Online Leadership Tool Now Available for Mobile Devices

March 10, 2016

Philadelphia, PA: The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania announced today that its popular online learning product, Nano Tools for Leaders®, is now available in an app format, making it easier for executives to access these fast, proven leadership lessons on their smartphones and other mobile devices.

Nano Tools — fast, effective leadership tools that people can start using in less than 15 minutes — are co-published by Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management and Wharton Executive Education. Nano Tools have been providing leaders with ideas they can immediately use to enhance their effectiveness and strategy since 2011. Categories covered include management, leadership, marketing, innovation, negotiation and persuasion, and strategy.

“The Nano Tools address a wide variety of topics that leaders are interested in — they cover both personal and strategic leadership,” says Deb Giffen, who is director of financial and professional services programs at Wharton Executive Education, and the designer of the Nano Tool library. Giffen says Wharton Executive Education participants overwhelmingly choose Nano Tools as their top method for staying connected with Wharton for follow-up learning and keeping abreast of the latest research and proven business best practices to be more effective leaders.

The app will allow leaders to search by topics, key word, or author. It also will let them know instantly when a new tool is published. The app allows users to favorite a tool they find interesting and share it with friends and colleagues on social media.

“Once the app is downloaded, executives can read any Nano Tool offline without needing to be connected to the internet,” says Shilpa Patwardhan, connected learning director at Wharton Executive Education.

The app is available in both iOS and Android versions.

Professor Michael Useem, senior sponsor for Nano Tools and director of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management, says Nano Tools increasingly will include topics of great interest to executives participating in Wharton’s Advanced Management Program.

“Going forward, we want to expand our tools and make them as timely as possible by listening for what managers are most concerned about in their role as leaders. We want our Nano Tools to be at your fingertips and ready for immediate application when faced with today’s most urgent leadership challenges.”

Useem emphasizes that there is no “silver bullet” for developing or exercising leadership. Rather, it requires the mastery of a host of capacities and ways of thinking that range from strategy and finance to operations and management. “Our Nano Tools are intended to trigger a focus and provide immediate guidance on how to lead in as many of these ways as possible.”

“Nano Tools highlight what you have to keep in mind when you are negotiating to sell one of your divisions, considering a new operation in China or India, or preparing for an off-site strategy meeting with your top people. They are intended to be compelling reminders of what to recall and draw upon when your leadership is being put to a test or you have to reach a major decision,” Useem says. “With the Nano Tools now as an app, they are instantly accessible, providing an immediate reminder of what is essential as you face a leadership moment.”

A new Nano Tool will be published every month, and there are plans to offer the tools in video format in the future.

To download the app on iTunes, visit: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/app/wharton-nanotools/id1083311793?mt=8.

About the Wharton School

Founded in 1881 as the world’s first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is shaping the future of business by incubating ideas, driving insights, and creating leaders who change the world. With a faculty of more than 235 renowned professors, Wharton has 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students. Each year 100,000 professionals from around the world advance their careers through Wharton Executive Education’s individual, company-customized, and online programs, and thousands of pre-collegiate students explore business concepts through Wharton’s www.wharton.upenn.edu.

Media Contact

Sarah Schwab
Director of Marketing Communications
Aresty Institute of Executive Education
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania execed-pr@wharton.upenn.edu