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Special Report

Financial Outlook: Where Do We Go From Here?
In this Special Section of Knowledge@Emory, highlights of those conversation as well as supplemental interviews and research on related topics. Videolinks to each segment are provided, including our historic bell ringing.

Will Medical Practices Survive Malpractice Insurance Rates?
U.S. President Barack Obama's planned overhaul of America's healthcare system took a step forward October 13 when the powerful Senate Finance Committee voted 14 to 9 along party lines, except for Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, to move its healthcare bill along for broader consideration. While this vote is a positive sign in a debate that has raged on for years, it comes too late for many physicians in high-risk specialties who have made the difficult choice to either restrict their practice, relocate to friendlier states, or to shut down shop altogether because of galloping increases in malpractice and other liability insurance. Faculty from Emory University, it's Goizueta Business School and other experts discuss the complexities of insurance and healthcare.

Knowledge@Emory Oct 15 - Nov 10

Do Firms Pay a Price for Deceptive Advertising?
On September 2, 2009, the U.S. Justice Department announced that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. Inc. agreed to pay a record $2.3 billion to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of four drugs. In the wake of the sanctions, Knowledge@Emory spoke with Sundar Bharadwaj, a professor of marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, about how negative publicity can affect the stock value of pharmaceutical companies, and why some companies engage in this kind of behavior knowing they face stiff penalties if caught. Bharadwaj is a co-author of a recently released research paper titled “Regulatory Exposure of Deceptive Marketing and Its Impact on Firm Value,” which will be published in the November issue of the Journal of Marketing.

Applying Technology to Boost Sales and Cut Costs in Retail
From department stores to grocery stores, goods are regularly reordered and restocked, regardless of how many customers have come by. This can lead to customers staring at empty bins because restocking hasn’t happened yet or employees wasting time and inventory trying to restock a full shelf. In a new research paper, Richard Metters, associate professor of information systems and operations management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, and coauthors look at data capture at these “unattended points of sale” to assess how much more profitable retail can be by adopting the latest technology. Data is gathered from the retail sector with perhaps the least amount of inventory information: the vending machine industry.

GE's John Rice on Risk, Regulation, Responsibility and Taking Control of Your Company's Destiny
For John Rice, vice chairman, General Electric (GE) and president and CEO, GE Technology Infrastructure, operating a company in the current economy is “the biggest challenge” of his career. Although GE, a diversified technology, media and financial services company with 2008 earnings of $18 billion, carries a sizable amount of cash on its balance sheet, the tightening of the credit markets has forced GE’s leaders to “run the place differently.” Rice recently addressed the current economy, its effect on GE, and the overall trends influencing GE’s leadership during a recent “Business for Breakfast” forum sponsored by Emory University's Goizueta Business School. “Companies are thinking about safety and security. Big or small, you have to control your own destiny.”

The Changing Profile of African American Politicians
Today’s African American politicians are a different breed from their older counterparts, argues Gwen Ifill in The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama (Doubleday, 2009). This newer generation’s distance from the civil rights movement, their more business-friendly posture, and their considerable educational accomplishments have reduced the separate-but-unequal political structures that once prevailed between black and white politicians. But some veteran black leaders wonder if this younger generation will effectively develop public policies to address structural racism and the concerns of the majority of African Americans. Andra Gillespie, assistant professor of political science at Emory University, also offers insight.

PR Maven Mary Reynolds on Setting Big Goals and Being Fearless
In times when many companies are shedding employees, Atlanta PR practitioner Mary Reynolds is hiring. Her business model for The Reynolds Group, Inc., an award-winning, boutique public relations firm, includes keeping the firm debt-free. That decision made in 1999 when she launched TRG, means she can focus on the business' future trajectory and not how to survive in the now. Recently, Reynolds discussed tough career choices, entrepreneurship, and rewards with Executive MBA students and alumni at a breakfast event hosted by Executive Women of Goizueta, an alumni group of Emory University's Goizueta Business School.

The Good, the Bad and the Exaggerated in Michael Moore's New Film, 'Capitalism: A Love Story'
Michael Moore's movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, doesn't pull any punches in its depiction of capitalism as the monster that is destroying America. Moore's villains range from Wall Street bankers to Wal-Mart to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, while capitalism's victims include those who are losing their jobs, their houses and, in some cases, their faith in a system that is supposed to reward hard work and playing by the rules. Knowledge@Wharton asked Kent Smetters, a professor of insurance and risk management at Wharton who describes himself as "generally right of center," to review Capitalism: A Love Story.