Course Preview | Leading a Technology-Driven Organization from Wharton Executive Education
7:42 min
32
A very warm welcome to this program on helping you manage as part of the leadership team in a technology-driven organization. What can you expect from this program?
That's the first question we're going to look at. But our aim overall is to help you and your firm navigate the leadership challenges of very rapid technology changes and increasing uncertainty. We have a stellar group of Wharton faculty to help you build the skills, the judgment and the insights you need and I'm one of the team, my name is George Day. I've been with the Wharton School for some decades, it's been my privilege to work closely with all of the faculty members and my background is deeply rooted in technology innovation. I started in new product development in a technology firm, I have studied it for many years.
I founded the MAC Institute for Innovation Management at the Wharton School, which is our premier focus of research on innovation management and that's why I know and have great confidence in the faculty. I've also been in a variety of leadership positions. I ran their Marketing Science Institute, I was the chairman of the board of the American Marketing Association and I've served or are serving presently on 10 different boards of directors, both in the for-profit and non-profit area. We will give you a wide variety of activities to help you provide understanding or deepen your understanding and apply the concepts to your own business and your own personal situation. Now, you can look forward to the coming six modules that will address the big challenges facing you as a member of the leadership team or a prospective member and in your own firm. We will be covering the areas of leadership, thinking strategically, profiting from the mounting uncertainty, understanding the financial realities, innovating to grow faster and then most important of all is nurturing and developing the talent necessary to compete.
Let me take each one in turn. Module 1 on leadership as the key question will be, what are the characteristics of successful leaders? And how can a leader best work with other members of the leadership team? And that's core that will set the stage for the remaining modules. In module 2, we will direct our thinking to the strategic direction of the firm. How will the leadership team formulate and adjust the strategy of the firm in light of the future possibilities and threats? So, the key question in this module would be, what are the features of a really successful strategy? That sets the stage for Module 3, profiting from uncertainty. Now, you don't require any persuading that uncertainty is already high, but we will forecast. And I think it's a consistent element of this program, that uncertainty will keep rising.
So, the key question in this Module 3 is how can your firm be better prepared for whatever is coming over the horizon. So, the focus is on vigilance and preparation. In Module 4, the critical question here will be, what are the financial realities? What are our profit prospects? And what are the constraints? So, in this module we'll address the key question, how do you assess your financial performance, that is, the financial performance of your firm. And, one of the critical challenges for the leadership team is how best to allocate the scarce financial resources, because they're always scarce.
In Module 5, we'll turn to, the key question is how to build a growth engine that can innovate and grow the firm faster, because in most publicly traded firms, the critical variable is the rate of organic growth and making sure that over the long run, it is faster than the competition. That brings us to the close. And Module 6 is entitled, I think appropriately, people are paramount. So, your people will be so essential and are essential to your firm becoming even more resilient and better able to capture the best opportunities. The key question here is how best to hire, develop and retain the scarce talent necessary to keep or carry out the strategy and succeed in the future. As we move through the program, keep in mind that you will be part of a global cohort. So, take full advantage of the opportunity of the tremendous array of skills and talents and perspectives of your cohort because different people have different expertise, so this is a terrific learning opportunity in addition to the content of the program. So, we encourage you to use this opportunity to network, build your network and keep in contact with them.
I founded the MAC Institute for Innovation Management at the Wharton School, which is our premier focus of research on innovation management and that's why I know and have great confidence in the faculty. I've also been in a variety of leadership positions. I ran their Marketing Science Institute, I was the chairman of the board of the American Marketing Association and I've served or are serving presently on 10 different boards of directors, both in the for-profit and non-profit area. We will give you a wide variety of activities to help you provide understanding or deepen your understanding and apply the concepts to your own business and your own personal situation. Now, you can look forward to the coming six modules that will address the big challenges facing you as a member of the leadership team or a prospective member and in your own firm. We will be covering the areas of leadership, thinking strategically, profiting from the mounting uncertainty, understanding the financial realities, innovating to grow faster and then most important of all is nurturing and developing the talent necessary to compete.
Let me take each one in turn. Module 1 on leadership as the key question will be, what are the characteristics of successful leaders? And how can a leader best work with other members of the leadership team? And that's core that will set the stage for the remaining modules. In module 2, we will direct our thinking to the strategic direction of the firm. How will the leadership team formulate and adjust the strategy of the firm in light of the future possibilities and threats? So, the key question in this module would be, what are the features of a really successful strategy? That sets the stage for Module 3, profiting from uncertainty. Now, you don't require any persuading that uncertainty is already high, but we will forecast. And I think it's a consistent element of this program, that uncertainty will keep rising.
So, the key question in this Module 3 is how can your firm be better prepared for whatever is coming over the horizon. So, the focus is on vigilance and preparation. In Module 4, the critical question here will be, what are the financial realities? What are our profit prospects? And what are the constraints? So, in this module we'll address the key question, how do you assess your financial performance, that is, the financial performance of your firm. And, one of the critical challenges for the leadership team is how best to allocate the scarce financial resources, because they're always scarce.
In Module 5, we'll turn to, the key question is how to build a growth engine that can innovate and grow the firm faster, because in most publicly traded firms, the critical variable is the rate of organic growth and making sure that over the long run, it is faster than the competition. That brings us to the close. And Module 6 is entitled, I think appropriately, people are paramount. So, your people will be so essential and are essential to your firm becoming even more resilient and better able to capture the best opportunities. The key question here is how best to hire, develop and retain the scarce talent necessary to keep or carry out the strategy and succeed in the future. As we move through the program, keep in mind that you will be part of a global cohort. So, take full advantage of the opportunity of the tremendous array of skills and talents and perspectives of your cohort because different people have different expertise, so this is a terrific learning opportunity in addition to the content of the program. So, we encourage you to use this opportunity to network, build your network and keep in contact with them.
