Program Experience

Highlights and Key Outcomes

In Effective Execution of Organizational Strategy, you will learn how to:

  • Consider strategy execution from a range of lenses including leadership, organizational culture, talent management, and capabilities
  • Create a plan for dealing with your organization’s most critical execution issues
  • Understand how to get buy-in, clarify responsibility and accountability, and create proper incentives
  • Develop and access the necessary resources for implementation regardless of whether they are located inside or outside the organization

Academic Director Nicolaj Siggelkow on the program’s design


Experience & Impact

Effective Execution leverages the research and thought leadership of Wharton faculty who teach in the school’s MBA and Executive Education programs. Faculty will share highly actionable tools and frameworks from a variety of perspectives and provide feedback on your own execution challenges. A highlight of the program is an intensive Strategy Execution Workshop that will help you integrate the week’s learnings and create a plan to implement when you get back to work.

Highly practical and hands-on, this program uses a blend of relevant case studies infused with current strategy-implementation techniques, group discussion, and exercises to help you strengthen your leadership capabilities and improve your ability to influence and get buy-in across your organization. Effective Execution is beneficial even if you have an MBA, as it tackles cross-functional and silo-busting issues related to strategy implementation.

Session topics include:

  • The Impact of Culture on Implementation
  • Barriers to Organizational Change
  • Strategic Leadership
  • Implementing through Teams
  • Cognitive Biases Affecting Implementation
  • Organizational Design
  • Accessing Resources from Outside the Organization



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Listen to Faculty Interview:

Professor Nicolaj Siggelkow talks about the Effective Execution of Organizational Strategy in this interview on Wharton Business Radio, SiriusXM.


Convince Your Supervisor

Here’s a justification letter you can edit and send to your supervisor to help you make the case for attending this Wharton program.


Due to our application review period, applications submitted after 12:00 p.m. ET on Friday for programs beginning the following Monday may not be processed in time to grant admission. Applicants will be contacted by a member of our Client Relations Team to discuss options for future programs and dates.

Who Should Attend


Professor Nicolaj Siggelkow on Wharton’s Strategy Programs.


Effective Execution attracts a diverse group of participants, including global executives in manufacturing, medicine, financial services, and law. The program is best suited for individuals involved with implementing strategies and strategic initiatives. Some experience in formulating strategy is helpful, but individuals moving into a position that requires strategic planning may also benefit because they will have the opportunity to consider the full process of formulating and executing strategy through this program.

Participants leave the program with an expanded network of global peers, a set of actionable goals, and specific tools and skills they can use to better execute strategies within their organizations.

Fluency in English, written and spoken, is required for participation in Wharton Executive Education programs unless otherwise indicated.


Participant Profile

Participants by Industry

Effective Execution of Organizational Strategy by Industry

Participants by Job Function

Effective Execution of Organizational Strategy participants by job function

Participants by Region

Effective Execution of Organizational Strategy participants by region


Plan your stay in Philadelphia

Plan Your Stay

This program is held at the Steinberg Conference Center located on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia. Meals and accommodations are included in the program fees. Learn more about planning your stay at Wharton’s Philadelphia campus.


Group Enrollment

To further leverage the value and impact of this program, we encourage companies to send cross-functional teams of executives to Wharton. We offer group-enrollment benefits to companies sending four or more participants.

Faculty


Nicolaj Siggelkow

Nicolaj Siggelkow, PhDSee Faculty Bio

Academic Director

David M. Knott Professor; Professor of Management; Co-Director, Mack Institute for Innovation Management, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Competitive strategy, firms as systems of interconnected choices


Iwan Barankay

Iwan Barankay, PhDSee Faculty Bio

Associate Professor of Management; Associate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Political economy, behavioral economics, field experiments, personnel economics


Martine Haas

Martine Haas, PhDSee Faculty Bio

The Lauder Professor; Professor of Management, The Wharton School; Anthony L. Davis Director of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute for Management and International Studies, The University of Pennsylvania

Research Interests: Global collaboration, human and intellectual capital, information technology use, knowledge sharing, teamwork


Exequiel Hernandez

Exequiel Hernandez, PhDSee Faculty Bio

Max and Bernice Garchik Family Presidential Associate Professor of Management, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Immigration, global networks, firm internationalization, innovation, corporate strategy


Mary-Hunter McDonnell

Mary-Hunter McDonnell, JD, PhDSee Faculty Bio

Associate Professor of Management; Faculty Co-Director, Zicklin Center for Governance and Business Ethics

Research Interests: Organizational theory (political sociology, institutional theory); nonmarket strategy; corporate governance; corporate misconduct and punishment


Harbir Singh

Harbir Singh, PhDSee Faculty Bio

Mack Professor; Professor of Management; Co-Director, Mack Institute for Innovation Management; Wharton School Faculty Director for the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Corporate governance, corporate restructuring, management buyouts, strategies for corporate acquisitions

Testimonials


I lead the strategic planning process for the National Academy of Medicine. We are a non-governmental organization established in 1863 under a Congressional charter signed by Abraham Lincoln to be an independent advisor to the government. When I took Effective Execution of Organizational Strategy, I had been working for 15 or 16 months on our strategy plan to guide our next five years. I shared my Wharton findings with our president, executive officer, and directors at a senior staff retreat. I led the team on a ‘pre-mortem exercise’ that I learned at Wharton. We imagined five years down the road that our strategy had absolutely failed. What would The Washington Post headlines be? It was such a useful exercise to walk through with my leadership team — it allowed me to highlight the things necessary to have in place — such as making sure you have buy-in-from your leadership and appropriate resources and staffing.

One thing that really stood out in Wharton’s program was the importance of organizational culture — that people have a voice and are engaged in the strategy execution. I also realized that we have a strong culture — as a non-partisan, independent organization driven by science. The question then becomes, ‘How strongly engaged are your staff in your culture internally?’ ‘How do they operate under those values and expectations’ That was a huge ah-ha moment for me.

Since the retreat, I have presented our strategy plan to our governing body and to our 2,000 members, as well as reaching out to our various staff to make sure everyone’s on board. I hope that this strategy plan sets up a process to allow us to continue to use strategy to guide our activities, to measure our outcomes, and to benchmark how well we are moving toward our mission.

This program would benefit anybody sitting at the intersection of executive leadership and taking forward their organization’s strategy — where they need to convince both their leadership team and bring along all the staff."

Kimber Bogard, PhD Senior Vice President of Strategy and Programs, The New York Academy of Medicine

Date, Location, & Fees

If you are unable to access the application form, please email Client Relations at execed@wharton.upenn.edu.

April 8 – 12, 2024Philadelphia, PA$12,000

October 7 – 11, 2024Philadelphia, PA$12,500


Download the program schedule, including session details and format.

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Hotel Information

Fees for on-campus programs include accommodations and meals. Prices are subject to change.

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Contact Us

Schedule a personalized consultation to discuss your professional goals:

 +1.215.898.1776

 execed@wharton.upenn.edu

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