Lucent Technologies Research Articles

Home Health Care Is Associated With an Increased Risk of Emergency Department Visit, Readmission, and Cost of Care Without Reducing Risk of Complication Following Total Hip Arthroplasty: A Propensity-Score Analysis

BackgroundHome health services have long been implemented for patients to receive additional professional care and supervision following discharge from the hospital to theoretically reduce the risk of complications and health care utilizations. The aim of this investigation was to determine if patients assigned home health services exhibited lower rates of medical and surgical complications, health care utilizations, and costs of care following total hip arthroplasty. MethodsA large national database was retrospectively reviewed to identify all primary total hip arthroplasty patients from 2010 to 2019. Patients who received home health services were matched using a propensity score algorithm to a set of similar patients who were discharged home under self-care. We compared medical and surgical complication rates, emergency room visits, readmissions, and 90-day costs of care between the groups. Multivariate regression analyses were performed to determine the independent effect of home health services on all outcomes. There were 7,243 patients who received home health services and were matched to 72,430 patients who were discharged home under self-care. ResultsPatients who received home health services had higher rates of emergency department visits at 30 days (Odds Ratio [OR] R statistical programming software v 3.6.1 [Lucent Technologies, New Providence, RJ] 1.1544; P = .002) as well as increased readmissions at 30 days (OR 1.137; P = .039); complication rates were similar between groups. Episode-of-care costs for home health patients were higher than those discharged under self-care ($14,236.97 versus $12,817.12; P < .001). ConclusionPatients assigned home health care services exhibited higher costs of care without decreased risk of complications and had increased risk of early returns to the emergency department and readmissions.

John Nils Almgren (1930–2021)

John Nils Almgren AM (20 June 1930 to 24 December 2021) was renowned in the Australian telecommunications industry for his success, together with his wife Yvonne, in building a major Australian manufacturing company, J. N. Almgren Pty Ltd, starting from scratch in 1960. JNA began as a custom-designer of small electromechanical subsystems for the PMG and State electricity utilities, but later developed successful electronic products for public and private data networks for large corporations. The company was floated on the ASX in 1992 as JNA Telecommunications Ltd. It operated internationally until bought by the US company Lucent Technologies in 1998. John and Yvonne became significant philanthropists, often declining any publicity for their generous donations.

Opportunities and Challenges of Ambient Radio-Frequency Energy Harvesting

Dr. Xu Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He obtained his BS in physics from University of Science and Technology of China and his PhD in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was an Enrico Fermi Fellow at Argonne National Laboratory from 2018 to 2019. His research interests include nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, and emerging materials for energy harvesting, sensing, and communication applications. Dr. Jesus Grajal received his PhD in electrical engineering from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM) in 1998. Since 2017, he has been a Full Professor with the Signals, Systems, and Radiocommunications Department at UPM. His current research interests include semiconductor device modeling and high-frequency circuit and system design. Dr. Marisa Lopez-Vallejo received a PhD in electronic engineering from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM) in 1999. She was with Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ, USA as a Member of the Technical Staff. Since 2016, she has been a Full Professor with the Electronic Engineering Department at UPM. Her major interests are in the area of low power, PVT-aware design, computer-aided diagnostic methods and tools, emerging memories, and application-specific high-performance programmable architectures. Elaine McVay is pursuing a PhD in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Her research interests include 2D material/thin-film photovoltaics and infrared detectors. Dr. Tomas Palacios is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. He received his PhD from the University of California - Santa Barbara in 2006 and his undergraduate degree in Telecommunication Engineering from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. His current research focuses on demonstrating new electronic devices and applications for novel semiconductor materials such as graphene and gallium nitride. His work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the IEEE George Smith Award, and the NSF, ONR, and DARPA Young Faculty Awards, among many others.

Technology roadmapping: Industrial roots, forgotten history and unknown origins

Technology roadmapping has an established and proven track record for helping organizations with their strategy, long-term planning, innovation and foresight activities. Technology Forecasting & Social Change has played a leading role in disseminating research on roadmapping and, so, for its 50th anniversary issue, this paper provides a historical account of the emergence of roadmapping from the practices developed and deployed by technological-based organizations. Motorola, BP, Philips, EIRMA, Lucent Technologies and the Semiconductor Industry Association have all made significant contributions leading to the modern form that embodies a temporal, multi-layered, systems-based approach underpinned by the ‘market-product-technology’ structure (i.e. why-what-how). However, the industrial roots of technology roadmapping can be traced back to an earlier period, which is, as of yet, unacknowledged in the technology and innovation management literature. There is the overlooked or, perhaps, forgotten history where organizations such as NASA, Boeing, GE, Lockheed, USAF, Rockwell International and the U.S. Department of Energy initiated and advanced the practice of roadmapping – through this publication, their contributions will now be given the credit they so rightfully deserve.

Business Strategy of Top Indian IT Company: MindTree

MindTree is one of the fastest growing Information Technology companies in India.Founded in 1999, as an Indian IT company, MindTree has its presence across the world witha global workforce of approximately 16,000 employees. With a motivational slogan of“Welcome to Possible”, MindTree serves various industries like Banking, Capital Markets,Manufacturing, Semiconductor, Retail, Media etc. MindTree Limited is an Indianmultinational information technology firm having its head office in Bengaluru, India.Founded in 1999 the company employs roughly 16,500 IT professionals with annual revenueof $780million. The MindTree has a goal to reach customers by giving proper services inright time. The company deals in e-commerce applications, mobile applications, cloudcomputing applications, digital transformation, data analytics, EAI, and ERP solutions, withmore than 344 clients and 43 offices in over 17 countries, as on 31st March, 2017. It has itsmain operation in India and has major markets in United States and Europe. The companywas started by ten IT professionals on 18 August 1999, who have previously worked forCambridge Technology Partners, Lucent Technologies, and Wipro. In this paper, we haveanalysed the business strategy of MindTree by studying its operational level and businesslevel strategies including operational strategy, services strategy, technology adoptionstrategy, HR strategies, financial strategies, marketing strategy, and new productdevelopment strategies. The paper also includes the company’s innovation on sustainabilitythrough green strategy and corporate social responsibility strategy. Finally, based on SWOCanalysis, some suggestions are given to speed up the sustainable growth.

Business Strategy of Top Indian IT Company: MindTree

MindTree is one of the fastest growing Information Technology companies in India. Founded in 1999, as an Indian IT company, MindTree has its presence across the world with a global workforce of approximately 16,000 employees. With a motivational slogan of “Welcome to Possible”, MindTree serves various industries like Banking, Capital Markets, Manufacturing, Semiconductor, Retail, Media etc. MindTree Limited is an Indian multinational information technology firm having its head office in Bengaluru, India. Founded in 1999 the company employs roughly 16,500 IT professionals with annual revenue of $780 million. The MindTree has a goal to reach customers by giving proper services in right time. The company deals in e-commerce applications, mobile applications, cloud computing applications, digital transformation, data analytics, EAI, and ERP solutions, with more than 344 clients and 43 offices in over 17 countries, as on 31st March, 2017. It has its main operation in India and has major markets in United States and Europe. The company was started by ten IT professionals on 18 August 1999, who have previously worked for Cambridge Technology Partners, Lucent Technologies, and Wipro. In this paper, we have analysed the business strategy of MindTree by studying its operational level and business level strategies including operational strategy, services strategy, technology adoption strategy, HR strategies, financial strategies, marketing strategy, and new product development strategies. The paper also includes the company’s innovation on sustainability through green strategy and corporate social responsibility strategy. Finally, based on SWOC analysis, some suggestions are given to speed up the sustainable growth.

Investigation the mediating variable: What is necessary? (case study in management research)

PurposeThis study aims to more deeply examine the various types of testing mediations and use the comparison test by using test-based mediation Sobel models and Bayesian approach. The purpose of this study are to apply the traditional (using indirect effect) and Sobel test, extend Yuan and MacKinnon (2009) work on Bayesian mediation analysis. Both analysis methods of mediation (Traditional, Sobel Test and Bayesian estimation) should apply in the research of management, by using structural equation modeling (SEM) in a structural model, with one mediation, one exogenous (independent) and one endogenous variable. The meta-analysis approximation has been used to investigate the job satisfaction as a mediation in the relationship between employee competence and performance (endogenous).Design/methodology/approachData were collected from ten dissertations of students of the Management Doctoral Program at the Brawijaya University from 2009 until 2013; data were analyzed for the mediation variable of job satisfaction (M) in the relationship between employee competence (X) and employee performance (Y) (Muindi and Obonyo, 2015; Olcer, 2015; Sattar et al., 2015; Khan and Ahmed, 2015). A researcher can determine the mediating variable and whether it is complete or partial or if mediation exists in several ways.FindingsThe results of the above findings using meta-analysis showed that 60% of previous research states that job satisfaction is a partial mediation on relationship competence of the performance, 10% of previous research states that job satisfaction is a full mediation on relationship competence of the performance and 30% stated that job satisfaction is not pemediasi (pemediasi means Mediation variable) on the relationship between competence and performance. This research found that all three approaches provide similar conclusions for ten previous research.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings showed that the Sobel approach and the Bayesian approach provide results that are more sensitive than the traditional approach.Practical implicationsIn my opinion, the rule to investigate the mediation variable should be completed with the conditions (1) q (theta) is not statistically significant, (2) α (alpha) and β (beta) are significant, and (3) q’ (theta) is significant, and increase when M is include as an additional predictor. This condition called partial mediation.Social implicationsThe traditional method is simpler and easy. The method is less sensitive and is not sufficient for investigating the mediating variables. In general, the method results in a mediation variable, but it cannot be used to determine either partial or complete mediation variables. So, investigation by Baron and Kenny Methods (in Hair et al., 2010), the rule or testing called Sobel Test and another approach such as Bayesian to determine the mediation variable is necessary.Originality/valueVarious methods for detecting mediating/intervening have been widely used in previous research as a method of measurement using indirect effect (Hair et al., 2010), and calculations have been performed using Sobel test (Baron and Kenny, 1986) and Bayesian approach (Enders, 2013). In this study, I wanted to more deeply examine the various types of testing mediations, and use the comparison test by using the test-based mediation Sobel models and Bayesian approach (Baron and Kenny, 1986; Enders, 2013). The statistical application should not be complicated and difficult, it but must rather be simple and easy, so that it is user-friendly. The traditional method is simpler and easier than the other methods, but how sensitive is it? This research is conducted to investigate this problem. The evaluation of mediating mechanisms has become a critical element of behavioral science research (Enders, 2013), especially in the field of management, not only to assess whether (and how) interventions achieve their effects but also, more, broadly, to understand the cause of behavioral change. Methodologists have developed mediation analysis techniques for a broad range of substantive applications. However, methods for estimating mediation mechanisms with various methods have been understudied. The purpose of this study is to apply the traditional (using indirect effect) and Sobel tests and extend Yuan and MacKinnon’s (2009) work on the Bayesian mediation analysis. Both analyses methods of mediation (traditional and Sobel test and Bayesian estimation) should apply in the research of management, by using structural equation modeling (SEM) in a structural model, with one mediation, one exogenous (independent) and one endogenous variable. The meta-analysis approximation has been used to investigate job satisfaction as the mediation in the relationship between employee competence and performance (endogenous). This study uses software R to complete the mediating effect (Enders, 2013). R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. It is a GNU project which is similar to the S language and environment which was developed at Bell Laboratories (formerly AT&T, now Lucent Technologies) by John Chambers et al. R provides a wide variety of statistical analyses such as SEM and Mediation test. R provides an open source route for participation in that activity. The Bayesian estimation approach provides an R function and a macro that applies the method of mediation analysis.

Public Funding of Energy Research

Cherry Murray served as the Director of the United States Department of Energy's Office of Science from 2015 until 2017. She was dean of Harvard University's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences from 2009 until 2014, and Principal Associate Director for Science and Technology from 2007 to 2009 and Deputy Director for Science and Technology from 2004 to 2007 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. From 1978 to 2004, Dr. Murray held a number of positions, retiring as Senior Vice President of Physical and Wireless Research, at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, formerly AT&T Bell Laboratories and previously Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.

Two-year colleges teach physics to widening range of students

Increasingly, partnerships ease the way to transfer to universities.Increasingly, partnerships ease the way to transfer to universities.

Space Radiation and Human Flight to Mars

Space radiation affects the design and operations of all systems launched above Earth's ionosphere. Numerous research articles in this journal over the years have discussed such issues. Radiation is of particular concern for human flight to low Earth orbit and beyond. Since the earliest days of the U.S. space program, many NASA missions have been devoted wholly or in part to better understand the radiation environment that can affect human flight. The most recent of these is the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that carried a comprehensive instrument (Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation; CRaTER) to characterize, with modern detection technologies, the radiation environment of the Moon in anticipation of future lunar missions, including the Moon as a way point to an eventual human landing on Mars. A special section of Space Weather is devoted to CRaTER measurements of the linear energy transfer (LET) radiation spectra behind shielding material (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1542-7390/specialsection/CRATER1). The CRaTER LET spectra provide a direct link between the radiation environment and biological effectiveness. Looking to the future of human flight to Mars, the recent congressionally requested (NASA Authorization Act 2010) report of the National Research Council (Pathways to Exploration: Rationales and Approaches for a U.S. Program of Human Space Exploration; http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=18801) includes considerable discussion of space radiation for mission success. This report is the most comprehensive examination to date of where U.S. capabilities currently stand and what is required for a Mars mission and considers three operational stepping stone theaters: (a) cislunar space, including the lunar surface, (b) near-Earth asteroids, and (c) Mars, including a flyby mission, Martian moons, and Martian surface. Solar energetic particles (SEP) and galactic cosmic rays fill all of these theaters of operation. Thus, “radiation safety” is one of three major recommendations in the report for high-priority technology development (the other two being “entry, descent, and landing for Mars” and “advanced in-space propulsion and power”). The report importantly concludes that the “technical challenges” for addressing astronaut radiation safety is “high” because no suitable approach has as yet been identified for providing such safety. Further, the “capability gap” is rated “high” for the reason that “the ability to provide the level of radiation safety required for a human mission to the Mars surface is so far beyond the state of the art.” These conclusions of this important report provide challenges to the space weather research community as to how best to aid in addressing the technical challenges and the huge capability gap. Are better measurements of the radiation environments needed? What are the current capabilities for forecasting deleterious SEP events, and are they sufficient? How best to interface with designers of shielding and with medical investigators? Many opportunities thus exist for important contributions to overcome the challenges and to fill the capability gap. I hope that these opportunities will be seized and significant contributions made. Louis J. Lanzerotti is Editor of Space Weather and a distinguished research professor of physics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. He is retired from Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories. Email: [email protected]

Telstar Anniversary Reminds Us How Far Space Weather Has Come

The 50th anniversary of the launch of the first active communications satellite, the Telstar satellite, was marked 10 July 2012. The successful operation of Telstar during its almost 6-month life registered several firsts, as emphasized by President John F. Kennedy in an announcement (http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plpp&v=lzPZoeOPCJ8) that also bore evidence of the central role played by the Cold War in U.S. foreign policy at the beginning of the space age. Although cosmic rays had been discovered about 50 years earlier and several theorists had discussed particle motion in the geomagnetic field, when John R. Pierce at Bell Laboratories proposed Telstar in 1954, he had little reason to believe that the environment around Earth was anything but benign. All prior perspectives of Earth's space environment were revolutionized by James Van Allen's discovery of stably trapped radiation in early 1958. Telstar was funded by the AT&T company and built by Bell Laboratories; AT&T reimbursed NASA for the launch costs. Telstar used the latest transistors (all discrete components!) and other components available at the time. In order to understand the possible effects of the newly discovered trapped radiation on the transistors, Telstar also flew with several solid-state detectors behind different entrance shields to separate electrons of different energies. At the 50th anniversary celebration at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Laboratories, the physicist responsible for these detectors, Walter Brown, presented some of his historical data showing the effects of space weather on the new (at the time) technology of communication satellites. Brown's detectors did not measure the natural radiation: On the day prior to Telstar's launch, the U.S. had conducted the Starfish Prime high-altitude (400 kilometer) nuclear test in the Pacific. This test not only produced an electromagnetic pulse that caused severe electrical grid disturbances in Hawaii but also injected electrons into the radiation belts at concentrations more than 100 times that of the natural environment. These electrons damaged Telstar's transistors, resulting in subsystem shutdowns and final spacecraft failure in mid-February 1963. The Starfish electron data obtained by Brown's detectors are referenced to this day. These data provide unique information on electron lifetimes at low Earth altitudes and represent essentially the only existent data on the results of such a human-produced event. For the celebration, Bell Labs asked that I provide an overview of the effects of space weather on communications following Brown's historical presentation. From the time of the first such effects on the electrical telegraph, to long cables, wireless, and communication satellites and navigation, Earth's space weather environment continues to define design parameters for technologies as well as possible mitigation procedures against deleterious events. Telstar's anniversary celebration provided an excellent opportunity to review how far knowledge has advanced in understanding space weather and to reflect on how critical knowledge of the space environment is for the successful design and implementation of modern technologies. Louis J. Lanzerotti is editor of Space Weather and a distinguished research professor of physics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. He is retired from Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories. E-mail: ljl@njit.edu.

Space Weather and Natural Hazards

Space weather occupied an important place in AGU's inaugural Science Policy Conference (http://sites.agu.org/spconference/). The conference was held 30 April to 2 May in Washington, D. C., with four tracks-the Arctic, natural hazards, natural resources, and oceans-and space weather rightly occupied a slot in the natural hazards track. This was the natural location for space weather, as the solar and terrestrial space environments are indeed hazards to the successful operations of many current-day technical systems, from communications to electricity to navigation to resource exploration. The diversity of technical and nontechnical papers related to applications of space research published in this journal reflects the hazards and potential solutions. Space weather is one of the “grand challenges” for disaster reduction that has been included in the National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction (e.g., http://www.sdr.gov/185820_Space_FINAL.pdf). The space weather session at the conference was composed of a panel of four speakers plus a moderator, who, among them, addressed the outstanding contemporary issues facing the design, implementation, and operations of technical systems. History shows that space weather processes often provide implementation and operational surprises of new electrical technologies in essential industries, including communications (landline and cable, satellite-based, ocean cable, wireless over a very wide frequency band), electric power distribution, navigation (GPS, magnetic), and resource exploration (ground-based, aerial). The historical record also demonstrates that as the complexity of systems increases, including their interconnectedness and interoperability, the systems can become more susceptible to space weather effects. Understanding of the solar and terrestrial space environments has grown in parallel with the increasing complexity of the systems affected by these environments. This growth in fundamental understanding has been necessary in order to design, implement, and operate robust systems under adverse space weather conditions. These topics were all addressed by the panelists at the conference, as well as in the question and answer period. Contemporary examples of concerns and of possible mitigation techniques were presented. A particularly interesting example of mitigation techniques are the revolutionary uses of navigation and the design challenges posed by space weather with “precision” farming that uses GPS technology. Those of us who have worked for years in various aspects of space weather-from pure research to detailed engineering applications of knowledge acquired-have long known that studies of the solar-terrestrial environment were not just intellectually challenging but also critical to the successful implementation and operation of essential technical elements of contemporary society. Thus, the policy issues involved with space weather research as fostered by AGU through its meetings and publications certainly deserved to be highlighted at this inaugural Science Policy Conference in our nation's capital. I look forward to space weather being similarly featured in future forums where important policy matters arising from contemporary frontier research are featured. Louis J. Lanzerotti is editor of Space Weather and a distinguished research professor of physics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark (ljl@njit.edu). He is retired from Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories.

Reasonable Royalties and Unreasonable Confusion: The Role of Proven Directly Infringing Acts in Figuring Damages for Indirect Patent Infringement

In many patent infringement cases, the only practical way that the plaintiff can obtain relief is on a theory of secondary liability, which is generally referred to as indirect infringement. The remedy in patent cases frequently includes damages for past infringement. Because jury verdicts in patent cases can amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, patent damages have become a hotly litigated issue. Nevertheless, much to the frustration of the litigants in these high-stakes lawsuits, the courts continue to struggle to clarify how damages for indirect infringement should be determined.The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has exclusive appellate jurisdiction over patent cases, has deepened the confusion over calculating damages. Two opinions from the Federal Circuit have made contradictory pronouncements on the issue of accounting for proven acts of primary (i.e., direct) infringement in determining damages for indirect infringement. Lucent Technologies, Inc. v. Gateway, Inc. held that the extent of directly infringing use of the patent should be viewed as one of many pieces of evidence for measuring the extent of damages (“the evidentiary approach”). In contrast, Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc. v. St. Jude Medical, Inc. endorsed a rule that enables trial judges to limit damages as a matter of law to proven, enumerated acts of direct infringement of the asserted patents (“the atomistic approach”). The conflict between the two approaches raises fundamental, unanswered questions concerning the relationship between patent infringement and ordinary torts. This Article fills a gap in the literature by identifying, and working toward unraveling, one of the puzzles of indirect infringement. Specifically, it examines what the legal fiction of formally imputing an act of one entity to another — an important tenet of secondary liability in tort — means for patent damages. The answer is surprising: the atomistic approach is consistent with the principles of tort law, but is at odds with well-established, general rules for determining patent damages. Conversely, the evidentiary approach seems to ignore tort law’s imputation principle and embodies the pragmatic, patent-specific damages rules that the atomistic approach eschews. This Article resolves the tension in favor of the evidentiary approach and explains that considerations of policy, logic, and precedent support a damages analysis that reflects fundamental differences between patent law and tort law.

The short happy life of Celiant Corporation: Did managerialism at Lucent Technologies divert shareholder wealth to private equity investors?

Abstract Proponents of private equity investment in corporate ventures assert that private equity creates shareholder wealth by alleviating agency costs, improving venture governance, and allocating resources more efficiently. Critics claim private equity expropriates wealth from public company shareholders to private investors and managers. We use managerialism as a framework to examine these competing claims in the context of the power amplifier business at Lucent Technologies. Lucent spun off this business in 2001 into a company called Celiant Corporation, and then sold Celiant in a series of transactions in 2001 and 2002. We estimate that Lucent contributed assets to Celiant worth $330 million, but that the spin-off and sale of Celiant generated only $91 million for Lucent's shareholders. The apparent loss of over $200 million of shareholder wealth is consistent with a scenario in which Lucent managers and private equity investors used their superior information for personal gain.

Contributors

Contributors

Specialized organizations and ambidextrous clusters in the open innovation paradigm

By comparing Lucent Technologies and Cisco Systems over twenty years, one illustrates that a firm that outsources exploration through an Acquisition and Development (A&D) strategy of start-ups and exploitation specialization can be more innovative and competitive than an ambidextrous organization. The success of an A&D strategy depends on the embeddedness of the firm in the network of organizations comprised of an open innovation system and supported by an inter-organizational process of innovation. The embeddedness of Cisco Systems in the ambidextrous high-tech cluster of the Silicon Valley, especially its ties to venture capital firms and start-ups, explains the success of its A&D strategy. The spreading of A&D strategy among large firms reinforces the dynamics of the open innovation system and nurtures the cluster’s ambidexterity by increasing incentives for other organizations and individuals of the network to explore new knowledge and create fresh start-ups.

A key differentiator

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.Design/methodology/approachThis briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.FindingsOrganizational learning has always been vitally important. If anything, it is even more crucial today. New technologies and innovations constantly emerge and help to make an already competitive business environment even tougher. Only the strong survive and that's invariably those companies able to equip their employees and customers with the key skills and knowledge needed to meet current and future challenges. Given this scenario, corporate universities have a significant role to play. Leaders at Alcatel‐Lucent are clearly aware of this fact. This university is a product of the merger between Alcatel and Lucent Technologies and is considered vital in the company's quest to succeed. And so far, so good. It has taken the Alcatel‐Lucent University just two years to create the added value necessary to provide a competitive advantage for the organization.Practical implicationsProvides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.Originality/valueThe briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

Lucent Technologies, Inc.: using structural models to value debt (and equity)

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how contingent claim valuation and, more precisely, structural models, can be used to value the debt and the equity of a corporation. The objective is to provide a general and unified valuation framework.Design/methodology/approachA discrete version of the Geske model in a binomial‐like environment is implemented. To make the analysis more applied, real data of a corporation – Lucent Technologies, Inc. are used – and the valuation is attempted.FindingsStructural models can be used as a practical valuation tool. The results that are obtained are close to market data. Additionally, the authors are able to determine the price of some non‐traded claims (debt).Research limitations/implicationsWhile the more direct implication is that structural models can be used as a practical valuation tool, more applied research is needed to better calibrate the models.Originality/valueTo the applied finance literature is contributed by presenting a way of estimating the value of corporate debt and equity by calibrating a discrete version of Geske model. It is believed that this approach is not only interesting from the academic point of view, but can also serve as a useful tool for practitioners.

Active control of mechanical vibrations

Recent advances in digital signal processing and actuation technology have opened the door to applying active control to reducing mechanical vibrations and acoustic noise. Because these techniques work best at lower frequency, they complement conventional passive damping techniques, which are most effective at higher frequencies. Engineers in Lucent Technologies' Advanced Technology Systems have been developing active vibration and noise control systems for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) since 1988. This paper describes the design methodology of active control, the class of problems that responds best to this solution, and the complementary nature of active and passive vibration reduction strategies. It also gives a guide for when, where, and how to use active control to solve practical vibration problems.

Lucent Technologies, Inc. (C)

The case is intended for use with Lucent Technologies (A), which ends with Henry Schacht about to meet with Rich McGinn, his newly-appointed COO, who had hoped to get the CEO position. In the B case, Schact opens the meeting with McGinn with a promise to turn the CEO job to him quickly. Rather than break the tension with a cooperative comment, McGinn raises the tension with stony silence. Purpose of case is to bring immediacy to Schact's leadership challenge in working with his COO. The B case is introduced after building an agenda to address the issues presented the A case.