GAINING NEW KNOWLEDGE IN A HEARTBEAT
While Sarah Audet's father and grandfather had earned business degrees at Wharton, her career seemed to be headed in a different direction. She received a bachelors in medical technology and a PhD in electrical engineering, with a focus on sensors. After working on instruments and in the automotive industry, she joined Medtronic.
The new work not only allowed her to return to her first interest in combining sensors and medicine, it also presented complex strategy and business issues. Sarah participated in a major corporate strategic initiative entitled Vision 2010, which identified biomedical sensors as one of the potentially disruptive technologies that could create a paradigm shift in the management of people with chronic diseases. Sarah was appointed to start up a group in the Cardiac Rhythm Management division to integrate sophisticated sensor technology to enhance products and build competitive advantage. "This was a fundamental technology that could totally change the business. Because the group initially was very small, by default, I started working with colleagues and the business leaders on developing the business strategy, in line with the corporate strategic initiative," she said.
She needed business insights right away, so she came to Wharton Executive Education for the Strategic Thinking and Management for Competitive Advantage program. As her team began implementing the strategy, she returned for Implementing Strategy. Then, working out the interpersonal issues of managing change with her own team and the broader organization, she returned for the Executive Negotiation Workshop: Bargaining for Advantage® and Building Relationships That Work. "Through the courses at Wharton I have obtained a tremendous amount of knowledge in a week from excellent professors and participants," she said. "It was just-in-time-learning."
The programs gave her an appreciation of the organizational challenges involved in change. "When you are doing something new, 99 percent of people think it is scary. I was really struggling with issues of negotiations and influence with colleagues, peers and upper management. The negotiation workshop was phenomenal. I also was very impressed with the number of students from outside the United States and the diversity of thinking they bring with them. It enriched the course."
While the completion of the four programs met her immediate needs and earned her a Wharton Certificate of Professional Development, it also whet her appetite for a formal MBA degree. "I now have support to pursue an MBA," she said. "I am definitely a person who will always be learning."
SARAH'S CPD TRACK