Wharton/ASIS Program for Security Executives: Making the Business Case for Security

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Program Experience

Highlights and Key Outcomes

In the Wharton/ASIS Program for Security Executives, you will:

Cover the core concepts of business to broaden your managerial and strategic perspectives, enhance your business instincts, and sharpen your ability to tackle management challenges
Communicate a clear business case for investments in organizational information-security policy
Learn how to better present your strategy to obtain buy-in from the C-suite

Experience & Impact

According to the Security Industry Survey of Risks and Professional Competencies, cybersecurity, crime, mobile technology, natural disasters, and globalization are ranked as the top five risks most likely to affect an enterprise over the next five years. With so many new threats confronting organizations, corporations are challenged by how to invest their security dollars and how to best protect their employees and their organizations' networks and data from harm. But with companies facing competing budget priorities, how do you communicate the security story for your firm so leaders fully understand the costs and benefits the costs and benefits of a comprehensive strategy — as well as the risks of not having one.

In this five-day leadership program, security officers join their peers for a unique learning engagement. The program will enhance their business acumen and effectiveness as leaders in key areas of strategy, negotiation, critical thinking, and managing change. Wharton Executive Education and ASIS International, the leading organization for security professionals worldwide, co-developed the custom curriculum to ensure it meets the learning needs of today’s senior security leaders.

Wharton faculty apply their field-based research and the latest strategic insights to help you broaden your perspective on how to communicate the importance of a robust security program.

The program offers a strategic toolbox so you can put these business skills into immediate practice while exploring your own leadership and communication strengths.

Session topics include:

Building a Learning Community
Financial Measures of Performance
Critical Thinking and Decision Making
Negotiation Workshop
Leadership and History: Decision Making in the Gettysburg Battle
Leading and Managing Change

Through highly interactive lectures and exercises, this program will enable chief security officers to create effective security strategies in a rapidly changing global environment.

Overall, you will learn to:

Enhance your strategic-thinking skills outside traditional areas such as accounting and finance
Bolster your leadership skills to better communicate with non-financial colleagues
Be a better decision maker who can assess disparate data from many areas of your company and help the CEO, board, and other leaders create a long-term path forward

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

Wharton/ASIS Program for Security Executives: Making the Business Case for Security is designed for chief security officers, senior managers, and managers next in line for future leadership.

Participants in this program are a diverse group of security leaders from varied industries, backgrounds, and geographies who share their biggest challenges with the class. Faculty tailor the program content to address these issues, so participants enjoy a learning experience that truly resonates with them and meets their learning needs.

Participants leave the program with an expanded peer network, plus specific tools and frameworks they can use to be more effective leaders.

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

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

Gregory Shea, PhDSee Faculty Bio

Adjunct Professor of Management; Senior Fellow, Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management; Adjunct Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Leadership, leadership of change, organizational innovation

Gad Allon, PhDSee Faculty Bio

Jeffrey A. Keswin Professor; Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions; Director, Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Operations management and operations strategy

Michael Useem, PhDSee Faculty Bio

William and Jacalyn Egan Professor Emeritus of Management; Faculty Director, Center for Leadership and McNulty Leadership Program, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Research Interests: Catastrophic and enterprise risk management, corporate change and restructuring, leadership, decision making, governance

Testimonials

I recently participated in the Wharton/ASIS Program for Security Executives course. The course provided an opportunity to network with other security professionals and to share different leadership perspectives. The Wharton presenters, faculty, and staff were awesome, and they challenged each attendee to think about different types of leadership philosophy. Additionally, throughout the entire course, attendee participation was stressed so you were able to get different perspectives of leadership. My favorite part of the course was traveling to Gettysburg to see the Union and Confederate military leaderships' philosophy for battlefield victory. I highly recommend the course to security professionals to challenge their leadership philosophy and gain new perspectives."

Lawrence Tucker Senior Security Director, Executive Protection, PepsiCo Global Security

I took the Wharton/ASIS Program for Security Executives because I wanted to attend a unique program that challenged me to develop a new way of thinking as a security executive. I was surprised how well the faculty integrated lessons and topics that impact current business executives in the security industry. The networking opportunities provided were abundant, creating opportunities outside the classroom to grow relationships. The highlight of the program for me was the visit to the Gettysburg battle ride, which served as a culminating event that tied the entire program together. Since attending the program, I have used knowledge and insights to adopt an introspective approach to identify better ways to lead and take on complex security challenges. I would highly recommend this program to any security leader who wants to expand their business acumen to become a better security executive."

Jeff Trinidad, DSS Director of Corporate Security, Leidos Holdings, Inc.

Wharton/ASIS Program for Security Executives: Making the Business Case for Security

Program Overview

Date, Location, & Fees

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