Q & A
Executive Education
by Jeremy Schoolfield
 IN FEBRUARY, IAAPA WILL ONCE AGAIN PARTNER WITH the world-renowned Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for the association’s Institute for Executive Education. IAAPA’s premier education program is geared specifically for executive-level leaders, and this year will focus on effective tools for developing and executing strategic plans. To get more information on this year’s event, FUNWORLD spoke with the program’s director, Dr. Kathy Pearson, adjunct associate professor in the operations and information management department at The Wharton School.
FUNWORLD:What will this year’s education program focus on?
Kathy Pearson: The major thrust of this year’s program is on personal leadership at the strategic level. As I’ve worked with IAAPA and the executives who came to last year’s program, I’ve learned these are folks who are very diverse, but every single person in the room has some sort of strategic responsibility. If you run a small business or you’re a department head at Disney, you still have the same functional areas you have to integrate into a strategic plan.
The program is going to focus on basic leadership, as well— how you influence and persuade informally is a skill set that’s so important when you have to start working with many different constituencies and stakeholders.
FW: What do returning attendees from last year have to look forward to in 2009?
KP: The curriculum is completely new. Last year focused more on technology and customer service; this year we’ll focus on personal and individual leadership within the context of a larger organization. I may refer back to some things from last year, but it’s all new.
FW: Is there one particular session you’re especially excited about this year?
KP: Influence and persuasion are critical for leaders and managers. We have these hierarchical ways in which we manage businesses—we have people reporting directly to us and then we report to somebody else—but so much of the work really is done in more informal settings, especially when you get to the strategic level.
Another session I’ll be teaching will address something I see all the time: Organizations that are fine on execution, fine on setting strategy, but they have a difficult time actually executing strategic initiatives. About 70 percent of major strategic initiatives fail, research shows. Why does that happen? We’ll explore that, and think about how even though we’re strategic leaders, a lot of what we do is actually execution. A lot of people in the room are probably, in many ways, measured on how they execute their strategic initiatives. There’s a real divide there.
FW: What will participants take away from this year’s institute?
KP: There will be some specific tools they can go back to work On Monday morning and apply. And I’m hoping they feel more confident and have a better understanding of their own leadership styles, and how they can enact change within their organizations.
 
Registration is now open for the IAAPA Institute for Executive Education, to be held Feb. 1-4, 2009, at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. For more information or to download a registration form, e-mail training@IAAPA. org or visit www.IAAPA.org/education/institutes.
|
