The Wednesday Letter #198 - 12/13/2023

THIS WEEK: Governance in Academia; Commodities in 2023-24; Stock Markets in 2023; 2024 Presidential Race.

GOVERNANCE IN ACADEMIA

If the prestige and reputation of top US universities were traded daily like stocks, would you be buying or selling today? On one hand, you would be buying; their reputations have taken a big hit and you would be acquiring time-tested brands at lower levels than a few weeks ago. On the other hand, you would consider selling because we may not have seen the worst of what brought them down in the first place. Their brand value has been eroding for the better part of a decade and the most recent plunge may not yet signal a final low. In that case, you might as well wait for the final wash-out and buy in later at even lower prices than today.

No doubt comparing the money-grubbing stock market to the lofty spirit of academia will be distasteful to some ivory tower denizens, but brand management and value creation follow some of the same principles in both business and academia. They are both the result of governance, be it in corporations or at universities. In the pre…