Focus on: Broadening the Dialogue on Leadership

The late great baseball player Satchel Paige once said, "Don’t look back — something might be gaining on you." We tend to look at our current challenges through the lens of our past experience. In a rapidly changing world, this can be dangerous. One of the best ways to break out of this trap is to get your passport and travel in new directions. This issue of Wharton@Work: E-Buzz offers a broader exploration along many dimensions — across geography (to Africa), across different industries, and into the "soul of leadership" (exploring meditation and emotional intelligence). We have perspectives on leadership from CEOs, technology pioneers, whistle blowers, and astronauts. We also have some new insights from the pension industry on what went wrong and successful investment strategies.

For fresh perspectives, we invite you to join us on this journey.

Best regards,
Barbara Gydé
Senior Director, Executive Programs
[barbaracg@wharton.upenn.edu]

PS: Let us know how we can broaden our dialogue with you. We always welcome your comments and suggestions.

© The New Yorker Collection 1989 Anthony Taber from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

Advanced Management Program
Cross-Cultural, Cross-Industry Dialogues

Where do you find new opportunities for growth? We often define the world too narrowly. During the Wharton Advanced Management Program, participants are challenged to stretch their thinking about their own businesses through sessions that look across industries and geographies. In this report, we explore insights on Africa and strategies for "global gamesmanship." [More]

In the Classroom
The Perils of Pensions

Pension funds have become so seriously underfunded that they are affecting the financial performance and strategic decisions of many companies. How can company managers and individuals do a better job managing their pension investments? Two faculty members from Wharton's new Pension Strategy executive education program offer insights. [More]

Wharton West Leadership Conference
Leadership in an Uncertain Era

What does it take to lead in an era of threats of terrorism, global change, technological shifts, corporate scandals, and other uncertainties? Top corporate leaders of Boeing, Charles Schwab, MCI, Hyperion Solutions, and other firms considered this challenge during the Wharton West Leadership Conference last month in San Francisco. They were joined by leading thinkers on strategy, systems, and technology; Enron whistle-blower Sherron Watkins; Internet pioneer Vint Cerf; and even a former NASA astronaut. [More]

Thought Leaders
A Deeper View of Leadership

Effective leadership begins by looking within at the "soul of leadership." This was the message brought by medical pioneer Dr. Deepak Chopra to a program at Wharton on Leading From Within. Chopra was joined by a corporate raider who has regularly practiced yoga for more than a decade, a sports psychologist who teaches meditation to professional ballplayers, and an expert on emotional intelligence. [More]

Education à la Carte
Broaden Your Own Dialogue

Stuck in the same thinking? A diverse set of programs can help you explore new disciplines or new approaches to your old problems. This dialogue with some of the leading thinkers in business can change the way you approach your work and career.

  • Competitive Marketing Strategy
    Develop a hands-on understanding of the competitive implications of marketing strategies and the impact of your competitors' moves. Learn new tools to analyze competitors, and anticipate their actions and reactions to strategic shifts. Assess your market position from the customer's perspective. Develop marketing strategies that meet both short-term goals and long-term objectives of your company.
    June 13–18, 2004; December 5–9, 2004
    Competencies/Skill Development: Creativity/Innovation, Consumer/Market Orientation, Decisiveness

  • Mergers & Acquisitions
    This program draws on the expertise of an interdisciplinary team of Wharton faculty from accounting, marketing, and legal studies. Develop effective M&A strategies for your firm. Case studies, computer simulations, and interactive discussions provide first-hand knowledge of valuation methods, tax and accounting issues, acquisition analysis, and due diligence, as well as strategies for post-acquisition integration.
    June 13–18, 2004
    Competencies/Skill Development: Business Acumen, Strategic Thinking, Influencing Skills

  • Pension Fund and Investment Management
    This program provides essential knowledge and tools for executives responsible for the administration and performance of public and private pension funds. Discover the key criteria for making asset allocation decisions that maximize value and minimize risk for plan beneficiaries, enhance your ability to measure investment performance, and improve skills in choosing, and communicating with, money managers and consultants.
    June 13–18, 2004; November 7–12, 2004
    Competencies/Skill Development: Analytical Thinking, Setting Priorities

  • Leading and Managing People
    For managers who want to enhance their ability to lead, influence, and motivate others, this program provides practical tools and strategies. Executives gain a new understanding of their effect on people, learn how to leverage the natural drivers of human behavior, and learn how to operate successfully within organizational politics. You will learn solution-oriented approaches by working on a personal management challenge in class and get faculty guidance and insights from fellow participants.
    June 20–23, 2004; October 3–6, 2004
    Competencies/Skill Development: Performance Management, Leadership

  • Executive Negotiation Workshop: Bargaining for Advantage®
    One of the premier negotiation programs in the world, this 5-day immersion in real-world negotiations reveals, and builds on, the executive's own negotiation style. Gain frameworks and capabilities for negotiating both inside and outside an organization, using practical, powerful, and transformative techniques. Past participants have reported a 100% business impact for the program from a single negotiation.
    July 25–30, 2004; October 24–29, 2004
    Competencies/Skill Development: Influencing People, Personal Development, Communication

  • Finance and Accounting for the Non-Financial Manager
    This fundamentals course is designed for senior executives and new managers who want to sharpen their ability to read and rapidly analyze financial statements. Evening "integration sessions" let executives apply learning directly to company balance sheets. Interactive lectures, case studies, and small discussion groups provide instruction on skillfully analyzing business opportunities, assessing financial risks, and persuasively communicating the financial value of ideas to others.
    August 1–6, 2004
    Competencies/Skill Development: Business Acumen, Cost Controls

  • Strategic Thinking and Management for Competitive Advantage
    This program offers methods for thinking through your strategy to build competitive advantage and helps you enhance your ability to assess the strategic impact of the moves of your competitors.
    August 2–6, 2004 (San Francisco)
    Competencies/Skill Development: Market Awareness, Developing Strategy, Communication

  • The Directors' Consortium
    Presented jointly with the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School, this program will help you build a best practices framework for thinking about and making informed board decisions.
    August 11–13, 2004
    Competencies/Skill Development: Strategic Thinking, Integrative Thinking, Facilitating Change

  • Pension Strategy: Designing Resilient Retirement Systems
    This executive education program offers research-based insights on structuring pensions for corporate or public sector organizations. Develop resilient pension strategies for both short-term survival and long-term strength, reduce potential risks, and avoid common pitfalls.
    September 15–17, 2004
    Competencies/Skill Development: Analytical Thinking, Setting Priorities

  • Implementing Strategy
    Using real-time case studies, learn how to equip your organization to adapt to change by developing a model of appropriate structures, objectives, controls, integration mechanisms, and incentives for implementing your strategy.
    September 20–24, 2004
    Competencies/Skill Development: Strategic Thinking, Analytical Thinking, Facilitating Change

Any comments or suggestions? Please send us your thoughts at barbaracg@wharton.upenn.edu. We want to make every effort to respect your confidence, so please let us know if you don't want us to share them in future issues of Wharton@Work: E-Buzz.

Bios and more information on Wharton faculty can be found at:
http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/faculty.html

We have a team of course consultants who are available to answer any questions or provide more information about our programs. Please call:
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© 2004 The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

 

New Programs:

Women in Leadership
June 7–11, 2004
Philadelphia
HEAR AUDIO

Pension Strategy
Sept. 15–17, 2004
Philadelphia

Make the Rules or Your Rivals Will
Wharton Professor Richard Shell, who leads Wharton's Executive Negotiation Workshop, has published a new book on the intersection between law and competitive strategy. [More]

Wharton Executive Calendar

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