Managing Technology
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Alberto Vitale was running Bantam Books, the world leader in paperbacks, when the Newhouse family recruited him to become the COO of Random House. In that role, and later as the CEO of one of the world's top publishing firms, Vitale oversaw huge changes in the publishing industry. In this interview with Stephen J. Kobrin, publisher and executive director of Wharton Digital Press, and Knowledge@Wharton, Vitale discusses the rise of digital publishing, the future of bookstores and the globalization of copyright, among other issues.
Within the next year, Facebook is expected to follow LinkedIn's lead and become a public company. Beyond speculation about what LinkedIn's recent successful IPO means for Facebook or other social media companies like Zynga, Groupon and Twitter, experts wonder whether going public will require a level of transparency from Facebook that could expose its weaknesses.
The use of social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter to organize protests roiling the Arab world has been widely acknowledged. Researchers at the Dubai School of Government have now published research showing why social media played such a crucial role in helping catalyze popular anger that toppled two regimes in the Middle East and continues to rock others.
Feeling blue or apprehensive? U.S.-based entrepreneur Vinay Gidwaney and his brother Veer, who have been forming software companies since high school, may have a solution for you -- right at your fingertips. Their latest venture, Energy Inside, which the brothers co-founded in 2009, focuses on health and well-being. In this discussion with India Knowledge@Wharton, Vinay Gidwaney spoke about the intersection of the Internet and personal well-being, and about his company's future plans.
The Goldman Sachs
10,000 Women program for Mexico and Central America is the only one to teach its scholars through an online platform. Faculty members at University Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico are in the process of choosing 100 women business entrepreneurs to participate in the online training, scheduled to begin in October 2010.
Brazilian entrepreneurs are embracing the power of technology to transform their businesses. Two women who sell and market products now recognize the value of the Internet to interact with customers in a variety of ways, and are using online strategies to achieve new levels of growth.
Africa is expanding its bandwidth and getting greater access to technology, giving small business owners the chance for greater global expansion. As the story of one successful U.S.-based entrepreneur illustrates, the Internet, Skype and other tools have made it easier to locate and work with savvy suppliers around the world.
Who says all entrepreneurs have to subscribe to a maverick philosophy of independent thinking? Women scholars at Brazil's Fundação Dom Cabral are collaborating on an online networking initiative to share costs and help each other become more successful in business. They are taking the notion of support already inherent in groups of 10,000 Women students across the globe to a whole new technological level.
Social networking is testing the boundaries of privacy. The information we post on sites like Facebook and MySpace is creating a fingerprint-like pattern of behavior. Just a person's name and birth date -- routinely found on a Facebook profile -- can be a useful lever for an identity thief. Information gleaned from such sites is useful not only to identity thieves, but to marketers and other legitimate business interests.
In a study of global entrepreneurship, Raffi Amit and Mauro Guillen, both Wharton management professors, found that countries that created electronic business registries saw far higher levels of new business formation than those with traditional paper registries. In many countries, registries serve as more than just public databases. They become the nexus of policies relating to entrepreneurship.
The volume of new data being created, collected and stored is exploding, generating greater demands for electricity. Increased demand means higher costs and possibly more regulations. Information technology departments need be proactive in managing costs associated with the software and hardware they buy, operate and maintain. Electric power usage, says author and consultant Fred Mapp, is one example of how today's IT managers and departments need to be more integrated with the company's central business operations.
Afghanistan's mobile phone industry has exploded from no users in 2002 to five million to date. On the surface, this telecom sector could be considered a success: Four providers have invested more than US$1 billion in building a mobile phone network in one of the world's poorest countries. But while the country is feeling more connected, challenges remain.
While the entertainment aspects of creating a virtual identity through an avatar may sound exciting, the business and academic potential for the market is just as compelling. Today, professors, including some at Emory University's Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, Georgia, are using the space to teach course material and to understand the business applications of the technology. Meanwhile, corporate giants are using virtual worlds for client training and information.
These days, companies face a potpourri of threats and cybercrimes to their information. Inadequate data protection is a particular problem in Latin America, where corporate investment in security systems is lower in comparison with developed nations. Experts urge Latin American companies to improve their data protection policies, especially those that involve accessing critical information.
Armed with ways to better manage her capital and finance her business, Lalitha Yanamandra of Hyderabad, India is overflowing with entrepreneurial ambitions. One of her priorities is to expand her financial projections and other aspects of her business plans in hopes of securing venture capital investment.
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