Business & Entrepreneurship

“An Impending Influenza Pandemic? What has been learned from 1918” is the focus of a St. Louis community forum from 7:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Nov. 9 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom, Anheuser-Busch Hall, Washington University in St. Louis.

Streaming video can make for a very authentic form of communication.While most businesses pay lip service to the importance of communication in managing change, few successfully do it. A business professor from Washington University in St. Louis says using the internet to stream short videos every week from the CEO is the first step toward smooth transitions.

Major League Baseball implemented revenue sharing to create incentives for ball clubs to build their teams and build their fan base. It’s ended up having the opposite effect, according to a business professor at Washington University in St. Louis. The amount a small-market team receives from the league may be more profitable than the revenue it gets from winning a game. Michael Lewis proposes an alternative way of distributing MLB revenues that creates incentives for ballclubs to create good teams and fill stadiums. (video available)

The stock market might be nervous due to the subprime loan mess, but Stuart Greenbaum, Ph.D., former dean and Bank of America Professor Emeritus of Managerial Leadership for the Olin Business School, is bullish on the situation. Despite the circumstances, this is not a time to panic, says Greenbaum.

Jeri Sedlar, author of “Don’t Retire, Rewire!” will lead an interactive session to help people define what kind of work is best for their retirement given their passions and interests, and how to go about obtaining it. The talk will take place Friday, Oct. 5, 2007 at 4 p.m. in Simon Hall’s May Auditorium on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis.

The stock market might be nervous now due to the subprime loan mess, but Stuart Greenbaum, former dean of the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, is bullish on the situation.

After what seems like a never-ending cycle of firms recalling their products, Congress jumped into the ring with an oversight hearing to determine what is going on. But the complexity of sending an effective message to assure the public the products are safe is made all the more difficult when an executive speaks to a congressional committee. The verdict is out on the credibility of Mattel’s message.

Mortgage woes could get worse thanks to easy credit.If it seems as though sub-prime mortgage loans stirred up trouble in the financial markets, just wait until debt problems spill over onto household spending. America’s love affair with spending could trigger the most severe downturn in economic activity seen since at least the 1980s — and possibly since the Great Depression.

Just as rising gasoline prices are forcing many Americans to tighten their financial belts, new research suggests higher fuel costs may come with a related silver lining — trimmer waistlines. “An additional $1 in real gasoline prices would reduce obesity in the U.S. by 15 percent after three years,” said Charles Courtemanche, an economics doctoral student in Arts & Sciences.

Could higher gas prices mean trimmer waistlines?Just as rising gasoline prices are forcing many Americans to tighten their financial belts, new research suggests higher fuel costs may come with a related silver lining — trimmer waistlines. “An additional $1 in real gasoline prices would reduce obesity in the U.S. by 15 percent after three years,” suggests Charles Courtemanche, an economics researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.