MBA ZoNe - MBA BulletPoint

Built To Last Takeaways

"I just finished reading Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I first read about it in this WSJ article,where CEOs pick their favorite leadership books, and after seeing its high ratings on Amazon, decided to pull the trigger and pick it up.  The book was written by a team at the Stanford GSB, and it identifies and discusses the common behaviors and practices found in visionary companies while discrediting common myths by comparing them to a set of counterparts considered less visionary..."
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Source: Kellogg MBA Class of 2011

TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog

About: TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog
"A Practical Corporate and Securities Law Blog...Editors Broc Romanek and Dave Lynn...to provide timely information about developments in corporate and securities law -as well as practical antidotes about how people appear to be reacting to these developments..."
Source: TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog

Does Public Ownership of Equity Improve Earnings Quality?

"The quality of accounting information is influenced by an array of factors, most of which stem from the demand for such information for use in contractual arrangements and from the incentives and opportunities of management to manage the reported numbers. Both the demand for quality accounting information for contractual purposes and management incentives to adjust the reported earnings are likely to be influenced by whether the equity of the company is privately held or publicly traded. This study examines the differential earnings quality of private equity and public equity firms in order to shed light on how public ownership of equity affects the quality of firms’ earnings..."
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Source: HBS Working Knowledge

HBS Working Paper: Corporate Social Entrepreneurship

"Because corporate social entrepreneurship (CSE) expands the core purpose of corporations and their organizational values, it constitutes fundamental change that can be particularly threatening and resisted. Furthermore, it pushes the corporation’s actions more broadly and deeply into the area of social value creation where the firm’s experiences and skill sets are less developed. The disruptive social innovations intrinsic to the CSE approach amplify this zone of discomfort. Fortunately, the experiences of innovative companies such as Timberland and Starbucks show how these challenges may be overcome..."
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Source: HBS Working Knowledge

Using Operating Cash Flow to Detect Earnings Problems

"The relationship between earnings growth, more specifically,growth in income from continuing operations, and increases in operating cash flow is important and can provide meaningful insight into a company’s financial health. Over extended periods, the rate of growth in earnings should be commensurate with the rate of growth in operating cash flow.A lasting discrepancy in their rates of growth should be investigated in order to gain an understanding of its causes and implications..."
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Source: Accounting, Financial & Taxation Blog

Regulators Eye "Going Concern" Concerns

"With the economic crisis deepening, auditors and their clients get testy with each other about companies’ ability to survive.

In the midst of an increase in the number of going-concern qualms stamped on company financials, standard-setters are working on changing how managers and auditors determine whether a business will stay viable in the foreseeable future.
It’s the one area of financial reporting where auditors are required to play forecaster. Here, they must go beyond their more comfortable role of reviewer and retrospectively of past financial performance..."
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Source: CFO

Penguins, Leadership, and Thinking about the Planet

"A herd of chinstrap penguins stood in shock on the dim midnight coast line of Antarctica, as they watched the shadows of Wharton students dance around in circles, pulling on each other’s ears and chorusing "la-la-la" to celebrate the arrival of the new year. It was a very special moment, which at the same time, felt awkwardly surreal; we were on the coastlines of Antarctica. But we knew it was the one new year’s eve, which we would always be bragging to our kids and grand kids on every new years eve to come. Last December 28, 45 excited participants of the Antarctica Leadership Venture landed on King George Island of the Antarctica Peninsula..."
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Source: The Wharton Journal

WHARTON LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE: Leading in a Dynamic and Unpredictable World

The 13th annual Wharton Leadership Conference is scheduled for June 16 in Philadelphia on “Leading in a Dynamic and Unpredictable World.”

For information on the conference, click here, http://leadershipconference.wharton.upenn.edu/2009/index.shtml.

Speakers including DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman and presidential historian Richard Norton Smith are described at http://leadershipconference.wharton.upenn.edu/2009/speakers.shtml.

For registration, go to http://leadershipconference.wharton.upenn.edu/2009/registration.html.

Branding: Articles on Taglines & Logos

Marketing Profs has a number of articles on branding, here are the links to the list of articles on logos and taglines...