STRATEGY & INNOVATION

BUSINESS
ESSENTIALS FOR
EXECUTIVES

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Overview
For executives who have moved into general
management or taken on greater leadership
responsibility in their current role, Business
Essentials for Executives will help develop the
skills needed to make key business decisions with
confidence and to position their company for long-
term success.
The core curriculum covers traditional
management disciplines with an emphasis on
analytical rigor, including marketing, operations,
accounting, finance, strategy, negotiations, and
leadership. This essential knowledge is particularly
beneficial for executives with a nonbusiness
background and those who have extensive
experience within one functional area. Personal
assessments, daily integration sessions, and a
webinar after the program is over ensure that
learning applies directly to each participant’s
current leadership and business challenges.
The five-day program also integrates this
knowledge into an organization-wide perspective
that will improve decisions and empower you to
inspire and drive real change in your organization.
execed.wharton.upenn.edu
Eric Sabato
Western Regional Sales Manager, Carber Holdings Inc.
“ Business Essentials for Executives was a great program to take because it
goes through all the business disciplines, whether it be marketing, business
acumen, or leadership. It was great to have so many different professors
come in from all backgrounds and hear their experiences and how it relates
to your career. I was one of the more vocal people in the class breakouts
when we were asked what we would do in a real scenario. It increased my
confidence because every time we came back and discussed what really
happened, it aligned with my thinking.”
Danielle Turgeon
Director Global Accounts, FRHI Hotels & Resorts, Canada
“ This was a comprehensive program that encompassed the core disciplines of the corporate
landscape, providing me with real-world, practical learnings that I have applied consistently and
successfully since attending the course in the fall of 2013. For me, personally, I felt I had a gap in
my business acumen in the area of accounting and finance, and this part of the curriculum was
specifically a revelation for me. That said, the other areas of study (marketing, operations, HR,
leadership, etc.) proved just as practical and the lessons repeatable in my work life. Also, the
professors weaved in specific examples and anecdotes from the course attendees—who were
both globally and functionally diverse—and this really made the material come to life. I’ve been
reaping the benefits of this, my first Wharton program, for three years now. I’ve just completed
my Certificate of Professional Development, and seen marked differences in my overall performance,
leadership, and, most importantly, my revenue results.”
Max Baumann
CEO, Just Chill
“ The program covers the five main components of business
[marketing, finance, strategy, negotiations, and leadership]. It’s incredibly
valuable to get this breadth of understanding. There were at least
two key learnings from each discipline that I was able
to apply immediately.”
BUSINESS ESSENTIALS
FOR EXECUTIVES
 Highlights and
Key Outcomes
Business Essentials for Executives will give you
insight into:
•  Leadership and decision making
•  Talent management
•  Negotiation and persuasion
•  Managing across organizational boundaries
•  Personal negotiating styles and how
to adapt them
•  Customer decision making and how to
position your product or service
•  The importance of building and sustaining
operational excellence
•  Assessing current and future
strategic initiatives
•  Interpreting financial statements and using
them for decision making
•  How and when to scale your business
unit or organization
execed.wharton.upenn.edu
In Business Essentials for Executives, you will:
•  Identify your personal negotiating style and learn how to adapt it
•  Acquire business acumen to interpret financial statements and use them for
decision-making
•  Gain insight into how to assess current and future strategic initiatives
•  Benefit from a webinar after the program is over to integrate the learning
Business Essentials for Executives focuses on the core concepts that drive business
in every industry using a mix of interactive lectures, case studies, simulations,
self-assessments, and group discussions. Drawing on the expertise of Wharton’s
world-renowned MBA faculty and its 20+ research centers, such as the Wharton
Leadership Center, this program will help you influence and interact more
effectively across your organization. You will improve your ability to make cross-
functional decisions that benefit you, your team, and your organization.
With a focus on immediate applicability, daily integration sessions will help you
will begin to address key challenges using the tools and methods taught in the
program. In addition, you will become part of a powerful learning community
comprised of a diverse group of fellow participants; their wide range of industries,
backgrounds, experiences, and geographies provides a rich source of insights and
networking.
Post-Program Webinar
Business Essentials for Executives also includes a webinar after the program is over
to help participants integrate learnings. Led by Wharton professor and academic
director Gad Allon, it stresses accountability and focuses on setting and working
toward specific, concrete goals.
BUSINESS ESSENTIALS
FOR EXECUTIVES
 industry

Participant Profile
Participants in Business Essentials for Executives region
may include:
•  Executives seeking to develop wider general
management skills outside their traditional
area of expertise
•  Managers and technical leaders who have
been promoted to a role with significant
responsibility or are preparing for such a role
•  Executives who build and lead
multifunctional teams
•  HR professionals who need to build on
their business acumen and develop an
enterprise mindset job function
•  Managers of family-run businesses

•  Entrepreneurs who need to extend their core

business knowledge

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.

execed.wharton.upenn.edu
BUSINESS ESSENTIALS
FOR EXECUTIVES

Gad Allon, PhD
Academic Director
Jeffrey A. Keswin Professor; Professor of Operations,
Information and Decisions; Director of the Jerome Fisher
Program in Management & Technology, The Wharton School
Gad Allon is the Jeffrey A. Keswin Professor
and Professor of Operations, Information
and Decisions at the Wharton School, and
the director of the Jerome Fisher Program in
Management and Technology at the University
of Pennsylvania.
His research interests include operations
management in general, and service operations
and operations strategy in particular. Professor
Allon has been studying models of information
sharing among firms and customers—both
in service and retail settings—as well as
competition models in the service industry.
His articles have appeared in leading journals,
including Management Science, Manufacturing
and Service Operations Management, and
Operations Research.
execed.wharton.upenn.edu
Faculty ADDITIONAL FACULTY
Christopher Armstrong, PhD
EY Professor of Accounting,
The Wharton School
Matthew Bidwell, PhD
Associate Professor of Management,
The Wharton School
Jagmohan Raju, PhD
Joseph J. Aresty Professor; Executive Director,
Wharton Co-Sponsorship of Indian School of
Business; Professor of Marketing; Vice Dean,
Professor Allon is an award-winning educator, Wharton Executive Educationl
teaching courses on scaling operations Michael Roberts, PhD
and operations strategy. He has also been William H. Lawrence Professor; Professor
of Finance, The Wharton School
an innovative leader in many educational
technology initiatives. He is the co-founder of Nicolaj Siggelkow, PhD
David M. Knott Professor; Professor
ForClass, a platform that enables professors of Management; Co-Director, Mack
to drive higher student engagement and Institute for Innovation Management,
The Wharton School
accountability in their classrooms. Professor
Allon regularly consults firms both on service
strategy and operations strategy.
He received his PhD in Management Science
from Columbia Business School and holds
bachelor and master degrees from the Israeli
Institute of Technology.
BUSINESS ESSENTIALS
FOR EXECUTIVES
 INTEGRATING FINANCE AND STRATEGY CREATING AND SUSTAINING

Session Highlights examines the link between strategic

decision-making and finance. In
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE introduces
a number of tools to help managers
particular, basic valuation methods are systematically assess their firm’s current
introduced as a means to formalize the strategy and create and assess new
decision making process. To instill these strategic initiatives. These include a
COMMUNITY BUILDING creates a learning
concepts, participants will work on a strategy audit, and analyses of positioning
community that stimulates practical, action-
valuation exercise. and value proposition. Participants engage
oriented insights, and explores the challenges
in exercises to apply these tools to their
of learning new ideas and changing ingrained
MARKET SEGMENTATION AND own organizations.
behaviors. Participants will set developmental
POSITIONING discusses how a target
goals for the program that they will revisit
market should be broken up into ENGAGING AND DEVELOPING TALENT
throughout the week.
homogenous segments and introduces provides a set of approaches for
four primary segmentation dimensions. leveraging low- to minimal-cost internal
ESSENTIALS OF FINANCE introduces the
It also looks at how customers make assets to develop talent, including
fundamentals and language of finance,
choices, including biases and heuristics engaging seasoned executives as
including the time value of money, risk, and no
used in decision-making. coaches and teachers, and the use of
arbitrage. These concepts are considered via
stretch assignments.
practical examples and exercises.
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE addresses
the importance of building and INFLUENCE AND PERSUASION offers tools
EXECUTIVE NEGOTIATION WORKSHOP
maintaining operational excellence and techniques to better influence and
explores the latest practices and theories, and
through a holistic approach. Participants persuade internal stakeholders. Based on
teaches a systematic process for negotiating.
will learn the concepts, observe real- Wharton professor Richard Shell’s The Art
Participants apply negotiation principles with
world best practices in case studies, and of Woo, it teaches a structured, actionable
various partners and are given immediate
learn how to apply the concepts to their process for selling your ideas.
feedback to understand how their personal
organizations.used in decision-making.
styles affect outcomes.
SCALING introduces a holistic view of
growing a business, incorporating strategy,
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING provides an
finance, and leadership. Participants learn
introduction to the three main financial
to create a viable plan to scale based on
statements. Participants will learn to
these pivotal elements.
use them to glean information on a company’s
performance and recognize the aspects of
financial reporting that are subject to managerial
discretion (and potential manipulation).

execed.wharton.upenn.edu
BUSINESS ESSENTIALS
FOR EXECUTIVES

Wharton staff took a lot of
the stress out of the logistical
concerns so I could really
focus on absorbing the course
content.”
— Megan K.,
Energy industry executive
execed.wharton.upenn.edu
learn more and tour campus:
YourWhartonExperience.com
plan your
stay with us
Most Wharton Executive Education programs are
offered on the University of Pennsylvania campus in
Philadelphia. Located between New York City and
Washington D.C., Philadelphia is easily accessible from
most major cities around the world.
HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS
Your Philadelphia program fee includes hotel
accommodations. Most participants stay at the
Steinberg Conference Center, a 103-room full-service
hotel and classroom facility on Penn’s campus. There
are also several other hotels available nearby, including
the Hilton Inn at Penn.
MEALS DURING YOUR STAY
The majority of your meals are served in the Steinberg
Conference Center and are included in your program
fee. With advance notice, we can accommodate special
dietary needs.
HISTORIC AND CULTURAL HUB
A historic and cultural powerhouse, Philadelphia offers
numerous tourist attractions, including the
Independence National Historical Park, the National
Constitution Center, the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
and the Barnes Foundation.
BUSINESS ESSENTIALS
FOR EXECUTIVES
 Sample Program Schedule* BUSINESS ESSENTIALS
FOR EXECUTIVES

DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5

BREAKFAST

Program Introduction and Financial Accounting Integration Engaging and Scaling

Community Building Developing Talent
Executive Negotiation
Operational Excellence Workshop

Ratio Analysis

Taking the Learning Home

LUNCH

Influence and Persuasion Essentials of Finance Creating and Sustaining Essentials of

Competitive Advantage Marketing Strategy

Group Case Preparation

Case Discussion

Free Time Free Time

reception

DINNER

SCHEDULE A CONSULTATION:

+1.215.898.1776 (worldwide) | execed@wharton.upenn.edu

execed.wharton.upenn.edu
*Program start and end times are subject to change.
Please DO NOT make travel arrangements based on this agenda.

Visit our website for more information on fees and upcoming dates. Click here » CP-BBA-0120