Strategy and Management for Competitive Advantage

Wharton. Who in business has not heard the name and desired to learn at the institution? No matter how many years we have served in leadership roles, few business schools capture our imagination as does Wharton.

In my own career journey, I have served two global trade associations, one global consultancy, and most recently a senior living and health care services organization. My responsibilities have included strategy, revenue growth, marketing, and communications. The Wharton Strategy and Management for Competitive Advantage program for executive education was a perfect fit and exceeded every expectation I had. My expectations were not slight. My graduate degree is from Northwestern University, and I have attended several programs at the renowned Center for Creative Leadership.

If you want to be invigorated and depart with vision for innovation and practicality to support implementation, then attend a Wharton program. Every day after you will apply at least one valuable learning to your organization and your career."

Lindsay Hutter Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer, Goodwin House Inc.

I’ve worked in the power sector my entire career. When I joined Cuestamoras in 2014, it was to establish an energy company and grow the business regionally in Central America and Mexico. I attended Wharton’s Competitive Advantage program after I began to see a change in the dynamics of the energy markets in the region — government policy initiatives were leading to an expansion of renewable generation, and coupled with lower international oil prices, power prices were dropping to 50 percent of what they used to be. We needed to rethink our day-to-day business strategy.

My industry is capital intensive — it’s based on a long-term view since you are looking at assets that have lifespans of up to 25 years, and in the case of some renewables, upwards of 50 years. These market dynamics require a more structured way of looking at short-term volatility and other changing factors. Wharton’s Competitive Advantage program gave me a framework to engage people who are involved on the team to reevaluate our commercial strategy to determine how best to establish and maintain a competitive advantage over the next 10 years.

Two other corporate executives took the course after me and we are now implementing the competitive advantage methodology in all three of our businesses. It’s been implemented in two — energy and health/pharma — with the urban development business to follow next.

Wharton professors gave us methodologies and frameworks we were able to apply practically through case studies. This program is ideal for small companies or startups facing a lot of competition and looking for ways to execute a sustainable strategy that will differentiate them from competitors."

Alden Kitson Director General, Cuestamoras Energía, Guatemala

A key takeaway of Wharton’s program is focusing on the structure of the strategy process and how to arrive at a strategic decision — how to best outline, prioritize, and present a strategy to the leadership team and to decision makers to move that strategy to the next level. The framework and decision models we learned were very beneficial.

At Hershey Entertainment & Resorts we own and operate a number of businesses, all located in Hershey, Pennsylvania. These businesses include an amusement park, luxury hotel, conference center hotel, camping resort, country club, spa, independent restaurant group, AHL hockey team, and other entertainment and leisure businesses. Our biggest challenges are the market dynamics and the continually changing business landscape — in our case, guest expectations married with our financial expectations as we look at how to continue to grow and what areas to grow in. How do we position our businesses that best leverage our strengths, and how can we expand on those business strategies?

The day before I left to attend Wharton, we finished our budget for 2016, so the timing was perfect to go out and start applying these concepts. I would recommend this program to decision makers who have multiple businesses, or leaders whose scope crosses a lot of different landscapes. For example, IT would be a great fit to attend this kind of program."

Brian O’Day General Manager, The Hotel Hershey, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts

I recently took on a new strategy role covering our U.S. operations, and I wanted a refresh of my strategic planning skills and some more up-to-date frameworks. The quality of Wharton’s faculty really stood out — they were incredibly impressive, very experienced and engaging teachers. There were a lot of good leadership lessons coming from the content. Those leadership lessons stuck with me, and I refer back to those all the time in terms of how I approach a particular issue or problem in the organization and my ability to influence people to make the right decision.

At AXA US we have a very growth-oriented strategy focused on how to grow our business within key customer segments. We believe the opportunity we have in this market, and the demand for our products and services, has never been greater. We have a pretty large regulatory change coming that is still uncertain and we expect will cause challenges across the industry. I’ve applied frameworks used in Wharton’s class to practical problems and opportunities we face – the frameworks have enabled me to draw different conclusions than I would have traditionally done without the course. I would definitely recommend this program to senior people who are transitioning into a strategy role."

James Goad Principal, Head of America’s Health and Benefits Practice, Aon Inpoint