Faculty Voices
Tuck professors share their thoughts on timely business issues.
Matthew Slaughter on a new deal for globalization
In March, I returned to Tuck from Washington, D.C., where since the fall of 2005 I had been serving as a member on the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) in the Executive Office of the President. In this Senate-confirmed position, I held the international portfolio, advising policy makers—the president, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson [D’68], Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and others—on issues including international trade and investment, currencies, and the competitiveness of the U.S. economy. Since my return, the most common question I have gotten is, “So, how was it?” I am of two minds about it. On the one hand, it was great. Created in 1946, CEA has a long history among academic economists as a forum for applying academic scholarship and teaching to provide nonpartisan, nonpolitical input to the important policy challenges facing the country.... But on the other hand, measured in terms of policy outcomes, my CEA tenure was not so great. In case you haven’t noticed, U.S. economic policy is becoming more protectionist by the day.
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Richard Sansing on invisible corporate tax preferences
Many tax law provisions that favor certain types of investment are highly visible on a firm's financial statements. Other provisions, such as tax depreciation in excess of book depreciation, do not change a firm's accounting effective tax rate, but they do defer the payment of tax in a way that creates a deferred tax liability. In each case, both investors and policy makers can see the effects of these tax law provisions on a firm's financial statement.
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Karin Thorburn on reorganization vs. market-based bankruptcy systems
Bankruptcy codes vary from country to country in terms of the magnitude of the costs imposed on financially distressed firms, the transparency of the restructuring procedure, and the interest groups that receive primary protection. These factors significantly affect the prospects for achieving the two major goals of any bankruptcy system: minimizing costs and ensuring the survival of firms that are economically viable.
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Andrew King on the promise and peril of industry self-regulation
Industry leaders are increasingly recognizing the need for business to step into the voids in governmental regulation and self-regulate. While such actions may at first seem surprising, they often make perfect business sense. By reducing inefficiencies inherent in unconstrained competition, voluntary self-regulation can actually increase the profitability of an industry.
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Do you know where your marketing department is? An Interview with Professor Fred Webster
Frederick E. Webster Jr. D'59, T'60, Charles Jones Third Century Professor of Management, Emeritus, spoke with Punam Anand Keller, the current Charles Henry Jones Third Century Professor of Management. They discuss Webster's study on marketing's role in the firm.
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Paul Argenti on the challenge of protecting reputation
Risks to reputation can be among the most damaging a company can face. But because they are often intangible, they can also be extremely difficult to manage.
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M. Eric Johnson on a broader context for information security
The goal of effective risk management for information technology is not the elimination of security failures, but rather reducing their cost while empowering the business to take appropriate risks.
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Scott Neslin on the power of database marketing
Philadelphia retailer John Wanamaker once said, "I know half of my advertising is wasted. The problem is, I don't know which half." Database marketing tells you which half is wasted by identifying the customers for whom your marketing works, and those for whom it doesn't work. It can link marketing data to customer purchase information and help you eliminate wasted advertising. It can predict which particular marketing campaigns will work on which customers.
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Constance Helfat on the changing nature of strategy
"Why are some firms more successful than others? How do firms differ and why does it matter? In strategy research, this issue of heterogeneity among firms is critical. If all firms were the same, and they all operated in a similar business context, they would all be equally successful. Since this isn't true, then either the firms themselves have to be different or the business context in which they operate must be."
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M. Eric Johnson on offshore outsourcing
If all offshore outsourcing brings to mind is cost reduction, it's time to expand your thinking. Offshoring can reduce costs, of course, though not as much as an apprehensive public and fulminating politicians imagine. But much more importantly, creative use of offshoring can fundamentally transform business activities, create new services and products, and spur innovation that couldn't happen otherwise.
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Paul Argenti on leading in troubled times
On September 11th, as Tuck students, faculty, and staff clustered around televisions and radios throughout the school, the first-year class was in the middle of the first Tuck Leadership Forum module. In the days that followed, I spoke with many first-year students about the changing nature of leadership in the wake of this horrible tragedy. Those who are in our program today face challenges that Tuck students haven't experienced since the Second World War. I would like to discuss here what kinds of skills leaders will need to manage successfully during difficult times, why Tuck students and alumni are in a unique position to be great leaders, and what we can all do to inspire those around us in the months ahead.
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Richard D'Aveni on changing the conversation: Tuck and the field of strategy
How do you know whether a school has a great faculty? In my view, there is only one criterion: Does the faculty change the topic of conversation among academics, students, and the business community? I have been looking back at the last century at Tuck's impact on the field of strategy to judge our current performance against our historical performance and the performance of our competitors today.
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Vijay Govindarajan on underdeveloped global markets
"Let's not fool ourselves," says global strategy expert Vijay Govindarajan. "The post-9/11 world is a more complicated place to do business beyond your own borders. But that doesn't mean expansion should stop. On the contrary, the potential rewards for companies pursuing intelligent expansion strategies are increasing."
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Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble on globalization's unheralded core-corporate investment
"Since September 11th, the elimination of poverty through economic development has increasingly been viewed not simply as humanitarian but also as a critical driver of our prospects for peace. That's because it is easiest for terrorists to recruit very poor, desperate people—those who have so little that they are willing to give up this life for the next. Ironically, while the perceived need for economic growth has increased, private investment in the developing world has fallen."
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Robert Hansen on the research imperative
I firmly believe that great research and great teaching go hand in hand and that the long-term health of the Tuck learning environment requires a faculty of great researchers. Why is a research-based faculty so important to great teaching? Many studies have been done to identify the key attributes of effective teachers. The most important attribute is being knowledgeable and current in their field of study. Other essential attributes are enthusiasm and commitment to high standards that motivate student accomplishment.
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Kevin Lane Keller on sustaining successful brands
As one of the foremost experts on branding, Kevin Lane Keller has helped some of the world's most recognizable companies create and sustain successful brands. He's also seen many companies fail.
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David Pyke on strategic supply chains
"Ten years ago, managers were just beginning to understand the challenges of global supply chains," says operations management expert David Pyke. "But with the advent of the Internet and supply chain management techniques, more companies are streamlining the flow of goods and information around the globe. At the same time, supply chains have become increasingly global as firms have aggressively pursued outsourcing. Now we're seeing remarkably successful companies challenge this thinking as they take a completely different approach."
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Richard Shreve on teaching business ethics
Although Tuck School Professor Rick Shreve would describe himself as an investment banker rather than a professor of ethics, he has been actively involved in the study and teaching of business ethics since 1992, when he was invited to join Tuck's faculty. When he arrived in Hanover, Shreve had an MBA from Harvard, had worked for years as a successful investment banker and as a managing director at Morgan Stanley & Co., and had changed his path to pursue a masters in Divinity at Yale, with a view to becoming an Episcopalian minister. Perhaps Edward Fox, the dean of Tuck at that time, sensed that someone who was able to combine these seemingly diverse experiences could bring an invaluable perspective to the task of teaching ethics to budding business leaders.
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Clyde Stickney on transparency accounting
"People avoid accounting at all costs," says Clyde Stickney. "Even entrepreneurs who handle everything else themselves will outsource it—partly because of the steep learning curve and partly because of the intimidation factor."
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Chris Trimble on a decade of direct investment
There is a sense after the terrorist attacks of September 11 that the world has been fundamentally altered, that new approaches to leadership are required-approaches that are better suited to more fragile times. This may be true for governments and the public sector, but what is needed from leaders of global corporations is much more of what they've been doing for the past decade—investing heavily in the developing world.
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