TBS, Inc. CEO Phil Kent on Branding, Technology and Evolving in One's Career

According to Phil Kent, Chairman & CEO, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., TBS, Inc. puts "enormous focus" on building brands and then uses the power of its brands to provide advertisers with great value. Speaking to a group of MBA students at Emory University's Goizueta Business School as part of the MBA Career Management Center’s Career Connection Day, Kent discussed how Turner creates branded media environments and advised students to consider their personal brand and give their careers the same attention. He also emphasized the importance of evolving in business and in one’s career. For Kent, this means taking risks and being open to opportunity.

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Leveraging Social Networks to Drive Private Equity Deals
Social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are making it easier for relationships made in college and in the workforce to continue and strengthen. According to Chris Rider, assistant professor of organization & management at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, the benefactor of all these connections is more than likely your employer. In a new paper, “Embedding Inter-Organizational Relations in Organizational Members’ Prior Education and Employment Networks,” Rider investigates this argument with the private equity industry and shows that private equity firms leverage their members’ prior education and employment networks to identify and select new investment partners. For Rider, this research demonstrates how in private equity, as in many industries, "one’s prior education and employment experiences are important not only because individuals develop skills and accumulate knowledge at schools and employers, but also because they form valuable professional relationships that may benefit their future employers.”

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Will Biomedical Informatics Improve Healthcare Outcomes?
Biomedical informatics is making it possible to collect, weed through, and analyze widespread data on patient treatments and outcomes, says Dr. Joel H. Saltz, director of Emory University’s Center for Comprehensive Informatics. Given the national debate over costs in the healthcare system, medical practitioners and IT experts say that this evolving interdisciplinary field can provide large scale improvements in treatment processes, and ultimately, in the price tag for care. But what hurdles exist in this new field of medical research? Saltz and Barbara A. Maaskant, chief information officer for Emory’s Goizueta Business School, explore the issues.

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Verizon Wireless Jim McGean Takes Your Calls on Managing for Change and Success
Jim McGean, Verizon Wireless president of the South Area and an Emory University alumnus, entered the telecommunications industry when a 2½-pound phone cost $3,000 (plus an additional 75 cents per minute) and was relegated to the car. Twenty-one years later, cell phone service providers boast 95 percent penetration in the U.S., and Verizon is the number two seller of digital music in the U.S. In a recent Q&A with Knowledge@Emory, McGean discusses how Verizon is facing off against Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based services, harnessing converging technology and keeping the smart phone relevant in this new world full of “smart things.”

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Free Lunch Author Discusses Regulation, Corporate Subsidies
As California struggles with another budget shortfall,  consumer advocacy and union groups have argued for a rollback of the billions in state subsidies to area businesses. But do these subsidies actually encourage economic growth and increase job activity, as originally intended? In a recent conversation with Knowledge@Emory, author David Cay Johnston builds a strong case against these subsidies, and he discusses his bestseller Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill).

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Pay for What You Get: Putting Performance-based Contracting to the Test
Every company wants to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of its supply chain, but what's the best way? Since 2004, the United States Defense Department has required its suppliers to adopt performance-based contracting so that it pays them a fee based on the amount of time big-ticket items like F-22 fighter jets are in use without requiring repairs. But is that better value than more traditional contracts that charge customers for time and materials when products break down? According to a new study co-authored by Wharton researchers, the answer is yes.

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