This Week in Business

Would you buy brand-name ice cream or shampoo that came in a reusable container? A company called Loop is working with a number of consumer product companies, including Nestle, PepsiCo and Proctor & Gamble, to work towards "zero waste" initiatives. With reusable containers, you would place your empty Crest mouthwash bottle in a separate recycling bin that would be picked up and taken to a cleaning and sterilization facility, and refilled with the product for you or another customer. Host Dan Loney talks with Americus Reed, Marketing Professor at the Wharton School and host of Marketing Matters, and Eric Orts, Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics and Director of the Initiative for Global Environmental Studies at the Wharton School, about the sustainability impact this service could have when picked up by major brands, and how likely consumers are to adapt to this new greener model on Knowledge@Wharton.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Federal regulations mandate pilots must retire when they are 65 years old. But there is no such law in place for doctors. When are doctors too old to treat patients? And what should the criteria be to determine their retirement? A new report in the Journal of the American Medical Association Surgery examines this issue and recommends protocols for testing older doctors for health and competence, though it doesn't specify at what age that should happen. Some hospitals have instituted a policy of review for physicians when they turn 70 years of age. The AMA study estimates about a quarter of all practicing physicians in the U.S. are over the age of 65. To help explore these questions, host Dan Loney is joined by the three researches from the University of Washington who worked on this report: Patchen Dellinger, a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Surgery, Thomas Gallagher a Professor in the Department of Bioethics and Humanities, and Carlos Pellegrini, a Professor in the Department of Surgery and former Chief Medical Officer at the University of Washington Medicine.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2017 there were over 47,000 opioid-linked deaths in the United States – a six percent increase from 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Massachusetts is now suing Purdue Pharma, maker of Oxycontin, and members of the Sackler family, one of the wealthiest families in America and owners of Purdue Pharma. The suit alleges the Sacklers made billions of dollars as their company pushed doctors to prescribe the pain killer, assuring the drug had a low risk of misuse, even though they knew it was highly addictive. Purdue is also accused of failing to report doctors who were overprescribing the drug. The company is facing hundreds of different suits by state and local governments across the country. Host Dan Loney is joined by Rob Field, Professor of Law and Professor of Health Management and Policy at Drexel University and a lecturer in the Health Care Management Department of the Wharton school, and Keith Humphreys, Professor and Section Director for Mental Health Policy at Stanford University and Senior Research Career Scientist at the VA Health Services Research Center, to discuss these allegations and more on the opioid epidemic on Knowledge@Wharton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Reibstein, Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School and host of Measured Thoughts, joins host Dan Loney to discuss his recent B-School Seminar presented to congressional staffers that focuses on nation branding as it applies to the U.S., and why a country should care about their brand globally and the role that public policy plays in shaping and communicating that brand to the world. They will also discuss the 2019 U.S. News and World Report list of the best countries that rates a country’s wealth and success, the policies that create opportunities, and the people who lead the change and its history. This seminar is part of the Penn Wharton B-School for Public Policy, a new monthly series of faculty-led seminars for policymakers on Knowledge@Wharton. For more information about how to get involved with Penn Wharton B-School for Public Policy, visit: https://publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/b-school/get-involved/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James Bell, Director of Corporate Communications and Social Media at Kia Motors America, joins host Rob Coneybeer to discuss Kia's work with self-driving cars on Launch Pad. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jon Carter, Chief Digital Officer & Chief Technology Officer at Snap Kitchen, joins host Rob Coneybeer to discuss how this startup makes healthy, handmade meals for busy people on Launch Pad. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bob Anderson, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Development Officer of The Leadership Circle and the Full Circle Group, joins hosts Jeff Klein and Anne Greenhalgh to discuss his new co-authored book "Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter Most" on Leadership in Action. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week, the U.S. Justice Department has filed charges against tech giant Huawei alleging they have, among other things, violated the Iran Sanctions, stolen industrial secrets of American carrier T-Mobile and obstructed a criminal investigation. The Chinese telecom company is the biggest supplier of phone and internet network equipment in the world and is the second biggest cellphone producer. The indictments come two months after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who is also daughter of the company’s founder, was arrested in Canada. China's foreign ministry yesterday called on the U.S. and Canada to release Wanzhou. The timing coincides with top officials from China holding a two days of trade talks with the Trump Administration in Washington. Host Dan Loney talks with Jacque DeLisle, a Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Center for East Asian Studies, and Deputy Director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China, and Richard Dasher, the Director of the U.S.-Asia Technology Management Center at Stanford University, to discuss how this case might play out on Knowledge@Wharton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 35-day partial government shutdown left 800,000 workers either on furlough or working without pay. It also affected nearly 10,000 companies who contract with the departments that were shutdown. Many people picked up other jobs during the closure, and others were moved from government contracts to working in the private sector. What we don’t know yet is whether these people will return to their jobs or whether there will be a mass exodus from the public sector, particularly as the president is warning another could happen as soon as next month. Host Dan Loney talks with Paul Light, a Professor of Public Service at New York University and Bill Resh, an Associate Professor at the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, about the repercussions of the longest US government shutdown on Knowledge@Wharton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're featuring a series this month called “2019: A Look Ahead” and conclude our series with a look at women in leadership positions and how the Me Too movement has influenced businesses. A December report by The World Economic Forum said it would take 202 years for gender parity in the workplace – much longer than the 170 years estimated in 2016. But a study by the annual Women CEO Report said that 2018 was a great year for women, who made up over one-fifth of the newly installed CEOs last year. California took a bigger step than other states when it passed a law requiring publicly listed companies with headquarters in the state to have at least one woman on their board by the end of this year. And 2019 has started with an increase of women sworn in to the 116th United States Congress. So what might we see in the year ahead for women in 2019? Host Dan Loney is joined by Katherine Klein, a Professor of Management at the Wharton School, Vice-Dean of the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, and co-host of Dollars and Change, and Janice Madden, University of Pennsylvania Professor of Regional Science and Sociology, to discuss the implications of these shifts for women on Knowledge@Wharton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.