How to build trust and lead effectively
Businessam Staff
October 31, 2017
Building good teams starts with having strong relationships based on a foundation of trust. But how does one develop that trust at work or in life? Counterintelligence expert Robin Dreeke, who spent decades as a senior FBI agent, knows how to make strangers trust him enough to be recruited as spies. And it’s not about […]
How to keep a company from leaving town
Businessam StaffOctober 31, 2017
About 20 years ago, General Motors announced it would leave its production facility in Lansing, Michigan. The mayor at that time, David Hollister, refused to accept that and helped lead the fight to keep GM in the city and save jobs. The process, which involved local and state government, community leaders, schools, businesses and many […]
How Richard Thaler’s ‘simple insights’ led to a Nobel Prize
Businessam StaffOctober 16, 2017
Richard H. Thaler, the “father of behavioral economics,” has this week won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in that field. Thaler has long been known for challenging a foundational concept in mainstream economics — namely, that people by-and-large behave rationally when making purchasing and financial decisions. Thaler’s research upended the conventional […]
Why the next phase for fintech is collaboration, not just competition
Businessam StaffOctober 16, 2017
Fintech — or financial technology — is a much-hyped buzzword on Wall Street that brings to mind nimble startups slaying stodgy bank ‘dinosaurs.’ The reality is more complicated. Fintech is growing up: Financial institutions are increasingly viewing these disruptors as partners while startups are learning that they need the scale and regulatory expertise of the […]
How fintech is changing the speed of lending
Businessam StaffOctober 16, 2017
After $3.5 billion in business loans spread across 100,000 customers, online lender Kabbage is showing one successful path for the fintech industry. In this Knowledge@Wharton interview, Spencer Robinson, head of strategy for the company, explains what Kabbage has discovered that allows it to approve loans in minutes, versus what he says can often be a multi-week slog […]
How to avoid the perils of political forecasting
Businessam StaffSeptember 19, 2017
Tune into any cable news program and chances are you’ll see pundits offering their insights and forecasting political outcomes. And often times, they get things incredibly wrong: The 2016 presidential campaign, for example, was filled with forecasters who predicted a solid Hillary Clinton win. Philip Tetlock, a social psychologist and Wharton management professor, looks at […]
Why Dodd-Frank increased banking industry consolidation
Businessam StaffSeptember 14, 2017
The global financial meltdown of 2008 resulted in sweeping reforms to the banking industry in the United States. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 ushered in a new era of regulation designed to reduce risk to the American financial system. Wharton accounting professor Allison Nicoletti believes the legislation also created a […]
Using the Blockchain to clean up the Niger Delta
Businessam StaffSeptember 5, 2017
In southeastern Nigeria, in an area known as Ogoniland off the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, is the site of one of the most polluted regions in the world. Over half a century of oil drilling and spills in the Niger Delta by Shell and other companies have left the area’s creeks, swamps, fishing […]
A new marketing royalty on the rise: Digital influencers
Businessam StaffSeptember 5, 2017
MARKETING As online platforms become cluttered with ads, marketers are challenged to find new ways to connect with their customers. One rising trend they should pay attention to is “influencer marketing,” or using the power of popular people to reach your target market, according to this opinion piece by Aprajita Jain, a brand marketing evangelist […]
What Google’s memo controversy means for gender diversity
Businessam StaffAugust 29, 2017
MANAGEMENT In the past week, the debate around gender equality and ideological diversity at the workplace has become more intense. The trigger is a 10-page internal memo that Google software engineer James Damore wrote last month, in which he attempted to explain his contrarian positions on those issues. Damore’s observations that biological and other gender-based differences explain […]