Advanced Management Program

Program Themes

• Challenging outdated assumptions – The Advanced Management Program encourages you to think systemically and metaphorically, calling into question traditional thought processes and exploring business challenges from new vantage points.
  
  
• Building on core functional competencies – You will be exposed to information and perspectives on the key business drivers of success: understanding financial levers, creating shareholder value, becoming market driven, assessing the impact of information and technology, and sustaining competitive advantage.
  
  
• Shifting to new leadership paradigms and behaviors – Investigate unfamiliar contexts, and calibrate your risk-taking profile. From exploring the evolution of a city, to engaging in role-plays that simulate organizational dynamics, these experiences are designed to provide insights into how organizational systems and processes influence performance.
  
  
• Understanding and contributing to a discussion of emerging business issues in key parts of the world – At the Advanced Management Program, you will interact with experts who offer regional profiles on the culture, market dynamics, and business challenges and opportunities in the emerging economies of the world: China, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa. The global perspectives and experiences of the diverse body of participants in the class accent the journeys into these regions.
  
  
• Assessing your leadership advantage and planning your future – With an unmatched focus on you as an individual, the Advanced Management Program creates a risk-free environment for exploring one's attitudes, strengths, and blind spots. Participants hear from successful CEOs who divulge the ingredients of their success, and reflection and peer consultation result in the development of a long-term life/career plan. For those who choose it, executive coaching is a way for participants to clarify their learning objectives and align their personal, professional, and organizational goals.
  
  
• Developing a global network of peers and experts – Advanced Management Program class sessions are designed to optimize the years of experience in the room. Knowledge exchanges are built into the curriculum, learning groups provide opportunities for exploring issues across business and cultural boundaries, and social activities promote a spirited camaraderie that leads to deep and lasting connections. Graduation from the program leads to an even larger and broader network as Advanced Management Program alumni join the ranks of over 75,000 Wharton alumni throughout the world.
  
  
• Strategic execution – Ultimately, what matters is what you do with the learning. This is why every Advanced Management Program session focuses on the relevance of theory to practice. Faculty relate their research in the field to the pressing business challenges you face, and the content includes processes that can be applied when you return to work, such as scenario planning, negotiation techniques, and discovery-driven planning. You are also encouraged to develop an implementation plan for your return. All of this is to ensure that your learning goals are translated into attainable results.
  

Points of Difference: Lasting Results

• The time is right: five weeks long/six days a week (Monday through Saturday).
  
  
• Exclusive by design: Nominated participants only; average of 20 years of experience; in or being groomed for top leadership.
  
  
• Breadth and depth of faculty: The Wharton faculty includes over 200 of the best minds in the world in the disciplines of management, finance, marketing, and leadership. We supplement this tremendous talent pool with outside entrepreneurs, authors, and business coaches to add variety and address special topics. Advanced Management Program participants interact with the best of the best.
  
  
• Variety of teaching methods: In addition to lectures, case studies, and group exercises, Wharton Advanced Management Program participants experiences learning in ways that help reinforce and stimulate their thinking.
  
  
• A global perspective: Participants and points of view from all over the world — 25% U.S., 40% Europe, 19% Asia-Pacific, and 16% from a variety of global locations — each with a unique and valuable perspective.
  
  
• The industry standard: The best companies and executives in the world — covering all industry sectors, including financial services, government, health care, manufacturing, media, not-for-profit, pharmaceuticals, technology, telecommunications, transportation, and utilities.
  
  
• In good company: Companies that have participated include AT&T, Bayer, Boeing, BUPA, BBC, Fluor Corp., Fujitsu, Heineken, Hewlett-Packard, Mitsui, Parsons Corp., Philips, Renault, Saudi Aramco, UBS, Unilever, and United Parcel Service.
  
  
• A vibrant place to think: Held at the state-of-the-art Steinberg Conference Center on the University of Pennsylvania's dynamic campus and surrounded by the culture, history, and vitality of Philadelphia — the birthplace of the United States.
  
  
• Executive accommodations: The Advanced Management Program fee includes a private guestroom and bath, exclusive dining, all program material, and even a networked, Pentium-class PC.

Program Structure: Providing the Inside Track

Considering the pace of life and commerce today, five weeks might seem like a long time to be removed from day-to-day operations. However, given the comprehensive curriculum of Wharton's Advanced Management Program, we guarantee that the time will seem more like an invaluable, reflective pause in the broad scope of your career. And while the venue and schedule are designed to facilitate a meaningful retreat from your normal environment, the program's tempo and rigor will keep you as energized and engaged as you're used to being — maybe even more so.

Week One: Defining and Reframing the Competitive Landscape and Becoming a Learning Community

The Advanced Management Program starts with two primary goals: first, to transform individuals into an educational community, as well as learning groups, that will be sustained over the full five-week program; second, to render and articulate the context in which we will examine the nature of competition, the global economy, the power of organizational systems, the power of the individual leader, and the future role of business in society.

Sessions:

• Becoming an Educational Community
• Strategic Thinking and Thinking Strategically
• Managing the Dynamics of a Hyper-Competitive Environment
• Strategic Decision Making — New Models and New Frames
• The Modern Economy — How Did We Get Here and Where Do We Go Next?
• Politics of Inter-Group Relations
• Paradoxes of Organizational Life
• Conduct Becoming — The Conductor as Leader
• Philadelphia Tour — A Model for the Economic and Political Evolution of a City

Week Two: The Business of Drawing Connections

The second week in the Advanced Management Program begins and ends with a series of sessions on corporate finance; however, we make sure the numbers are continuously aligned with their impact on investors, employees, and customers. Sessions explore the relationship between investors and management, and between shareholder value and corporate financial strategies — such as the measurement and utilization of debt capacity. Sessions emphasizing marketing cover the challenge of sustaining a competitive advantage, building customer relationships in the new economy, and being a market-driven company with a global demographic. Participants also begin a series of sessions on leadership development that engages them in self-assessment and discovery of their unique leadership skills. And in the first of a series of regional profiles, participants examine the economic, political, and cultural dynamics of doing business in a particular part of the world. In addition, participants visit the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts to experience the connection between a creative process and a business process.

Sessions:

• Investor Capitalism: Shareholder Power and Management Response
• Creating Shareholder Value
• Financial Statement Analysis
• Market-Driven Strategy
• Bridging the Metrics of Finance and Marketing
• Executive Life Phases
• Regional Profile: Emerging Business Opportunities and Challenges
• Creative Leaps: Discovering Leadership Lessons in Unique Places

Week Three: The Business of Utilizing Change

We continue our examination of strategic financial levers by looking at the implications of and opportunities in foreign exchange rates, the dynamics of mergers and acquisitions, and the challenges in sustaining long-term stock returns. Our regional profiles continue with a multidimensional exploration of another area of global activity. The utilization of human capital is also explored at different levels: recruiting and retaining qualified employees, the implications of shifting work force demographics, succession planning, and career path development. We also use examples from the literary world, to allow participants to explore the surprising parallels between the art of business and the art of literature. With the end of classes on Thursday, participants begin a long weekend away from Wharton to absorb the program's content, integrate it into their present lives, and refocus their goals for the Advanced Management Program's final two weeks.

Sessions:

• Exchange Rate Issues in Emerging Markets
• Long-Term Stock and Bond Returns
• Demographics and the World Economy
• Strategic Considerations in Mergers and Acquisitions
• The War for Talent
• Succession Planning Strategies
• Career Paths – Choosing a Future
• Regional Profile: Emerging Business Opportunities and Challenges
• Creative Leaps: Discovering Leadership Lessons in Unique Places

Week Four: The Business of Leadership in Action

Starting with a look at how to practice and promote entrepreneurial behavior within one's own organization, we move to the ethical issues of doing business outside one's home country, then on to a lively and often provocative session on the age of access and what happens when economic markets give way to information networks. From there, we broaden our scope to look at the direct and indirect effects electronic commerce has on customer expectations and behavior. Strategic execution is the focus during sessions on scenario planning, negotiation styles and techniques, and an active examination of the relationship between leaders and followers.

Sessions:

• Creating an Entrepreneurial Mindset
• Market Busting – Changing How the Market Works
• Age of Access
• Ties That Bind: Business Ethics Around the World
• Profiting From Uncertainty: Scenario Planning
• The Leadership and Followership Dynamic
• Redefining Globalization: A Bottom-Up Perspective
• Regional Profile: Emerging Business Opportunities and Challenges

Week Five: The Business of Shaping the Future

The fifth and final week of the Wharton Advanced Management Program starts with an examination of what can be done inside the firm to create new business practices that foster continual innovation and renewal. Then, former CEOs share insights about their own stewardship roles and leadership characteristics needed for the next century. Finally, we pursue the convergence of electronic commerce, bio-technology, and energy distribution on the future of business, globalization, and society. Through presentations by each learning group, participants share perspectives on their roles as leaders, as well as the new ideas, discoveries, and understanding they'll carry with them to their professional and personal lives. After taking time to recognize and honor the value of the learning groups and community, the management development program concludes with a graduation ceremony and celebration.

Sessions:

• Corporate Venturing: Building Internal Systems for Evaluating Potential Business
• The Role of the CEO: Past and Future
• The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World
• Learning Exchange

The Partners' Program – After five weeks away from one's spouse or partner in such an intensive and focused program, there's much to share. During the last two days of the final week, spouses, partners, or other guests are invited to take part in selected Advanced Management Program sessions and social activities. This shared frame of reference — and experience — greatly enhances participants' reentry into home and work environments.

Pre-course Language Program – For participants whose native language is not English, the University of Pennsylvania's English Language Program offers intense, personalized programs to aid in the transition to an all-English highly interactive and demanding learning environment.

Alumni Status – Completion of the Wharton Advanced Management Program grants alumni status in one of the world's largest business school's alumni network. With more than 77,000 members living and working in more than 130 countries — supported by 77 U.S. and international clubs and regional representatives — the Wharton alumni network enables meaningful connection and helps you stay informed through annual forums around the world. In addition to a lifelong Wharton e-mail address, Advanced Management Program graduates receive a full complement of print and online communications, including an exclusive newsletter for AMP alumni, that provides information on people, activities, and events.

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You've got boundless potential for success. And we've got the senior management development program to help you realize it. Make Wharton's Advanced Management Program part of your leadership strategy. Make it your next important decision.

To apply to the Wharton Advanced Management Program:

• You must be nominated by the chief executive officer, division president, or senior corporate human resources officer. All nominators must provide a candid evaluation of the candidate's capabilities, professional potential, and planned career track.
• All candidates must convey a genuine understanding of their developmental needs and the ways in which the program meets those needs.
• It is imperative that all candidates be able to understand written and spoken English and to participate actively in discussions in the English language. A pre-program English tutorial is available upon request from the University of Pennsylvania's English Language Program.
• Candidates are notified of the admissions decision within three weeks of submitting a completed application. All requests for deferment will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

To secure registration, a $7,500 nonrefundable deposit is due within two weeks of acceptance to this management development program. The balance of tuition is due 60 days before the start of classes. Cancellations made fewer than 45 days before the start date risk forfeiture of the full tuition.

Transformation and growth are rarely easy. But you wouldn't be where you are if you were familiar with the easy route. We look forward to sharing the excitement and sense of accomplishment that comes from challenging yourself to go somewhere you've never been and coming out exactly where you want to be: on top.

For more information about the Wharton Advanced Management Program, please contact:

Robin Salaman
Associate Director
+1.215.898.1179
salamanr@wharton.upenn.edu

International travelers: please review travel advisory information to avoid delays.

The benefits of the Wharton Advanced Management Program will continue to add value throughout your professional and personal life. Past participants of the Wharton AMP continually tell us about the distinct and unique skills, discoveries, and knowledge that have influenced their lives since the program. They tell us it is an experience without equal, and one that continues to affect them deeply, with a multitude of benefits. You will:

• Challenge outdated assumptions and explore business challenges from new vantage points.
• Build on core functional competencies: understanding financial levers, creating shareholder value, becoming market driven, assessing the impact of information and technology, and sustaining competitive advantage.
• Shift to new leadership paradigms and behaviors.
• Understand and contribute to a discussion of emerging business issues in key parts of the world.
• Assess your leadership advantage and plan your future in a risk-free environment.
• Develop a global network of peers and experts and join the ranks of more than 75,000 Wharton alumni throughout the world.
• Develop an implementation plan for your return.

"I came back from Wharton somewhat of a transformed person. My team refers to me as pre-Wharton and post-Wharton. I was worried about changing before I went, but the Advanced Management Program has had a very positive effect on me and on the company. I will put other people in my organization through the program in the future."
—Laurie Quinn, Lucent

"Without doubt, the Advanced Management Program was the most stimulating educational experience I have had. It made me think deeply about the impact of global competition on my industry and how the lessons from other industries can be applied. The human dimension was particularly valuable and helped me reflect on my role and my future career. The whole experience was first-rate."
—Valerie Gooding, BUPA