| Dates | Location | Tuition |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 30, 2012 - May 4, 2012 | Philadelphia |
$10,250 |
| Nov 5, 2012 - Nov 9, 2012 | Philadelphia |
$10,250 |
In today's world, financial rigor and strategic insight need to be tightly linked. Senior financial executives play a key role in strategy development and implementation, working closely with the CEO to creatively design growth opportunities for the future.
As CFO, you are called upon to identify and assess profitable business ventures, lead mergers and acquisitions, establish alliances, and shape internal growth strategies. You need to gain a deeper understanding of strategy, build leadership skills, and better communicate your financial knowledge to other leaders. In fact, 88 percent of 164 CFOs surveyed reported that CEOs expect them to be active members of the top senior-management team, according to a McKinsey survey of the first 100 days on the job. More than half said CEOs counted on them to challenge company strategy.
Wharton's leadership development program, The CFO: Becoming a Strategic Partner, offers frameworks and processes to help you contribute more to strategy development and value creation in your organization. You will learn and apply a scenario-based strategic planning process that examines possible futures to develop strategies for profiting from uncertainty. You'll learn approaches for managing risk, creating flexible strategies through options thinking, and developing alternative growth strategies.
Tuition for Philadelphia programs includes lodging and meals. Prices are subject to change. Program Consultants are available to provide more information on course specifics and discuss how this program might meet your needs. Please contact them by e-mail or by telephone at +1 215.898.1776. Plan your stay.
An interdisciplinary team of Wharton faculty in finance, strategy, marketing, and leadership use lectures and case studies (including Airbus, Teletech) to demonstrate frameworks and hone strategic thinking. Small teams work with faculty on scenario planning for specific industries that is then used to explore the key capabilities that will be needed to succeed across multiple futures. Industry representatives examine key issues affecting CFOs and CEOs.
Session Topics for The CFO: Becoming a Strategic Partner Program
- Using Financial Data To Drive Value-Creating Growth
- Strategic Planning Under Uncertainty
- Integrating Finance and Strategy
- Portfolio Analysis
- Managing Risk
- Alternative Growth Strategies
- Applying Real-Options Thinking to Strategy Formulation
- Influence and Leadership
- Relationship Management
Related Articles
Wharton@Work: E-Buzz
- Mapping Your Journey: Avoiding the Road Going Nowhere (May 2009)
- Dangerous Exposures: Risk and the Bottom Line(December 2008)
- Beyond the Numbers: CFOs Play a Greater Role in Strategy(February 2008)
Knowledge@Wharton
Requires a one-time complimentary registration to Knowledge@Wharton.
An advanced level program, this leadership development program is designed for senior financial executives who are responsible for developing and implementing strategy as part of senior leadership. CFOs, vice presidents, controllers, and other senior financial executives with strategic and financial responsibilities have participated in the program.
We encourage companies to send cross-functional teams of executives to leverage the application and value of the program. Additional group benefits are available when four or more participants attend a program.
Heighten your company’s competitiveness by combining financial discipline with strategic insight. Through exercises in integrating finance, marketing, and IT and sessions on portfolio analysis and alternative growth strategies, you will come away with stronger leadership skills and ways to apply real-options thinking to strategy formulation. You will:
- Develop more effective strategies for building value and managing risk in an uncertain environment.
- Learn and apply the best practices for profitable growth.
- Network with financial leaders in other industries.
JOHN R. PERCIVAL, PhD
The Wharton School
MARIO MOUSSA, PhD
Senior Fellow, Wharton Executive Education
University of Pennsylvania
ROCH PARAYRE, PhD
Managing Director, Decision Strategies International, Inc.
JOSEPH RYAN, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Management,
The Wharton School
Dr. Ryan has held management positions in strategic planning, business development, and organization development with GE, GTE, and ARAMARK. He has also worked as a consultant in the Kepner Tregoe Strategy Group and at the Wharton Center for Applied Research.
He holds an MBA and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and attended the GE Crotonville executive education program.
KENT SMETTERS, PhD
Professor of Insurance and Risk Management
The Wharton School
Kent received his PhD in economics in 1995 from Harvard University and worked for the U.S. Congress from 1995 to 1998. He was a visiting professor at the Stanford Economics Department during the 2000-1 academic year and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy of the U.S. Treasury from July 3, 2001 until August 30, 2002. Kent remains active in Washington, DC, and recently served as a member of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Dynamic Scoring for the Joint Committee on Taxation of the U.S. Congress.
DAVID WESSELS, PhD
The Wharton School
In addition to his teaching on campus, Professor Wessels serves on the executive development and training faculties at Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Lockheed Martin, McKinsey & Company, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Siemens, and UPS.
Before joining Wharton, David served on finance faculty of the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. Prior to Emory, he was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company and a technology analyst for Boston-based Harbourvest Venture Partners. David holds a PhD in finance from the Anderson School at UCLA, a BS in economics and a BAS in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania.
Organizational ROI: Capturing New Business
Brad Schneider, VP and CFO of MicroSat Systems, Inc., knew it wouldn't be easy for his startup company to land lucrative commercial contracts for its satellites. But within 6 months of implementing an evaluation system learned at Wharton's The CFO: Leveraging Strategic Partnerships, Schneider's company finalized a multimillion-dollar commercial contract, is in negotiations for international contracts, and is pursuing other international work with the federal government. "Through aggressive marketing, we were able to bring our business plan forward by about five years, relative to the commercial and international business sectors," Schneider said.
And while those contracts were under negotiation long before he attended Wharton, the knowledge he gained in the classroom served to reinforce and reinvigorate the company's strategic analysis process. "Brad came back from Wharton with some new ideas that we hadn't looked at before," said John Roth, President and COO. "He's gotten our whole management team thinking in new ways about the future of the company."
"Most of our employees at MicroSat Systems have years of experience with well-respected companies, but in this industry you have to earn your wings," Schneider said. "No one in the commercial sector wants to take risks with young companies. We knew the biggest barrier would be getting into commercial contracts."
Last summer, Schneider organized an offsite meeting with Roth, the company's CTO and director of marketing, where he implemented the scenario-planning techniques presented at Wharton by Roch Parayre. "I was able to take what we did in the classroom and help our management team narrow down the specifics of what we need to accomplish this year," Schneider said.
One of those methods was not discounting any ideas. "We got everything up on the board and then began isolating the key drivers of the business," Schneider said. "From that meeting, we opened up this process to our first-line managers — those who actually lead the engineering and manufacturing functions — and were able to get a more diverse understanding of what we're faced with in the competitive arena."
The company has now incorporated this process in its quarterly offsite planning sessions. "We've gained insights into how to better market our products and how to capture new business," said Roth.
It was Roth who encouraged his CFO to attend Wharton's leadership development program. "I'd attended a class at Wharton before and wanted my CFO, my right-hand man, to do the same," Roth said. The five days Schneider spent at Wharton has helped bridge the gap between his "day-to-day tactical issues, such as current projects and cash flow" and more long-range, strategic-level thinking, Roth said. "The CFO is the linchpin that makes sure your business' financial side grows along with your technical side."
