Focus On: Building Advantage

In Wharton's Advanced Management Program, Professor John Percival points out that companies make important decisions about how to divide the value they create among customers, employees, and shareholders. But to have something to divide, the company needs some advantage that provides value. In this issue, we look at insights from several professors on strategic advantages and value creation. We also examine the shifting challenges facing leaders of corporate security, and Professor Olivia Mitchell explores ways to improve the design of pension plans.

We hope you find these articles of relevant interest. We invite your comments and welcome your suggestions!

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

"I don’t care about winning. I care about being the best cow I can be."

© The New Yorker Collection 1991 Peter Steiner from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

Advanced Management Program
Strategies for Creating Value and Building Advantage

Companies can build competitive advantage by focusing on value creation, developing market-driven strategies, and shifting their thinking. In the second article in our series on Wharton’s Advanced Management Program, faculty members look at the meaning of value creation, the customer strategies that create advantage, and the thinking traps that keep us from seeing new opportunities. [More]

Thought Leaders
Designing Pension Plans for Real People

Pension plan designs can be improved by understanding the way real people make decisions. The academic director of Wharton's new program on Pension Strategy: Designing Resilient Retirement Systems offers strategies for improving design with an eye on behavioral finance and decision making. [More]

Custom Programs
Corporate Security Leaders Face New Leadership Challenges

Caught between rising security threats and tighter budgets, corporate security leaders face new management challenges. Security professionals discuss the new strategic issues they face and a new Wharton program created by the leading security professional organization to meet these challenges. [More]

Wharton Conference
Wharton West Leadership Conference

Executives discuss "Leading in an Era of Change and Uncertainty." [More]

The Last Word
A New Beginning

Wharton Vice Dean Robert Mittelstaedt offers a true "last word" as he prepares to become dean of the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. [More]

(A bird, in a suit, notices charts which compare 'hour of rising,' with 'worm acquisition.')

© The New Yorker Collection May 16, 1994 from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

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© 2004 The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

 

 

Wharton Executive Calendar

  • Milken and Media
    Wharton Fellows
    April 25–28, 2004
    Los Angeles

  • Wharton Sponsors
    > Forbes Executive Women's Conference
    April 28–29, 2004
    New York

    > The Forbes CEO European Forum
    June 17–18, 2004
    London
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