Wharton EMBA Blog

The University will be closing on Thurs., December 24th, 2009 at 12:00noon EST.  If you have any immediate questions, please contact our offices before that time. We will reopen on Mon., January 4th, 2010 at 9:00am EST.  For the Wharton | SF office, those times are 12:00noon PST on the 24th and 9:00am PST on the 4th.

The winter holidays are a great time to work on your application!  Here are a few items to keep in mind:

The deadline for both the West and East Coast programs is Feb. 1, 2010.

If you haven’t already scheduled an admissions interview, contact us soon. By this time of year, appointments on class days are limited.  If you live locally to the San Francisco or Philadelphia campus, you may want to come during the week for your interview and then return on a class day to have lunch with Executive MBA students and observe a class.

If you still need to take the GMAT, the last date to take the test for admissible scores is March 1, 2010. A copy of your GMAT scores may be scanned and emailed or faxed to the East or West Coast office, but you also must have an official copy sent directly to Wharton.  The GMAT codes for the Wharton MBA Program for Executives are G56-97-36 for Philadelphia and G56-97-14 for San Francisco. Scores are valid for five years.

We require an original copy of your transcripts before we can complete the evaluation of your application.  If you haven’t already done so, you should request that they be sent directly to the San Francisco or Philadlphia as soon as possible.

We look forward to hearing from you and wish everyone happy holidays!

Related Links:

Program Faces & Dates

Don't Wait! Schedule your Wharton EMBA Interview and Visit Soon

Preparing for the GMAT: Practice, Practice, Practice

Insider Tips: Preparing the Best EMBA Application

Chris Dickey had a Doctorate in Public Health, but his job as general manager of a health services company in Manhattan wasn’t fulfilling his goal of making a real impact on a large number of people’s lives. To change that, he enrolled in Wharton’s MBA for Executives Program in 2006 where he seized the opportunity to brainstorm with classmates whenever he could about possible business plans. Soon after he graduated, he and a partner had a plan in place to create Healthpoint Services, a market-based approach to meeting the health needs of consumers at the base of the economic pyramid. In addition to providing clean water, the business also provides medical clinics in remote villages that connect patients to doctors via videoconferencing technology and remote diagnostics.

It’s been about 18 months since he graduated so we asked Chris to share some of the highlights of his unique entrepreneurial experiences with us. In addition to sending us a video video from a recent trip to India, here’s what he had to say:

“Poor people in the developing world typically don’t have access to clean water and affordable, high-quality health care. We set out to change that through a village-based unit called a Healthpoint that combines a Reverse Osmosis plant attached to a raw water source with the latest in telemedicine technology, approved drugs, and 65 diagnostic tests (and counting) that cover a range of common illnesses.

My partner, Allen Hammond, and I are convinced that we are among the pioneers of this new market-based approach to meeting the health needs of this vast group of consumers making and spending less than about $3 per day. We believe that a commercial venture focused on delivering high-quality care at an affordable price will create efficiencies, economies of scale, and a profitable, scalable company that will transform health outcomes for millions of people.

We officially launched the first three Healthpoints in India last October to some fanfare – both the Punjab Governor and Finance Minister were there as well as the national media. The politicians were so impressed with the operation that they asked us to build 600 more units in the next three years!

I recently returned from a visit to the Healthpoints, which are in Mallan, Doda, and Kotbhai, and also to our new call center based in Bathinda. I’m delighted to say that the units are all thriving, even after such a short time. The waiting rooms are full, people are lining up with 20 liter jugs to purchase clean water, and the staff is thrilled to be part of a revolutionary effort to provide access to health care for rural villagers.

During that trip, I watched a follow-up visit to the Healthpoint in Mallan by a woman who had been treated by us for joint pain a week before. She came to review her progress on the prescribed medicines and to get further instructions. She appeared to be very content with her treatment, which cost her 30 rupees (about $0.65) plus the cost of the medicines. Her doctor, too, was happy with the outcome. The fact that the doctor and patient were looking at one another through video screens seemed not to register to either of them.

The next morning, we drove to Doda, a village of about 1,500 families, nearly all of whom make a living from the vast farmland that surrounds it. When we arrived at the Healthpoint, several men were packing their 20 liter jugs full of water (which cost them 2 rupees) on the backs of their bicycles. One of the amazing aspects of this company is that getting the water has become a man’s job in these towns, replacing a traditional woman’s chore. We think it’s because the Healthpoints are also high tech gathering places and getting the water is now a cool thing to do for the men!

Inside the Healthpoint, I joined a consultation in progress. A farm worker was suffering from pains in his shoulder and side. He had been to the local government clinic where he was given vitamins and a pain killer without any real discussion. Our clinical assistant took the man’s blood pressure, temperature, pulse, and weight, carefully entering it into his electronic medical record. During the examination, our doctor was present via a large screen monitor and was asking lots of questions. It turns out that the patient had experienced several episodes during his life that appeared to be epileptic seizures. The doctor ruled out an immediate threat to the man’s health and then asked whether the patient could afford 500 rupees to get an EEG in Bathinda to check for epilepsy. The patient said yes, he had saved enough over the past year to cover the expense.

Absent a referral by our doctor, who is known in Bathinda, that EEG might have cost the worker several thousand rupees, a sum that he would have to borrow from a local loan shark, thereby ensuring that neither he nor his young family would ever escape the economic and health consequences of his illness.

I saw several other patient visits that day, not only in Doda, but also in Mallan and Kotbhai, and I was impressed by the warmth and care provided by our staff and also by patients’ ease in being seen by a doctor on TV. It’s incredible that most of these individuals have never seen a real doctor before and now they interact with one as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. The video and sound quality is so high, the lighting is so good, and the care with which the employees treat these poor patients is so genuine that the exchange of information is excellent. I’d gladly trade some of my experiences with the medical system in New York for ones like this.

When I think back on all those hours spent at Wharton discussing business ideas that would  make a difference, we owe a significant debt of gratitude to my Wharton EMBA colleagues, including Sarabjit Singh, Vikas Khurana, Mike Parker, and Rittik Chakrabarti.  I really believe that there is a tremendous demand for services like ours, not just in Punjab but in many other Indian states and other developing countries.”

Thanks to Chris for sharing those highlights and good luck to Healthpoint Services in its future growth!

To learn more about Healthpoint Services, contact Chris Dickey at: chris.dickey@e-healthpoint.net

In case you missed it, Wharton EMBA alumnus Anthony Noto was interviewed on CNBC a few weeks ago to talk about the business of football. A 1999 Wharton graduate, Noto formerly was a media and entertainment analyst at Goldman Sachs before becoming the CFO of the NFL in 2008.

In his first television appearance since joining the NFL, Noto talked with Darren Rovell about the state of the NFL as the season was opening in Pittsburgh. When asked about the growth of the game, Noto said, “We’re continuing to see strong year over year growth in all key fan engagement methods building on the strong success of the Super Bowl in 2008, which had a record audience of 152 million viewers. We’re continuing to see that growth strongly in audience ratings as it relates to preseason games that are up over 20%. The NFL Network’s ratings on a year-to-date basis are also up in the double-digit range.”

As for revenues, Noto explained that the economic environment has clearly hurt discretionary spending, having a negative impact on ticket sales, sponsorship, and advertising. As a result, the revenue forecast is lower than expected a year ago.

When asked about the difference between working at the NFL and on Wall Street, he replied “that would be comparing apples to oranges.”

Read the full interview with Noto.

After working as a pediatric surgical nurse and then at a small medical company, Shelley Boyce wanted to formalize her business education in Wharton’s EMBA Program. However, going back to school after working “in the trenches” for 10 years was a bit daunting.

During the weeklong orientation known as “boot camp”, a professor announced that if the students could survive his microeconomics class for the next six weeks then they would be fine. As challenging as that sounded at the time, she quickly realized that she would indeed be fine. “Wharton does a great job at selecting students who will succeed and giving them the skills they need to be successful – of course that doesn’t make it any easier that first week,” laughs Boyce.

That same week, another professor made an equally impactful announcement. She recalls, “He stood in front of our class and said, ‘There are three types of people: bean counters, gear heads, and poets. Figure out who you are and connect yourself to each of the other two groups and that will help you be successful.’”

Not only did that advice prove useful at Wharton, but it also rang true as she launched her start-up, MedRisk, the following year with fellow Wharton Executive MBA student Jerry Poole. The two, she explains, were very different. “Jerry is very bright, detailed, and structured and really knows how to build and sustain a well oiled operating machine where I am much more loose and creative. I work with a crayon and he works with a mechanical pencil,” says Boyce.

While working with others with diverse management styles can be challenging, Boyce maintains that it also is critical. “You need the thinking of people unlike yourself to make the business grow,” she says. “When hiring, we look for skills and talent, but also that type of diversity. When our professor said there are three types of people and each has his or her own skill set and contributions to make, that applies in business as well.”

During her second year at Wharton, Boyce says she was more relaxed and confident as she found her groove. However, that calm didn’t last long because not only did she deliver her first child that year, but she also started MedRisk. She credits the support from her classmates with helping her stay in the program despite the many demands on her time. “Wharton was where I needed to be. If I had taken a leave of absence, I would have lost out on a lot of opportunities and learnings that helped me in real time as I launched the business,” she says.

 “I’d be sitting in accounting class learning about financial statements and then go home and build a P&L for the new business. I’d sit in negotiations class learning how to buy a car and then go home and figure out how to negotiate getting money from an investor. Or in an operations class, I’d read these great case studies about the successes and failures of companies. And I still have Prof. Richard Shell's book about entrepreneurship which sits on my shelf and still gets pulled down twice a year – and this is 15 years later!”

Today, the company that she launched in 1994 with just six employees and a bank loan has grown national in scope, employing over 250 people and generating $120 million in sales. In addition to running her business, she and her husband, Dan, are busy raising their three daughters.  Boyce also spends time mentoring young entrepreneurs. “I feel extremely passionate about entrepreneurship. It’s one thing to start your own company and live through the successes of that, but equally rewarding is to pass it on and share some of that wisdom with others,” she says.

Boyce credits Wharton with many of those successes. “I didn’t have plans to become an entrepreneur when I undertook my Wharton MBA, but while here I gained the skill set, toolkit, and confidence to become an entrepreneur so when the opportunity came, I felt well prepared to take a risk.”

Read more about Shelley Boyce.

While needing to fly every other weekend to get to school may sound like a significant challenge, second-year Wharton | San Francisco Executive MBA student Dan Paik says that his commute from Redondo Beach, California to San Francisco hasn’t been that bad.

In fact, he says most EMBA students who live in southern California don’t have all that different of a schedule from students who live in the Bay Area. The biggest difference, he says, is that the southern California students probably wake up a few hours earlier to catch a 7:00am flight on Friday mornings in order to arrive at Wharton | San Francisco by 9:30am and get home a few hours later on Saturday evenings.

For Paik, his schedule is a little bit different from most commuters in his area because instead of catching Friday morning flights, he usually flies from LAX on Thursday evenings into Oakland where he spends the night at his brother’s home and then takes a train on Friday mornings into San Francisco.

But regardless of when they arrive, “the majority of people I talk to who are based near Los Angeles don’t mind the travel because they spend their flights to school catching up on reading,” he says. “And in this day and age, we are constantly connected to the office so those brief couple of hours in transit is a welcome respite because we can turn off our phones – we actually like the travel time.”

Paik notes that the flight home provides time to bond with classmates. When classes end at 4:00pm on Saturday, the commuters share taxis to the airport. Those going to Los Angeles usually catch a 5:00pm flight out of SFO airport and those headed to San Diego usually catch a 4:50pm flight out of Oakland. “It’s pretty much a given that it’s not study time because we are done with classes and can hang out and listen to music or watch part of a movie together on the flight. It’s our time to kick back and relax after a weekend of classes.”

He adds that because Wharton students need flights at nonpeak times, getting tickets hasn’t been an issue.  “We are flying in on Thursday nights or Friday mornings when flights are never full and then we leave on Saturday afternoons which is also a good time to find flights. Southwest tickets usually cost about $50 each way from LAX, but we earn a lot of frequent flier miles and free flights,” he says.

As for the impact on his job, Paik explains that for the first year of the program he was running his own business, Juice Wireless, so setting a schedule amenable to commuting wasn’t an issue. Now, as VP of Technology at ThisNext.com, he says it’s still not a big deal. “I leave the office on Thursdays at the usual time I would leave work for the day anyway. In two years, I’ve never had an instance where I had an important meeting that had to happen that night,” he says.

Paik says that most people in southern California probably do consider more local schools – at least at first -- when thinking about EMBA programs. However, one of Wharton’s advantages is its national and international reputation.  He explains, “If you were to move to another part of the country or expand internationally at some point in your career, which a lot of us might do at some point, it’s good to have those networks open. That is a big reason why I'm getting a Wharton MBA as opposed to one from a local school.”

Paik adds, “To get to go to a school like Wharton is definitely worth the commute!”

Read more about other students’ commutes.

While many students might measure the value of an MBA in financial terms, Cesar Bocanegra prefers to measure the ROI on his EMBA degree a bit differently. “I like to think about it in terms of quality of life and the connections that began in school,” says the 2008 graduate of Wharton’s Executive MBA Program. “I talk to at least one Wharton friend every day whether it’s chatting, email, or on the phone and you can’t put a dollar sign on that!”

Bocanegra, executive VP of Operations for DonorsChoose.org, recently shared his enthusiasm for Wharton’s EMBA Program with thousands of participants at the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) Conference in Minneapolis. He’s been attending the conference for years, first as a representative of his former employer, AT&T, and then as a Wharton student. However, this year he represented Wharton as an academic sponsor.

The three-day event, which is the largest Hispanic MBA conference in the country, provided plenty of time for networking with professional development sessions as well as career expos where attendees could talk with corporate and academic sponsors.

Bocanegra says that many of the questions he was asked at the expos pertained to how the Wharton EMBA program is structured and how it differs from the full-time MBA program. “I explained how in the Executive MBA program you keep your day job and build relationships over the course of every other weekend when you stay on campus whereas in the full-time program you are there the entire time, but don’t apply the skills you learn immediately in your day job,” says Bocanegra.

Another common topic of conversation, he says, related to the curriculum. “There is an impression that Wharton is heavily finance focused. I explained that while Wharton offers a diverse set of classes, students do have a significant finance course load.  Wharton emphasizes core skills and finance is big a part of that core – it’s something you need knowledge of in any area of business,” he says.

Bocanegra notes that some people he talked to were surprised to hear how rigorous the EMBA program is. “The reality is that you are giving up a lot more than every other weekend because of the homework and assignments that need to be done between classes. I talked about how the Wharton Executive MBA program has the same requirements as the full-time MBA and lasts the full 24 months.”

He adds that all the hard work is definitely worthwhile. “There are many benefits of a Wharton education from opening doors to all of the connections that are made through the program all the way to the knowledge that you learn,” he says. “It’s almost an expectation that when people hear you went to Wharton that you really know what you are talking about. At the conference, I highly recommended the Wharton EMBA program to anyone interested in applying!”

Learn more about Cesar.

When Yu-Ling Cheng told her parents that she wanted to change her college major from pre-med to music, they weren’t thrilled with the idea.  After all, how many people really make it in the music world playing the violin? So they made a deal and Cheng changed her major to music as well as the more “stable degree” of economics, which would provide something to fall back on if music didn’t work out.

Fortunately, it was a good choice and she found economics “fascinating.” After college, Cheng earned her Master’s Degree in violin performance, but continued to pursue her interest in business by interning in development with the Boston Symphony. That internship led to a League of American Orchestras Fellowship, which places people who excel in arts management at major music organizations. “That’s where I really fell in love with business,” recalls Cheng.

After her fellowship ended, she became the director of marketing for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, but felt she still needed a better overall understanding of business. “A long-term goal is to be the president of a major orchestra and to do that you need strong business skills, preferably an MBA, and the ability to raise money. I knew I would need to invest in my future and get an MBA so I started applying to several programs,” she says.

Cheng considered schools closer to her home in Pittsburgh, but found they didn’t measure up to her personal standards. And since she wasn’t sponsored, she wanted to get the best education possible for her money. “It’s a huge investment, especially not being in a field like finance where every other year your salary doubles. It’s a long-term picture for me, but I felt like every penny – and the commute -- would be worth it,” she says.

The commute to Philadelphia turned out to be the easiest part of the program. The hardest part, she says, was all of the studying. However, her learning team was a huge help in that area. “Our team of seven people was great because we all had strengths in different areas and were there to support each other. Being part of that team allowed me to know that I would be fine at Wharton,” she says, noting that although they all graduated last May, the group is already planning a reunion dinner in Philadelphia.

Cheng says that the diversity of her fellow students turned out to be one of her favorite things about the program. She explains, “When you work in the arts, you tend to work with passionate people who are also from an arts background so to be exposed to a whole different group of people was great! And my classmates were curious about the arts too. It was interesting to hear their opinions about our world.”

During her last two semesters at Wharton, she did an independent study with another student to create a dynamic pricing model for the performing arts industry. The project gained so much momentum that they’ve continued with their efforts, inviting their faculty advisor Prof. Senthil Veeraraghavan to visit the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and involving a Wharton PhD student in ongoing work. “That is what really gets me excited about Wharton – the relationship didn’t just end at graduation but continues,” says Cheng.

She adds that she “absolutely recommends” Wharton’s EMBA program to others in the arts. “It made me more business savvy and helped me develop a framework for thinking through problems that I couldn’t necessarily have gotten on the job because we all see problems similarly. The more diversity at the workplace, the better the company will do.”

She continues, “A lot of people in the arts may not consider an MBA because there might not be the payoff in the end with the salary, but that is short-sighted. I know I will be moving into a VP role at some point and this degree has helped expedite that natural progression. I also started teaching arts marketing as an adjunct at a university in Pittsburgh and recently invested with my fiancé in a winery where I was voted onto one of the five board seats. The ROI may not be the traditional ROI, but it has already started for me in a lot of different ways!” she says.

The second years are back from their International Seminar Trips to Spain and Singapore and it sounds like they had a great time. The week-long trips, which followed the core courses Competitive Strategy and Global Strategic Management, included many corporate visits interspersed with some social activities. Here’s what Wharton | San Francisco student Suki Toguchi, a member of the trip planning committee and manager at Ernst & Young in San Francisco, said about her class trip to Spain:

“We had a blast! Madrid truly exceeded my expectations. Our class really bonded over great food, drinks, late night cultural outings, exploring the city, and other interesting adventures.

I was quite impressed with the companies that we visited where we learned about the different strategies various firms employ to increase growth despite the global recession. We visited a spectrum of industries including high tech, fashion, and financial. We also visited various clean tech firms and learned about the exciting new ways to use wind and sun forces to generate energy.The trip will remain as the highlight of my Wharton experience. Although we’ve only known each other for a year-and-a-half, the Spain trip cemented the relationships we’ve built as a class. And though most of us are ready to graduate, we will miss the opportunity to hang out with each other. As the famous song goes, ‘We are family!’”

East Coast second-year Executive MBA student Amar Duggassani, who was on the trip planning committee for his class and is EVP of hotel gaming business solutions for the Rainmaker Group in Atlanta, described the  Singapore trip as a great time as well. Here’s what he said:

“When we’re in Philadelphia, we’re running to classes and always have something due the next morning so we don’t have that same kind of leisurely face-to-face time together. While Singapore was a learning experience, it was equally a great bonding experience for us a class. It was also good for the spouses and partners who came along to be able to see what we go through on a day-to-day basis and how we all interact.The company visits were great, but one of them for me was extraordinary and that was to the Marina Bay Sands Resort. While the resort itself is in some ways similar to projects they did in the U.S. and other parts of the world, the dynamics between the Singapore government and business were quite interesting. It’s one thing to sit in class and study how government and businesses operate in other parts of the world, but to see it in real life, there couldn’t be any better place than Singapore to see how that plays out. It’s almost like being in a real live case that we are part of and was a very memorable experience. “

Fellow planning committee member Sarah Sullivan, a program analyst at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C., agrees that the trip to Singapore was a success. Here’s what she said:

“The week flew by and it was a ton of fun to spend that time with my classmates. It was a great chance to bond and get to know each other better. And I really liked Singapore. It was fun, but also easy, convenient, safe, and clean – a great spot for a group of 115 people travelling together.

One of the highlights of the corporate visits was our tour of the training facilities at Singapore Airlines. It was incredible learning about the company because it was started by the Singapore government and operates 100% international flights because there are no domestic flights in the country. My other favorite part was the visit to the Discovery Channel where the general manager for Southeast Asia sat at a table with our group and really dug into their regional and global strategy and answered all of our questions.On the social side, I really enjoyed our alumni reception at the beginning of the week. It was nice to dress up and meet Wharton alumni living in Singapore. And then a bunch of us went out afterward for a great night of karaoke.

I really do feel much closer to my classmates as a result of the week we spent together. We were already a close knit group before, but now we are that much closer. The friendships and camaraderie have definitely moved up a level.”

If you’re looking for more information about Wharton's EMBA program, you now have two new places to find it: Facebook and Twitter.

Our Wharton Executive MBA Facebook page provides blog postings, program information, photos, and information about upcoming events and School news. You can even compare Wharton’s two formats for earning the MBA degree.

The page also posts YouTube videos of students, faculty, and alumni discussing a variety of topics such as what it’s really like to be a student in Wharton’s EMBA Program, how students juggle commuting to Wharton’s campuses in Philadelphia and San Francisco every other weekend with full-time jobs and families, and how students have approached their companies about sponsorship.

Over 300 fans of this page are Wharton students and alumni from the San Francisco and Philadelphia Executive MBA campuses.  So if you have a question that you’d like to get a student's or graduate’s perspective on, you can post it as a comment on our Facebook page page and get a response right there.  We also encourage you to join discussions that arise on topics such as learning teams, Wharton’s new partnership with Google, and Prof. Pete Fader's perspective on the EMBA program.

To receive general announcements about Wharton's EMBA program program, you can also follow us on Twitter. Recent tweets have announced information sessions, networking events, and Wharton news.

Whether it’s via Facebook, Twitter, or our Website, our goal is to make sure you have all the information you need about the Wharton Executive MBA program in order to make an informed decision about which business school to attend.

If you are considering applying to Wharton's MBA Program for Executives, this is a great time to schedule an interview. You don’t need to wait until you’ve finished – or even started – your application. Make the interview part of your research on our program to see if it’s a good fit for you. Since interviews are scheduled on days when Executive MBA classes are in session, you can also sit in on a class and meet current students. All we need to see now is your resume.

The interview typically lasts approximately 45 minutes.  It is required for Fellows EMBA candidates and strongly recommended for traditional EMBA candidates. In other words, everyone should schedule an interview!

The interview:

- provides one-on-one time with a member of the Admissions Committee during which you can present yourself in “3D”

- covers  how your career has evolved, with examples of leadership within or outside of your work, and why getting an MBA is important to you

- is an opportunity to ask questions about the program as well as address any specific issues you might have

Even if you aren’t quite ready for an interview now, we encourage you to schedule one sooner than later.  We conduct interviews through March, but they must be scheduled prior to the Feb. 1, 2010 application deadline.  Once January is here, it’s often hard to get appointments due to demand. So please contact us  at either the Philadelphia or San Francisco EMBA office to make an appointment.  We look forward to getting on your calendar!