Penn State Supply Chain Program Earns Top Ranking
For the fifth time since 2008, Gartner, Inc. has ranked the Penn State Smeal College of Business as the best supply chain graduate program in the United States. The Penn State Supply Chain program earned top scores in three categories for this year’s ranking: “program scope, industry value, and program size.”
On news of the ranking, Nicholas C. Petruzzi, Chair of the Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems, says, “Retaining the No. 1 ranking for graduate supply chain education provides great affirmation for the rigor, relevance, and impact of our professional supply chain programs.”
“We take pride in this news, and being recognized as a leader in supply chain education is a testament to the dedicated and tireless efforts of our faculty and staff, students, alumni, and recruiters.”
The news of the placement came only a few weeks after Gartner, Inc. announced its undergraduate ranking, which was also awarded to Penn State University.
Smeal earned top honors for its supply chain program for the fifth time since 2008 on the Gartner, Inc. rankings.
The full, official supply chain ranking from Gartner, Inc. will be released in the near future. Head over to the official Penn State Supply Chain website for more information on the program.
Forbes, Statista Analyze The Best U.S. Employers for Women
Forbes, in partnership with German data company Statista, surveyed over 40,000 U.S. employees (including 25,000 women) that worked for companies that had at least 1,000 total employees in an effort to find which companies were the best US employers for women. While several big-name companies earned high marks, one particular Iowa-based company managed to stand out among the competition.
The first set of criteria Forbes and Statista analyzed to calculate its best US employers for women ranking centered around factors such as working conditions, diversity, and “how likely they’d be to recommend their employer to others.” When accounting for the men in the survey, in contrast to the women that were asked the same set of questions, scores were adjusted if the differences if answers became apparent. For example, Statista would adjust scores if men in the survey said a company had a lot of diversity, but women said that the same company did not.
The following set of criteria used in the survey, specifically for the female respondents, focused on “on factors such as parental leave, discrimination, and pay equity,” as well as nominated companies outside of the one they happen to work for. “The final list ranks the 300 employers that both received the most recommendations and boast the most gender diverse boards and executive ranks,” Forbes says.
Des Moines, Iowa company Principal Financial Group was the best U.S. company for women, according to Statista data.
Principal Financial Group, based out of Des Moines, Iowa, earned the highest honors for the 2018 ranking, with an official score of 91.4. The company, ranked 210th overall on the Fortune 500 list, employs 9,978 U.S. workers, nearly 60 percent of which are women. Speaking with Forbes, Kerry Gumm, the Principal Capital Director of Human Resources Strategy, says, “It really does start with the culture of the organization.”
“You can have a holistic life if you’re part of this organization,” she adds. “I’ve not felt the need to compromise in any way.”
Principal Financial Group earned high recommendations because of its benefits, which include “flexible work schedules, prenatal care programs, and an onsite childcare center.” The company also manages an annual review of all of its pay practices to better combat any potential biases, alongside an anonymous call center to help discuss compensation disputes. Not to be outdone, the company also implements rigorous standards in helping its own employees earn promotions, of which include “three women’s networks for those in leadership, technology, and sales roles.” In contrast to many of the companies listed in the aforementioned Fortune 500 listing, 42 percent of executive roles and 45 percent of the boards seats are held by women Principal Capital Group.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System, more commonly referred to as Penn Medicine, earned the number two spot on the ranking. The organization has over 35,000 U.S. employees; the third highest among the top ten ranked companies. With a significantly larger employee base than Principal Financial, Penn Medicine also has one of the largest percentages of female employees in the country at 77 percent. This also includes 55 percent women in the organization’s executive roles, as well as five out of its seven CEOs.
Card manufacturer Hallmark, based in Kansas City, Missouri, rounded out the top three. The company sports the smallest employee base out of any company in the top 10, with 2,500 U.S. employees. However, Hallmark featured an even larger portion of U.S. female employees than Penn Medicine, with a figure of 83 percent overall. About 70 percent of the Hallmark board is also held by women.
Several of the nation’s most prominent universities also managed to land in the top 50 of the new ranking, the highest of which was Harvard University at 9th overall. New York University, UVA, Stanford, and Emory University also earned high honors in the 2018 best US employers for women ranking.
2018 Best US Employers for Women
| Ranking | Company | # of U.S. Employees |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Principal Financial Group | 9,978 |
| 2 | Penn Medicine | 35,273 |
| 3 | Hallmark | 2,500 |
| 4 | BayCare | 25,600 |
| 5 | Oregon Health & Science University | 15,642 |
| 6 | Keller Williams Realty | 154,000 |
| 7 | Boston Children's Hospital | 5,001 |
| 8 | Providence Health & Services | 82,000 |
| 9 | Harvard University | 18,724 |
| 10 | Gwinnett County Public Schools | 23,300 |
Click here to see the 2018 entire ranking.
How the House Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Could Affect Grad Students
Days before the House of Representatives voted to pass the House Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on the morning of Thursday, November 16, budget experts at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania broke down the proposed bill, discussing its broad potential impact.
The breakdown, per the Wharton Budget Model, focused on three principle findings:
- “This brief reports Penn Wharton Budget Model’s (PWBM) dynamic analysis of The House Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), as amended and reported out by the Ways and Means Committee on November 9, 2017.”
- “After including the tax bill’s effects on economic growth, TCJA is projected to reduce revenues between $1.5 trillion and $1.7 trillion. Debt rises by about $2.0 trillion over the same period. Looking beyond the 10-year budget window, by 2040, revenue falls between $3.6 trillion and $4.4 trillion while debt increases by $6.4 to $6.9 trillion.”
- “In 2027, GDP is between 0.4 percent and 0.9 percent higher than with no tax changes. By 2040, the difference between GDP under the House tax bill and current policy is between 0.0 percent and 0.8 percent, due to larger debt.”
The research focused on broader implications, rather than zeroing in on how the bill potentially effects different socioeconomic classes. In conclusion, the research “projects that The House Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reduces federal tax revenue in both the short and long-run relative to current policy. In the near term, there is a small boost to GDP, but that increase diminishes over time.”
Brian Naylor at NPR notes that the bill was passed mostly on bipartisan terms, with Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives largely pushing it through to the Senate without much push-back. “The vote was almost along party lines, with no Democrats voting in support of the bill and some GOP defections over provisions in the measure that would eliminate important tax deductions taken by constituents in some high tax states,” he writes.
The bill is less likely to pass in the Senate as it did in the House, according to reports from the New York Times. If it were to, however, the new legislation would directly affect graduate students across the board—including MBA students.
Section 117(d) of the bill, which can read here, indicates that all graduate students that receive any kind of tuition waiver will still have to pay taxes on the removed costs. For MBA students at schools like the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, this could mean a year-end cost increase of at least 25 percent, if not more. For students in Ph.D. programs, which often give tuition waivers to help bring in valuable research, the costs can be significantly higher, according to CNBC.
“This makes graduate school unattainable for anybody not already very well off,” 24-year-old grad student Kelly Balmes told NPR. “It also creates a diversity problem, which graduate STEM programs already have.”
MBA Insider: Wharton FinTech
It’s the year of FinTech—at least according to The Market Mogul. While the concept of FinTech has been around for more than fifty years, only in the last decade has it really begun to emerge as a prominent industry. Now, FinTech is everywhere, and more and more startups and technologies are popping across the U.S. than ever before. Continue reading…
Industry Spotlight: Philadelphia Pharmaceutical Companies
When considering where to go to school for your MBA, the industries located in your school’s region should be a major factor. To help you decide which regions are best for you, we’re beginning an industry series about four of our top metro areas, starting with Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and its concentration to bio-science and pharmaceuticals. Continue reading…
