Thought Leaders I

Making the Leap: Rising to the Leadership Challenge of a "Structural Break"

Wharton’s Executive Development Program (EDP) addresses the opportunities inherent in discontinuity. Although the program was developed to prepare managers for broader leadership challenges, academic director Peter Fader says the program also delivers the knowledge and focuses on the proficiencies needed for significant changes in the competitive environment.

"The EDP is designed for fast-track people who have mastered one area and now are moving to a broader role," says Fader, a Wharton marketing professor. "They were very successful but now have to move out of their comfort zone. In today’s environment, many managers have had to move out of their comfort zones. They felt like masters of their own universe – that nothing could go wrong. Now we see that life is much more complicated."

Moving Out of Your Comfort Zone

To rise to these new demands — from your own career or the current economic environment — you need to challenge yourself in new ways. In particular, Fader says you need to:

• Sharpen your business acumen: Business knowledge changes quickly, and exposure to the latest knowledge can provide managers with a competitive edge. Wharton’s Executive Development Program covers core knowledge areas such as finance and marketing, but focuses on specific faculty expertise in rethinking strategy, driving growth, or recognizing other opportunities. When the environment is unforgiving, managers need to use the best possible approach and knowledge to guide their decisions.
  
  
• Think through multiple futures: In an uncertain future, managers need to experience multiple scenarios and understand how complex variables interact. The second leg of the Executive Development Program is a simulation that allows managers to make decisions and see their outcomes. Should they ramp up advertising for a new product or cut back? These are the types of decisions that managers face in an uncertain environment, and the simulation gives a hands-on feel for the implications. Participants are able to try different approaches and see how they play out in a realistic environment. Managers experience the twists and turns due to moves of competitors and other external factors.
  
  
• Build strong leadership capability: Finally, rapid change in your career or context requires stepping up your leadership quotient. The program engages participants in a leadership workshop that tests their own leadership proficiency in tense environments and negotiations. "External shocks are part of the simulation, so we see how people cope with them, and we coach them through them," Fader says. "It is not only about leadership, but also emphasizes the impact of interpersonal relationships between individuals and work groups."
  

Stepping Up Your Game: New Business Knowledge

Managers need to develop a more precise way of thinking about their businesses and a more creative way to manage them. "Especially in these tough times, you have to use assets more carefully," Fader says. "You need to know, for example, which customers to go after and which to leave alone. To do this, you need to track individual customers and know whether individual marketing efforts are affecting behavior."

Strategies that worked in the past may no longer be effective in a challenging environment. "In most organizations, there has been a way of doing things, which is usually how it is always done," Fader says. "Managers do not necessarily rely on data, experiments, and close observation to see what works. In many cases, the data are there but people have ignored them. People have the ability to measure return on investment, but they just haven’t done it. This may have worked when we could all just ride this rising tide, but not anymore."

Fader says managers not only need basic knowledge of business disciplines, but also need to master specific new approaches to their business decisions. In discussing globalization in the Executive Development Program, for example, faculty explore the complex social and political issues that can accelerate or undermine global initiatives. In considering mergers and acquisitions, faculty examine the sticky issue of post-merger integration, which can make or break deals that might look good on paper. In marketing, the program looks at how to shift perspective from a product-centric organization to a customer-centric organization, which can powerfully affect performance.

Fresh challenges, from the world or a new organizational role, demand a leap in thinking. "The lessons of the Executive Development Program are truly relevant for the challenges we face today," Fader says. "The program deserves its status as one of the crown jewels of open enrollment at Wharton. One of the big reasons is the wonderful interplay between these three different components."

• Executive Development Program