Certificate of Professional Development
Wrestling Alligators and Other Slippery Management Challenges

John Prentice had stared into the jaws of a number of dangerous-looking management challenges, but none of this prepared him for the 350-pound scaly green monster that faced him near Denver. Prentice, a manager at Australian telecommunications company Singtel Optus had just completed two executive programs at Wharton West in San Francisco and was on his way to Philadelphia for two more Wharton programs, when he took an unusual detour.

"My friend and I were driving south of Denver when we came across a roadside alligator farm," he said. "When the owner learned I was from Australia, he insisted I get into the pit with him during the show. I tried to explain the difference between Australia's crocodiles and American alligators." When that strategy failed, he quickly came up with a new, two-pronged approach. "First, I located the exit, and second, I kept the trainer between myself and the alligators."

It turned out to be a winning strategy. And while Wharton's programs don't specifically address alligator wrestling, Prentice's approach to the alligator may have benefitted from the two courses he had just completed in San Francisco: Building Relationships That Work and Strategic Thinking and Management for Competitive Advantage. After cleaning up from his wrestling match, he went to the Philadelphia campus to take Managing People: Power Through Influence and Solving the CRM Challenge, earning a Wharton Certificate of Professional Development.

Taking four intense, high-level classes back-to-back heightened the learning. "For me, one of my dreams was to finish an MBA, but the 4 weeks I spent at Wharton have been just as significant an accomplishment for me," Prentice said. "I can speak with much more conviction of where I plan to take my company, who I will need to get there, and the strategy we will need to follow."

Prentice, who earned his degree in economics from the University of New England (in New South Wales, Australia) in 1996, gained experience as a process analyst while at media and Internet companies. He joined Singtel Optus 3 years ago and found himself drawing on all of his business experience and university learning after a recent restructuring. "My role was to quantify and analyze the skills and internal knowledge of our employees, to make this previously intangible asset more tangible. So that now we can find the right person for the right assignment, not just the next person in line. If an employee has a demonstrated interest or skill in an area, then we can better match them to a particular project. If the employee is more motivated, the project is done better and within schedule. The end result is we are better at scheduling and at allocating our resources," Prentice said.

From the first day of his first class in San Francisco, Prentice knew his investment in Wharton was paying off. "Professors Charles Dwyer and Janet Greco, academic co-directors of Building Relationships That Work, had the ability to tap straight into what you already knew instinctually to be correct but which most people don't actually practice. I often resort to more comfortable ways of dealing with situations that I know are not the most productive. It's broken me out of some not-so-great habits. I'm already practicing better listening skills; I stop talking sooner and let the other person answer me."

After visiting friends in Austin, Texas, Prentice returned a week later to San Francisco and attended Strategic Thinking and Management for Competitive Advantage in San Francisco. "For me, this class confirmed what I'd learned at university — that the basis of economics is whether how you go about beating your competition actually makes you a profit." The class also brought to the fore an issue he'd been wrestling with at his job. "I'd always go back and forth whether I was in people management — human resources — or strategic management," he said. "Now I see my work in human resources as a critical strategic step in meeting corporate objectives. I had always instinctively felt this, but this class put the issue up front for me. The professors even called knowledge and capability management the third component of strategy and is one that will become even more important in the future."

He elevated his perception of the value of a company's customers during the Solving the CRM Challenge program. "Companies need to analyze the strategic value of their current customers and then to ask themselves how do they intend to keep these customers and where would they be if these customers left? I see that as a challenge to use our current capabilities in acquiring new customers and transforming that into methods to identify and retain the most valuable customers."


   

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