In September, I started a new course at the Wharton School of Business Executive Education program. It’s a Chief Strategy Officer certificate program.
I’m now about half way through the course and I am really enjoying it. Here are four things I have learned so far. I will probably elaborate more on each of them in future posts.
- New ways to quantify and use equations to express concepts. Sometimes it is just making an insight sound science-y instead of intuition-based. But sometimes it helps to put a framework on a jumble of ideas in order to weigh them more accurately and to look for what is missing in a data set.
- The early part of the course was an opportunity to analyze the strategy work I have done before. It gave me a chance to reflect on my last job and to understand more clearly why some things worked and some things were harder.
- How to apply the concepts across different industries, some I know a little about, like health care and finance and construction, and some I knew very little about, like entertainment and business aviation. It is really helpful to be in a course with other experienced professionals and to consult with each other about how the tools we are learning can work in new contexts.
- I enjoy this kind of thinking and the people who also want to have these conversations. I like asking “What if?” and “Why not?” And I am enjoying getting to know my classmates, mostly online, but also the one in-person event we organized.
I am really glad I started the course. It was a big investment for me, and the first academic credential I have pursued in a long time. But I can see that it will be helpful for me in my future career goals. If you have any questions about it, please ask! I’d love to talk about it.
