Wharton Knowledge for Action

7/29/2019 Wharton Knowledge for Action

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Te Power of Wharton Knowledge, p.26Wharton turns the brand lens on itself.

POWER CLUSTER

88,000 alumni | 150 countries | leading across industriesedition two | spring 2012

KNOWLEDGE FOR ACTION

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26 | WHARTON MAGAZINE | SPRING 2012

KNOWLEDGECONSEQUENCE

AND

Wharton turns the brand lens on

itself and finds that knowledge for

action sets the School apart.

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BRANDING

Knowledge developed at Wharton reaches millions

o students and proessionals each year in every eld

o business or entrepreneurial enterprise. Wharton

has one o the most published aculties among

business schools worldwide, the largest global

alumni network and six language editions o

Knowledge@Wharton with more than 1.8

million subscribers.

All o this shared acumen is a vital brand component or

Wharton, but it is how that knowledge is translated into action

that is the real brand storyoten untold.

Wharton knowledge, certainly unmatched in scope, combined

with a passionate, entrepreneurial community, creates a very

special dynamic: a place where knowledge uels actionand whereits reach and impact are ever-expanding.


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SPRING 2012 | WHARTON MAGAZINE | 27

Wharton alumni bring thoughtful leadershipand exponential change to global industries.

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KNOWLEDGE FOR ACTION

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POWER CLUSTER

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An extensive exploration o Whartons identity led by Dean

Thomas S. Robertson and a team o committed aculty

revealed just how central the creation, dissemination and

impact o knowledge is to the Wharton brand.

Recently, many business schools have unveiled new

positioning campaigns, each one seeking authentic relevance

and dierentiation in a large, diuse marketplace. Its

competitive at the top.Wharton began its own sel-

examination and analysis in 2009,

with a brand and identity initiative

to unearth what makes Wharton

one o a kind. The result: a shared

communications platorm that will

help us tell the Wharton story in a

collective, sustained and eective

wayin turn, enhancing and

strengthening the Wharton brand.

FINDINGCONVERGENCE

When Dean Robertson began his

tenure, he had a clear vision: to

continue Whartons position as

the top business school in the

world by anticipating the needs

o tomorrows business leaders.To deliver this level o excellence,

everyone within the Wharton

communityaculty, students,

administrators and alumniwould

need to share an understanding o

the institutions core strength.

A strong entrepreneurial and innovative spirit enables us

to be nimble, but it also has a tendency to pull us in dierent

directions, says Robertson. I wanted to spark the common

understanding o purpose and energy that comes with

brand clarity.

The project started with a aculty steering committee

chaired by George Day, the Georey T. Boisi Proessor

o Marketing and co-director o the Mack Center or

Technological Innovation. The committee embarked on a

rigorous two-year process to assess Whartons positioning,

including: a competitive analysis; a review o Whartons

existing messaging; in-depth interviews with aculty, students,

administrators, alumni and recruiters; and an online surveysent to more than 4,000 stakeholders.

The committee engaged the knowledge o Wharton alumni

at the branding rm Prophet, where Kevin ODonnell, WG91;

Phyllis Rothschild, WG93; and Chiaki Nishino, WG00,

are partners.

It was important to be comprehensive, says committee

memberJohn Kimberly, Henry Bower Proessor o

Entrepreneurial Management and co-author oThe Soul

of the Corporation, a book on managing the identity o a

company. We explored Whartonsorganizational culture and listened

to the views o our stakeholders

to nd what resonates across

audiences.

We heard consistencies in

how people think o Wharton,

says Katherine Klein, Edward H.

Bowman Proessor o Management

and a member o the committee.

We heard terms like knowledge,

analytics, rigor. At the same time,

we heard that Wharton aculty and

students are diverse, that we have

impact, and were global.

Adds Patti Williams, Ira A.

Lipman Associate Proessor o

Marketing, It was a remarkable

exercise to turn the lens on

ourselves. We brought the samerigor and analysis we bring to

our research, gathering and then

ltering many perspectives and

experiences to get to a shared set

o Wharton values.

To nd an expression that would

authentically capture the Wharton experience, the branding

team turned to the community or inspiration. With the

help oKarl Ulrich, CIBC Proessor o Entrepreneurship

and Ecommerce and vice dean or innovation, the branding

team launched a crowd-sourcing tournament modeled on

the methods put orth in Ulrichs recent book Innovation

Tournaments. Students and alumni were asked to submit

taglines and themes. Not surprisingly, the submissions were

as varied and diverse as the community itsel, but one idea

rose to the ore: Wharton knowledge creates consequence

in the world.

To deliver this idea simply and powerully, the team settled

on a exible message platorm that could be adapted to meetthe needs o all our stakeholders. To stay targeted, they

dened a set o themes that place emphasis on the impact

Wharton knowledge,

certainly unmatched

in scope, combined

with a passionate,entrepreneurial

community, creates a

very special dynamic:

a place where knowledge

uels actionand where

its reach and impact areever-expanding.


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Educational PullWharton Executive Education participants come rom 88

dierent countries and travel 3.8 million miles annually.


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Finance FrequencyWhartons fnance proessors bring more than 1,000 years

o collective teaching experience.

created by Wharton knowledgeand the meaning Wharton

makes in the world at large, including: Knowledge or Action,

Knowledge or Global Impact, Knowledge or Innovation and

Knowledge or Lie.

This messaging works because o our scale and scope, says

committee chair Day. Wharton has the greatest breadth o

knowledge o any business school in the world, and we see it

applied every day across the world and in our community.

KNOWLEDGE FOR ACTIONThe aculty know rsthand that Wharton knowledge is rooted

in evidence and developed in a dynamic culture that inspiresleadershipthus, leading to real consequence in the world, just

as ounder Joseph Wharton envisioned.

Wharton aculty are committed to knowledge born o

complex research and careul analysis. Using a great deal o

gathered data and analyses rom a variety o perspectives,

they use their expertise to come to conclusionsand

expect the same rom students. They possess the broadest

and deepest expertise on business knowledge, reaching

across disciplines as diverse as public policy, health-care

management and ethics. Their work allows business leaders

to act on evidence, not just instincts.

One example is Kleins research about how to get the most

out o teams. Kleins research revealed that, when dealing

with diverse values, task-oriented leadership yields greaterteam eectiveness than relationship-oriented leadership.

Its not about which management style is in vogue, she

Each equals one year of experience.

Each column represents a faculty member

in Whartons Finance Department.


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SPRING 2012 | WHARTON MAGAZINE | 31

says. Its about what works.Alumni have built their careers on an evidence-based

approach leading to innovation. Wharton alumni, Bruce I.

Jacobs, G79, GrW86, and Kenneth N. Levy, WG76, G82,

celebrated 25 years o their rm last year. At its inception,

the rm emphasized a then revolutionary notion that the

investment world should act on research that stems rom

academic concepts and tools.

An increasingly complex world requires the tools that

quantitative research can provide, Jacobs told WhartonMagazine (see Calculating the Impact o the New Quant

Finance Center, Fall 2011, P. 28-33).

KNOWLEDGE FOR INNOVATIONWharton has a unique and dierentiating personality:

driven, dynamic and entrepreneurial. Wharton encourages

students to pursue their own interests and passions, and

creates an environment that celebrates experimentation,

entrepreneurship and innovation.

Adam Stein, WG05, values the synergy that happens atWharton when people and knowledge come together. Stein

started his MBA with experience at Silicon Valley startups

and graduated as a ull-edged technology entrepreneur. Whilestill a student, he and some classmates launched TerraPass, a

clean-tech company.

Its not only about what you learn, but how you learn and

who you learn it with, says Stein.

For his newest company, Gridium, an energy management

company, Stein says he relied on his business-school education

to make undamental decisions about pricing, market-entry

strategy and product design, as well as more creative decisions

like choosing a name and marketing.Wharton shows you how to put it all together and work with

others to make something new, he says.

Introducing a new product or entering a new market may

seem risky in todays volatile economy, but a new course

hosted through Whartons Aresty Institute o Executive

Education emphasizes the importance o action in the ace o

uncertainty. Harbir Singh, Mack Proessor o Management,

co-director o the Mack Center or Technological Innovation

and vice dean o global initiatives, notes that the global nature

o the economy increases an organizations opportunities,which also increases complexity and ambiguity.

Decision-makers must be able to position their rms to

Once Whartons new core positioning was

established, according to committee member

Patti Williams, who teaches marketingstrategy and branding as the Ira A. Lipman

Associate Proessor o Marketing, the next

challenge was to take the concept rom

abstraction to something that we could use

across the School in our communications.

Te committee established a two-part

communications platorm: a dened set o

messages and a graphical treatment. Te

messages can be used or dierent audiences

while conveying the same shared theme.

For example, the phrase knowledge or

global impact can be used when addressing

Executive Education clients, knowledge or

lie is relevant or a Lielong Learning event

and knowledge or innovation describes the

work o the research centers.

Rather than a one-size-ts-all tagline,

we have a fexible system or expressing

Whartons brand, says Williams.Te second element o the

communications platorm is a series o

meticulously designed inographics that use

quantitative and qualitative data to depict the

impact o Wharton knowledge.Te power o an inographic is that it

takes otherwise seemingly dull or disparate

inormation and creates a visually appealing

product that osters an understanding

o the story. Each Wharton inographic

is an ownable expression o data that

contains layers o inormation, showing the

unparalleled consequence that the institution

has in the worlda perect representation

or a brand built on rigorous analysis, says

Ira Rubien, executive director o marketing

and communications or the School, and

committee member.

Karma, a Philadelphia-based

communications agency, designed

the campaign. Te dierentiating new

inographics were created by award-winning

graphic designer Carl Deorres. It will become

a signature look or Wharton across all Schoolcommunications.

DEVELOPING THE

COMMUNICATIONSPLATFORM


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32 | WHARTON MAGAZINE | SPRING 2012

assess advantages and challenges that

might develop anywhere in the world,

says Singh, who serves as the academic

director o the new Global Strategic

Leadership Program.

Your strategic approach and how you

work with others may have to change, but

you cant wait to know everything beore

moving orward. The successul businessis the dynamic one, Singh says.

KNOWLEDGE FORTHOUGHTFUL LEADERSMany people take on leadership roles and then lead in a

way that makes no tangible, measurable dierence. When

Joseph Wharton put orth his vision or a school o nance

and commerce that would educate Pillars o the State,

whether in public or private lie, he laid the oundation or

the Wharton School to train thoughtul leaders who wouldinstigate positive, dynamic change in their organizations

and in the greater society.

When you talk about knowledge or action, its really

about using knowledge to lead, saysJanet F. Clark, WG82,

Marathon Oil executive vice president and chie nancial

ofcer. The biggest thing I got out o Wharton was learning

leadership skills.

Clark says she grew into taking on leadership roles as

a student, rst in smaller groups beore becoming morecondent and vocal in the classroom. Today, she is one o

only a handul o women in top leadership positions in the

energy industry.

Wharton trains values-centered, action-oriented leaders

who understand that success is about translating knowledge

into desired results, says Clark.

Leadership learning is central to the Wharton experience.

All rst-year MBA students start with cutting-edge

leadership learning in a required core course in teamwork

and leadership. MGMT 652 uses technology to create anonline simulation experience, allowing students to act as

senior management at a ctitious startup. Undergraduate

students also begin with leadership learning in MGMT 100,

in which students work in teams on consulting projects

with local nonprots. Lessons learned rom unexpected

situations each student team aces, as well as the experience

o consensus-building and decision-making, are directly

applicable to the real world.

KNOWLEDGE FOR LIFEJoseph Wharton had the radical idea o ounding the

worlds rst business school more than 130 years ago,

and we have to continue tothink proactively to stay on top,

Robertson says. By reconguring

the MBA curriculum and launching

the Lielong Learning initiative,

we are ensuring that Wharton

remains at the vanguard o business

education.

In the Lielong Learning initiative,

currently being piloted, alumniwill continue developing skills and

knowledgesharing insights in one

o the largest and most powerul

business networks in the world. Educational oerings and

experiences that leverage alumni practitioners, expert aculty

and scholarly research will create new opportunities and value

or alumni as their careers progress. The knowledge they

gain will be the same high-caliber knowledge they received as

students at Wharton.

Similarly, the new curriculum or the MBA program,launching in August with the incoming class o 2014, will

prepare students to lead in an uncertain and complex global

marketplace. The new curriculum oers greater exibility or

students to ollow their career paths, transorms leadership

education with a 360-degree eedback and coaching program,

and is built on a structure that allows or quicker development

o courses in the ace o new global opportunities and

challenges.

Meanwhile, the highly laudedKnowledge@Wharton, nowwith 1.8 million subscribers, continues to serve the broader

business community with analyses o trends, interviews with

industry leaders and articles based on the latest research. A

singular vision and clarity o purpose keep it growing and

appealing to new audiences, or instance, with the launch o

Knowledge@Wharton High School.

What makes Wharton such a global powerhouse is its

people, says Robertson. Our aculty, students and alumni

collectively develop the knowledge and abilities that enable

organizations to run eectively and efciently.He adds, This productivity leads to greater economic and

social welare, making business a orce or good.

The ultimate measure o Whartons success is how its

broad and deep knowledge transorms industries around the

globe. With 88,000 alumni in 150 countries, and 225+ aculty

teaching 5,000 students every year, it seems the potential o

knowledge or action is limitless.

I wanted to

spark the commonunderstanding o

purpose and energy

that comes with

brand clarity.

Scan the QR code to view the Knowledge for Action

brand video or visit whr.tn/knowledge-or-action.

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