .

United Press International , 5/14/2004— Fariborz Ghadar , director of the Center for Global Business Studies, discusses the emergence of wireless fidelity technology, which may supplant cellular phones as the primary form of mobile, voice communications. "It's going to happen -- it's just a question of time and speed with which it enters into the market," Ghadar says. "You still need the infrastructure to be put in place. It's not going to be completely free, but it will force competitive price erosion from the wireless companies, as people use the phones to bypass Verizon and SBC" (Wireless World: Next Up, Wi-Fi Phones). The story also appeared on the Web sites for Wireless NewsFactor , CIO Today , and Contact Center Today .

Centre Daily Times , 5/06/2004— The Smeal College's partnership with M&T Bank is highlighted. M&T became the first corporate sponsor of the MBA Executive Panel, the capstone experience for all first-year students in the program ( M&T Signs On As Smeal Panel's Corporate Sponsor ).

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , 5/04/2004— Albert Vicere , executive education professor of strategic leadership, says in a column that executive compensation remains an unresolved issue even as the economy is picking up steam. "Average CEO pay in the United States has risen from roughly 40 times that of an average wage earner a dozen years ago to more than 400 times today," he writes. "Are top execs worth it, or are colossal compensation packages fueling greed and scandalous behavior? Certainly boards of directors are concerned about those questions, and for good reason" ( On Leadership: Net Cash Tactic Can Get CEOs Toeing The Line ).

WPSX-TV / WPSU-FM (Central Pennsylvania), 5/04/2004— Judy Olian dean of the Smeal College, hosts "About Business," a call-in show focused on the impact of outsourcing on the U.S. economy. Joining Olian as guests are Gerald Susman , professor of management and director of the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change at the Smeal College; Paul Clark, professor and head of the Department of Labor Studies and Industrial Relations at Penn State; and Paul Lewis, president and CEO of Revivio, Inc.

Scripps Howard News Service , 5/02/2004— Judy Olian , dean of the Smeal College, discusses in her twice-monthly column how to protect corporate reputations in the digital age. "With the Internet's scale soon approaching 1 billion users," she writes, "reputations can be destroyed with the speed and ferocity of a devastating hurricane ( Making And Breaking Corporate Reputations On The Internet ). The column also appeared in the Centre Daily Times and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette .

Better Investing , May 2004— J. Edward Ketz , associate professor of accounting and MBA faculty director, discusses cash flow and its value in revealing true corporate value. According to Ketz, cash flow is much more difficult to manipulate than earnings statements ( Analyzing Cash Flow -- A Peek At The Bottom Line ).

Marketing Management , May/June 2004— Ralph Oliva , executive director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, addresses the principles of communication in his regular column: abide by Gross's first law, respect the receiver, match the medium to the message, avoid "bad e-mail," avoid "spam-nation, team to avoid phone tag, and avoid the dreaded "cell-a-telephony" ( BusinessWEB: Respecting Your Receiver ).

Marketing Management , May/June 2004— The Institute for the Study of Business Markets and the details of its recent annual meeting in Atlanta are highlighted in the "From the Editor" piece to open the magazine. "Attendees were treated to an excellent array of speakers and great topics," writes editor Carolyn Pollard Neal ( From The Editor ).

SmartPros , May 2004— J. Edward Ketz , associate professor of accounting and MBA faculty director, addresses the financial situation at semi-conductor company Broadcom in his regular column, "The Accounting Cycle." He writes: "And now the managers (at Broadcom) think they should have permission to issue more shares of stock to compensate themselves and other employees? On what basis? ... Let's hope that shareholders vote no on this proposal. It might force some new thinking in the management team. Or it might encourage some executives to search for new jobs. Either action would be welcome in today's world" ( Bye-Bye, Broadcom ).

Supply & Demand Chain Executive , May 2004— Smeal's On-Demand Supply Chain Research Laboratory is mentioned in a story about IBM's focus on curriculum development around supply chain skills ( Breaking The Silo Mentality ).

May 2004

Media Coverage: May 2004

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