PROFNET EXPERT ALERTS: State of the Union / Volkswagen / Software Glitches

Jan. 24, 2011

TOPIC ALERT:

State of the Union (9 experts)

EXPERT ALERTS:

1. Advertising: User-Generated Content Is a Growing Trend

2. Finance: Credit Score Maintenance

3. Marketing: Volkswagen's Failure to Win in the U.S. Market

4. Marketing: What It Takes to Attract Gen-Y Consumers

5. Technology: Software Glitches: Their Impact on Consumers and Businesses

6. Workplace: Outbreak of Blame Threatens Organizations of All Kinds and Sizes

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STATE OF THE UNION:

Following are experts who can discuss the president's State of the Union address from business perspectives. You may also find additional experts who can speak on this topic by visiting our "2011 State of the Union Address" forum on our social networking site, ProfNet Connect: http://bit.ly/sotuexperts  To view the complete Topic Alert, see: http://bit.ly/e8EoMU

**1. Nancy Bennett, senior life fellow at the American Academy of Actuaries: "Although the financial regulatory reform law was signed into law in 2010, significant work remains to be done in defining and establishing the regulatory regimes authorized by the statute. Regulatory systems should better anticipate future systemic risk by incorporating sound risk management principles. Any new regime should employ the appropriate oversight, expertise and accountability necessary to mitigate the effects of risks that could threaten the stability of our nation's financial system." News Contact: Andrew Simonelli, [email protected] Phone: +1-202-785-7872

**2. Werner F.M. De Bondt, professor of finance, and chair and director of Richard H. Driehaus Center for Behavioral Finance at DePaul University, is an expert on behavioral finance, including investor psychology, psychology of financial markets and financial decision-making, uncertainty and risk, and how the stock market reacts to dramatic news or events. He can discuss global financial markets; financial regulation; recession; and consumer, business and investor confidence. De Bondt: [email protected] News Contact: Deborah Snow Humiston, [email protected] Phone: +1-312-362-8508

**3. Ali M. Fatemi, professor and chairman of finance at the College of Commerce at DePaul University, can discuss the economy, financial markets reform and energy policy. Fatemi: [email protected]  News Contact: Deborah Snow Humiston, [email protected] Phone: +1-312-362-8508

**4. Eric Garris, founder of Antiwar.com: "President Obama needs to address one of the most important problems facing our future: the costs of empire. As he lays the groundwork for increasing U.S. intervention around the world -- ostensibly to fight terrorism -- that fight is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. More U.S. military intervention means the creation of new terrorists and the focused targeting of U.S. interests. This spiral will only require further interventions and future expenditures which will drain the U.S. Treasury, resulting in more debt and tougher economic conditions. President Obama would be wise to pull back in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, and get serious about cutting Pentagon costs. The current attempt to cut 'Pentagon waste' will hardly address the problem." Garris is located in San Francisco. News Contact: Wendy Roxas, [email protected] Phone: +1-510-217-8665 Website: http://www.antiwar.com

**5. Frank Gunter, associate professor of economics at Lehigh University: "Substantial tax simplification will be difficult, but provides an opportunity for changes that will immediately benefit most Americans without requiring that either party walk a political plank. The current complexity of paying taxes in the United States imposes a real burden on taxpayers much greater than the actual revenue collected by Uncle Sam." News Contact: Sally Gilotti, [email protected] Phone: +1-610-758-3224

**6. Tom Hyclak, professor of economics at Lehigh University: "President Obama's deal with Republican leaders to extend the Bush-era tax cuts and long-term unemployment benefits was necessary to prevent an ill-timed decrease in total spendable household income. This will allow consumer spending to continue to rise at a modest pace. Families are still reducing debt and rebuilding wealth, thus limiting the growth from pent-up demand for cars and other durable goods that helped pull us out of previous recessions. How can policy help? The multiple headwinds against private spending argue for a new round of federal infrastructure spending on things such as renewing the air-traffic control system, hardening port security, and improving the transportation network to offset sluggish growth in private-sector demand and help shift the economy to a faster growth trajectory." News Contact: Sally Gilotti, [email protected] Phone: +1-610-758-3224

**7. Robert Ricketts, Ph.D., holds the Frank M. Burke Chair in Taxation in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University: "We need sensible tax reform. Sensible, in my view, means that the reforms meet at least the following two criteria: 1) adequacy (raises revenues sufficient to cover spending) and 2) efficiency (the system encourages key behavior on the part of taxpayers). With the exception of a brief period at the end of the 1990s, the first requirement has not been satisfied for the past 30 years, but the failures have been growing in magnitude. This must be corrected. With regard to the second requirement, the tax system is a powerful motivator. Reforms to the corporate tax system should be crafted in such a way that they encourage a return to domestic production and investment, rather than an across-the-board reduction in the corporate tax rate. Reforms to the individual tax system should be designed to discourage certain types of consumption (in particular energy), so that a particularly efficient reform at the moment might include shifting some of the burden of the income tax to gas taxes. Equity is also an important issue, and Congress should at least consider raising or eliminating the earnings ceiling on the payroll tax, which would allow the tax rate to be reduced substantially. In other words, tax reform needs to focus on the entire system, rather than simply on the individual income tax." Ricketts: [email protected] Website: http://experts.ttu.edu/browse/profile/45

**8. Tom Terry, consulting actuary and chairperson of the Public Interest Committee of the American Academy of Actuaries: "Regarding Social Security, public policymakers should restore actuarial balance to the program by including an increase in the retirement age in any reform package. Increasing life expectancy has led to an expansion of the program's lifetime benefits and system costs, but an increase in the retirement age would help curb this cost growth." News Contact: Andrew Simonelli, [email protected] Phone: +1-202-785-7872

**9. David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General and current CEO of the Comeback America Initiative, can give pre- and post-State of the Union commentary on fiscal and economic issues. Some topics he can discuss include: if the government can increase spending to restore the economy/create jobs *and* reduce the deficit, entitlement reform, why PAYGO alone is insufficient, military spending cuts, if the president will follow the suggestions of his Fiscal Commission, and increasing the debt ceiling. Walker has made a career discussing fiscal responsibility issues, having served for both Republican and Democratic administrations. His new company, the Comeback America Initiative, will actually be launching post-State of the Union, conducting a grassroots and "Inside the Beltway" campaign to support specific solutions to decrease the federal deficit. Walker has offices in New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Connecticut. News Contact: Brittany Fraser, [email protected] Phone: +1-212-896-1251

EXPERT ALERTS:

**1. ADVERTISING: USER-GENERATED CONTENT IS A GROWING TREND. Scott Creamer, founder and CEO of The Screamer Company: "Disney World is leading the way with user-generated advertising in their 'home video' commercials. This continues to be fueled by the social networking phenomenon and the shift in mindset that, in turn, has driven people to become actively engaged in generating their own content and sharing it with an international audience on the Web. User-generated content advertisement is back in full force, and from a marketing perspective, using user-generated content is absolutely brilliant and usually a lot less expensive for a company. User-generated content owes part of its popularity to society's increasing agility at working with video and audio tools at home to mimic what television studios do for hefty fees." Through his company, Creamer is being approached by smaller firms which now have a larger advertising budget if they utilize user-generated advertising. He can discuss this trend and how it is affecting the advertising/marketing industry as a whole. He can also discuss "trigger points" (hot topics), as well as timely recommendations, that the company provides to its customers. Creamer is located in Austin, Texas. News Contact: Amanda Abbott, [email protected] Phone: +1-512-585-5757

**2. FINANCE: CREDIT SCORE MAINTENANCE. Chip Poli, owner of Poli Mortgage Group, Inc. of Norwood, Mass: "The older your credit history, the better -- so don't forget about your older cards. If you stop using a card, the issuers may stop updating the account with the bureau. Experts recommend using your oldest card every few months to charge a small amount, then pay it off in full when the statement arrives. If a late payment shows up on your credit report and the payment was legitimately on time, you must dispute that item right away with the three credit agencies. We are finding creditors unwilling to correct their own mistakes. Inaccurate credit reporting is a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and companies are trying to stay away from litigation. Consumers need to be proactive with inaccuracies or hire a firm that can expedite the process." News Contact: Lucia Scott, [email protected]

**3. MARKETING: VOLKSWAGEN'S FAILURE TO WIN IN THE U.S. MARKET. Allyson Stewart-Allen, Sky News' "Muse of Marketing" and founder of International Marketing Partners: "Volkswagen's failure to win in the U.S. market is in part due to not adapting its cars to the American culture. Perhaps they should have considered incorporating a few locally relevant design features into the car's interior, such as cup holders." Stewart-Allen, a world-recognized marketing expert helping localize brands across cultures, is available to offer her viewpoint on Volkswagen's U.S. expansion story, as well as on brand localization across most business sectors. Stewart-Allen is located in London. She speaks French and German fluently. News Contact: Victoria Mechlin, [email protected] Phone: +44-020-7828-9400

**4. MARKETING: WHAT IT TAKES TO ATTRACT GEN-Y CONSUMERS. Ian Ford, founder and CEO of Undercover Tourist, a travel company: "While Twitter and Facebook are excellent and necessary ways to reach the Gen-Y audience, they are just tools. Many businesses have to shift the way they market and advertise to this group in order to gain them as customers. These tools will change and mold into what users want as time goes on, but it's how we are utilizing the tools that make the difference. For example, Gen-Yers are looking for instant gratification, useful information and entertaining tidbits. They not only want the information themselves, but they want to easily be able to share this information with their network of family and friends. Essentially, they want to be the hero by the click of a button. Many business owners think they have the 'tools' for this new group of consumers. However, they may not be using them correctly or looking for other unique ideas to draw this group in." Ford can discuss Undercover Tourist's efforts to provide users information that is easily spread among its fan base and potential fan base. He can also discuss "trigger points" (hot topics), as well as timely recommendations, the company provides to its Gen-Y users. News Contact: Amanda Abbott, [email protected] Phone: +1-512-585-5757

**5. TECHNOLOGY: SOFTWARE GLITCHES: THEIR IMPACT ON CONSUMERS AND BUSINESSES AND HOW THEY CAN BE AVOIDED. Jeff Papows, long-time Boston-based entrepreneur, CEO of WebLayers, and author of the new book, "Glitch: The Hidden Impact of Faulty Software": "Your software systems are at the heart of your business -- and they may be vulnerable. The confluence of technology, market consolidation and legacy system challenges in today's complex network computing environment has often led to serious software glitches. These glitches can be prevented with governance techniques that can help you systematically find and fix weaknesses in the way you build, buy and manage software." News Contact: Ariel Burch, [email protected] Phone: +1-781-782-5848

**6. WORKPLACE: OUTBREAK OF BLAME THREATENS ORGANIZATIONS OF ALL KINDS AND SIZES. Ben Dattner, organizational psychologist, New York University adjunct professor, and author of "The Blame Game" (Free Press; March 15, 2011): "There has been much discussion and debate recently about the tone of the national political climate, with politicians and pundits blaming one another for events and for the backlash that soon follows events, instead of seeking solutions to problems of shared concern. However, the same destructive and dysfunctional dynamics at blame occur each day on a smaller scale in organizations of all sizes. Only by understanding the reasons why blame is so prevalent and so tempting in the workplace can individuals and leaders at any level defuse vicious cycles of blame and instead create virtuous cycles of problem solving." News Contact: Allison Dunn, [email protected] Website: http://www.creditandblame.com

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/PRNewswire – Jan. 24, 2011/

SOURCE ProfNet