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Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program

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Why Enroll in the Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program?

There’s no shortage of pitfalls for startups and their founders. The 90 percent failure rate of startups is enough to make you think about keeping your day job — forever. But what if there was a proven playbook that dramatically increased the odds of success?

Being successful in venture capital means having a mix of cross-disciplinary skills, which is why expert faculty for this program stem from social psychology, organizational behavior, information technology, finance, and marketing.

Enroll in this program and learn how to:

Pick the right business model

There are many different types of business models. Survey the range of options, including the disruptive model, the architecture model, the value chain model, and the efficiency model, with examples of each type. Use the Business Model Canvas tool to help you decide on your model.

Build the right team

Learn about the three Rs of founding teams — relationships, roles, and rewards — and the three critical questions entrepreneurs must address when setting up their organizations. Topics include allocating equity, founder’s agreements, hiring key management, and finding technical resources.

Choose the right financing approach

Raising funds to scale is one of the biggest challenges that startups face. Learn about the various financing pathways available and the trade-offs for each type. Topics include equity financing valuations, equity financing terms, and term sheets.

Ramp up sales and scale the business

In order to drive sales, you need a foundational understanding of your potential customers and markets. Considerations such as the rate of adoption of new products help with demand forecasting. Understand the importance of creating a growth culture and different expansion strategies, such as vertical and horizontal expansion.

Your Learning Experience

Through a mix of live and recorded faculty video sessions, assignments, quizzes, and interactive discussions moderated by teaching assistants, your learning journey culminates in a pitch to the Wharton team and renowned venture capital firms. Some of the prominent firms from previous competitions include Sequoia Capital , Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA , Chan Zuckerberg Initiative , Ved Capital , and Walnut Venture .

Your business or idea

Regardless of stage of maturity

Real-world examples

Delivered through a mix of recorded and live online lectures with faculty and guests

Discussion boards

Moderated by subject matter experts

Badge for the Business Plan Competition winner

Awarded to the winner of the Business Plan Competition

Business Plan Competition

Business Plan Competition

Participate in a business plan competition* that serves as a catalyst for honing your entrepreneurial skills and gaining invaluable exposure. You will create a pitch for your own venture, and members of the Wharton entrepreneurship community will review the submitted plans with support from the program leaders . The top seven business plans will be selected as finalists, and those participants will get an opportunity to pitch their business plans to a Wharton venture capital panel in a live session.

The winner of the Business Plan Competition is rewarded with a badge, which is shareable on digital platforms and signifies the bearer's potential as a leading entrepreneur capable of turning visionary ideas into successful business ventures. With this unique badge, you can showcase your exceptional presentation and persuasion skills as well as your mastery of a variety of entrepreneurial concepts, including team building, financial structuring, market scaling, strategic thinking, and business planning.

*Participation in the competition is optional and not essential for program completion.

What Was the Best Part of the Program for the Participants?

PJ Mastracchio

“More than two years after winning Wharton Executive Education’s Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program pitch contest, AtYourGate is now the industry leader in mobile ordering and delivery inside airports. As COVID-19 affected travel so dramatically, we pivoted from convenience to safety — and are launching in 16 new airports in Q2 of 2021. This program exceeded my expectations."

— PJ Mastracchio, Founder and CEO, AtYourGate Business Plan Competition Winner (2018)

Rajpreet Kaur

"When I joined Wharton’s  Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program , my initial research had been done and my company was in motion. This program gave me the confidence to scale the venture and validated my concept by virtue of being runner-up in the pitch competition. They ran a rehearsal pitch with me, offered insights on structuring equity offers, and much more. I highly recommend Wharton’s  EAP  program for anyone serious about scaling their own venture."

— Rajpreet Kaur, Founder of SayCheese.life, Former VP at HSBC Bank, and Head of Derivatives at Bharti Airtel Limited, India

Business Plan Competition 1st Runner-Up (2020)

Want to know what ideas won the Business Plan Competition since it started in 2018?

Interviews and industry examples.

Wharton Executive Education's  Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program  features in-depth interviews with company founders and representatives from startups and established venture capital firms.

  • Big Ass Fans
  • Forerunner Ventures
  • Greylock Partners

The online program also features examples of startups and established organizations that were once startups. It will cover multiple industries, including consumer packaged goods, ecommerce, internet, media and entertainment, and technology.

Harry’s Blades

Dollar Shave Club

The Walt Disney Company

Bandar Foods

Silicon Valley Bank

Kickstarter

Belle-V Kitchen

Wholly Moly

Note: All product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.

Meet the Faculty

David Hsu

Academic Director; Richard A. Sapp Professor; Professor of Management

Ethan Mollick

Ralph J. Roberts Distinguished Faculty Scholar; Associate Professor of Management; Academic Director, Wharton interactive

Kartik Hosanagar

John C. Hower Professor; Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions

Lori Rosenkopf

Simon and Midge Palley Professor

Karl Ulrich

CIBC Endowed Professor; Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions; Professor of Management; Advisor on Asia Strategy

Certificate

Certificate

Upon successful completion of the program, you will earn a digital certificate of completion from Wharton Executive Education.

After successful completion of the online program, your verified digital certificate will be emailed to you in the name you used when registering for the program. All certificate images are for illustrative purposes only and may be subject to change at the discretion of the Wharton School.

This online certificate program does not grant academic credit or a degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

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Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Wharton

Entreprenuership and Innovation at Wharton

Elevating the impact of business research in entrepreneurship and innovation

Wharton's research on entrepreneurship and innovation explores the emergence, performance, and impact of new technologies, products, business models, firms, and innovation ecosystems. These elements operate at multiple levels, spanning individuals and teams, corporations and startups, as well as regions, industries, and countries. By thoroughly analyzing risks and opportunities inherent to innovation and entrepreneurship, we assess the economic and social consequences for all stakeholders in order to find impactful, technology-informed solutions to today’s pressing societal challenges.

Research Insights |   Pillar Faculty Research

Areas of Focus

Evolution of Technologies and Industries

Innovation Ecosystems and Partnerships

Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Resources for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Research Insights

As the undisputed leader in published academic business research, wharton delivers tangible solutions that transform business practices and grow economic opportunities for all., knowledge at wharton, entrepreneurship, dive into topical articles, podcasts, and videos through wharton’s online business journal., co-intelligence: how to live and work with ai.

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In his new book, “Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI,” Wharton’s Ethan Mollick explains what it means to think and work together with smart machines. Read More

The Consequences of Socioeconomic Mobility

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In a study conducted in the urban slums of Brazil, Wharton’s Leo Pongeluppe finds that economic mobility is often accompanied by social stigma. Read More

Barbara Corcoran: What All Small Business Owners Should Know About Today’s Business Landscape

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Barbara Corcoran provides advice to aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners on how to successfully run their business in today’s business landscape. Read More

Socioeconomic Mobility Comes at a Price. Does a Higher Income Outweigh Feeling Stigmatized?

Wharton management professor discusses his research on the consequences of socioeconomic mobility. Read More

Centers, Initiatives & More

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Venture Lab »

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Mack Institute for Innovation Management »

Recent research from pillar faculty, meet some of the wharton faculty doing impactful work for entrepreneurship & innovation..

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Lori Rosenkopf

Management Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship

Research Highlight

Competition–cooperation interplay during multifirm technology coordination: The effect of firm heterogeneity on conflict and consensus in a technology standards organization

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Nicolaj Siggelkow

Management Co-Director for Mack Institute for Innovation Management

CONNECTED STRATEGY Building Continuous Customer Relationships for Competitive Advantage

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Harbir Singh

Management Co-Director, Mack Institute for Innovation Management

The Strategic Leader’s Roadmap 6 Steps for Integrating Leadership and Strategy

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Christian Terwiesch

Operations, Information, and Decisions Co-Director, Mack Institute of Innovation Management

Can AI Provide Ethical Advice?

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Valentina A. Assenova Management

Institutional Change and Early-Stage Startup Selection: Evidence from Applicants to Venture Accelerators

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Exequiel (Zeke) Hernandez Management

Mi Casa Es Tu Casa: Immigrant Entrepreneurs as Pathways to Foreign Venture Capital Investments

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Rahul Kapoor Management

Focusing the ecosystem lens on innovation studies

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J. Daniel Kim Management

Startup acquisitions, relocation, and employee entrepreneurship

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Manav Raj Management

Quick or Broad Patents? Evidence from U.S. Startups

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Tiantian Yang Management

The racial gap in entrepreneurship and opportunities inside established firms

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Wharton MBA Classes, Courses & Curriculum

The wharton mba curriculum has a unique structure, offering rigor and flexibility. the intensive, cross-functional core curriculum provides business fundamentals and the leadership, communication and analytical skills that are critical to your success. you develop one or more areas of expertise by selecting a major and complementary electives . all mba coursework varies by instructor and class environment, but the core course offerings (listed below) are consistent throughout the program., mba curriculum.

The Wharton MBA Curriculum provides a flexible approach to learning. The program requires 19 credit units (CU) to graduate, which is broken up into 3 categories:

9.5 CU
5.0 CU
4.5 CU
TOTAL19 CU

MBA Core Curriculum

You will ground your MBA with six required fixed core classes that will be required for your degree, along with choices in the flexible core . The flexible structure of the core course allows you to take more electives in the first year to prepare for an internship, global experience, business venture, or other interests, and defer some core requirements to their second year. Offered as quarter or semester-long courses, the core curriculum covers traditional management disciplines

The MBA Core classes include 9.5 credit units, distributed in two parts:

  • Fixed Core : 3.25 credit units fixed in the first semester
  • Flexible Core : 6.25 credit units in the first semester or anytime thereafter

business plan wharton

FIXED CORE COURSES

Flexible core courses.

The fixed core courses within the Wharton MBA program consist of the fundamentals and analytical courses that set the stage for your education. These are classes typical of what you would take in business school, and help prepare you for your future,  whether you come to Wharton with a background in business, liberal arts, engineering or more.

Leadership: Foundations of Teamwork and Leadership

Develop your future personal leadership style and capabilities. You will begin with the Teamwork and Leadership Simulation—a team-based, highly interactive simulation that is custom-designed for this course.

Marketing: Marketing Management

Develop skills to apply analytical concepts and marketing tools to decisions like segmentation and targeting, branding, pricing, distribution, and promotion.

Microeconomics: Microeconomics for Managers

Master the basic theory of microeconomics: supply, demand, consumer behavior, market price and output, production, cost, simple competitive market equilibrium, simple monopoly pricing and output determination, price discrimination, and bundling.

Microeconomics: Advanced Microeconomics for Managers

Apply microeconomic theory to firm management and learn how to use microeconomics to enhance decision making. Topics include: sophisticated pricing policies, transfer pricing, strategies for dealing with competitor firms, cooperation strategies, managing under uncertainty, and more.

Statistics: Regression Analysis for Managers

Become familiar with two key statistical methodologies for working with data: regression analysis and experimentation. Learn techniques such as least-squares estimation, tests and confidence intervals, correlation and autocorrelation, collinearity, and randomization.

Management Communication: Speaking and Writing

Speaking : Strengthen your skills in persuasion, speaking confidently, and handling Q&A during the Fall speaking course. You’ll have a choice of advanced topics during the Spring speaking courses.

Writing : In WHCP 621, students will improve their ability to organize and develop the kinds of persuasive arguments they’ll need to lead teams and effect change.

Flexible Core Courses

More than half of the core courses are flexible in order to match your learning style, interests, and goals. Within each different core area, the course choices offer additional flexibility in content, timing, and format. Subjects include:

Operations, Information, and Decisions

Options : Quality and Productivity, Business Analytics, Innovation, Operations Strategy, Enabling Technologies, Managerial Decision Making

Options : Dynamic Marketing Strategy, Strategic Marketing Simulation

Communication

Options : Impromptu Speaking and Elements of Story for Business, Crisis Communication, Fundamentals for Prospective Entrepreneurs, Communications Challenges for Entrepreneurs, and Persuasive Writing for Business Leaders

Options : Financial Accounting, Financial and Managerial Accounting

Corporate Finance

Options : Corporate Finance, Introduction to Corporate Finance

Macroeconomics

Options : Macroeconomics, Introduction to Macroeconomics

Options : Managing the Established Enterprise, Managing the Emerging Enterprise

Legal Studies & Business Ethics

Options : Responsibility in Global Management, Responsibility in Business, and Business, Social Responsibility, & the Environment

You can select from 18 MBA concentrations to pursue your goals. Most majors consist of five CUs—usually four CUs in addition to the core curriculum. Courses may count toward more than one major, giving you the option to pursue your MBA with a double major.

MBA Electives

Choose your own areas of study. Choose from nearly 200 courses across 10 academic departments, plus many more offered through Penn’s other 11 world-class schools. With so much to choose from you can tailor the curriculum to your goals. Your knowledge from Wharton’s core curriculum is supplemented by the broad range of elective courses. Some electives will count toward your major, but you’ll have room to take some chances and explore new topics.

Electives Across the University of Pennsylvania

One of Wharton’s strengths is the ability to extend your studies across the vast academic resources of the entire University of Pennsylvania. When choosing electives, you can work with your advisor to select up to four courses from Penn’s 11 other Schools.

  • Annenberg School for Communication
  • Graduate School of Education
  • School of Arts and Sciences
  • School of Dental Medicine
  • School of Design
  • School of Engineering and Applied Science
  • School of Medicine
  • School of Nursing
  • School of Social Policy & Practice
  • School of Veterinary Medicine

View and Download the Electives Course List

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A Chronological View of Your Wharton MBA Experience

Your immersion begins the first day of Pre-Term. Pre-Term is the beginning of your educational journey within the Wharton MBA program. It will transform you in ways you cannot yet predict, preparing you for the many challenges you will face at Wharton — returning to school, transitioning to Philadelphia or adjusting to the U.S., and balancing the demands of academics, career preparation, and co-curricular pursuits.

Pre-Term is designed to allow you time to get settled into the community while providing an essential academic foundation for your Wharton classes, including the core course, MGMT 6100: Foundations of Leadership and Teamwork .  When our students and alumni reflect on their Wharton experience, Pre-Term is among their fondest memories. After you’ve selected your MBA courses and gotten acclimated to the learning environment, you’re ready to take on year one.

The first year is intense. You will begin by moving through key courses with your learning team — a group of five or six classmates with whom you will work closely on projects. Then, you’ll select from many options as you branch out in the second half of First Year and beyond. You’ll have a choice of content areas for some core courses and will start to pick your electives. In addition, you will become involved in co-curricular and extracurricular activities that tie into the courses you choose.

MBA summer internships teach real-world skills, advance your education through experience, and allow you to test your new skills from your first year of the MBA program. Even if the summer internship does not lead to a full-time offer, it is a great opportunity to improve your resume and network with new people.

Internships are not required, but most students choose one or more internships, often in combination with other summer experiences. Some students choose to work on their startup over the summer instead of interning at a company.

Learn more about Wharton MBA internship statistics .

You will take any remaining core requirements, drill deeper within the wide range of electives, and develop one or more areas of expertise. For customized interests, students often partner with faculty and businesses on individual advanced student projects.

Commencement

Receive your degree and be welcomed into Wharton’s 100,000-strong alumni network.

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Business and Financial Modeling

 “this business and financial modeling specialization gives learners around the globe the chance to develop business ideas, improve their circumstances, and change their lives with skills taught by the world class faculty here at wharton.”.

– Geoffrey Garrett, Former Dean of The Wharton School

Wharton’s Business and Financial Modeling specialization is designed to teach you financial modeling and valuation skills that will help you make informed business and financial decisions. These foundational courses will introduce you to spreadsheet models, modeling techniques, and common applications for investment analysis, company valuation, forecasting, and more. They will provide you with the opportunity to learn core quantitative skills required to analyze data.

The Business and Financial Modeling online program will feature a Capstone project that allows participants to apply their knowledge to the real world. Learners will work with datasets from Wharton Research Data Services, or WRDS , the leading data research platform and business intelligence tool for over 30,000 corporate, academic, government and nonprofit clients in 33 countries, and will receive feedback from Wharton data experts.

When you complete this specialization, you’ll be ready to use your own data to describe realities, build scenarios, and predict performance.

Why Study Business and Financial Modeling?

Acquiring financial modeling and valuation skills has become essential for finance professionals and entrepreneurs across industries. Both big and small businesses use quantitative models to:

  • Forecast and predict future business needs
  • Raise debt and/or equity
  • Identify financial risks and/or corporate development opportunitie
  • Analyze the quality of earnings and investments
  • Determine the value of businesses
  • Analyze mergers and acquisitions
  • Raise capital

Program Details

Start Dates:  Immediately

Duration: 3-4 weeks per course

Commitment: 5-7 hours per week

Program Format: 100% Online

Program Tuition: $79/month

READY TO START?

Business and financial modeling specialization courses.

leadership 21st Century - Looking through Telescope

FUNDAMENTALS OF QUANTITATIVE MODELING

$79/month Duration: 4 weeks (1-3 hours/week)

Fundamentals of Quantitative Modeling is designed to help you understand the fundamentals of this critical, foundational, business skill. Through a series of short lectures, demonstrations, and assignments, you’ll learn the key ideas and process of quantitative modeling so that you can begin to create your own models for your own business or enterprise.

Full Course Description

Managing Motivating Talent - Gears

INTRODUCTION TO SPREADSHEETS AND MODELS

Major corporations and small businesses alike use spreadsheet models to determine where key measures of their success are now, and where they are likely to be in the future. This course is designed to teach you to harness the power of spreadsheets to map the data you have now and to predict the data you may have in the future.

Managing Global Firm - Working at Computer

MODELING RISK AND REALITIES

In this course, you’ll learn how to create quantitative models to reflect complex realities, and how to include in your model elements of risk and uncertainty. You’ll also learn methods for creating predictive models to identify optimal choices, and the basics of the measurement and management of risk.

Strategic Management Competitive Corporation Strategy - Puzzle

DECISION-MAKING AND SCENARIOS

Two of Wharton’s most acclaimed professors will show you the step-by-step processes of modeling common business and financial scenarios, so you can significantly improve your ability to structure complex problems and derive useful insights about alternatives.

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BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL MODELING CAPSTONE

The Business and Financial Modeling Capstone will give you the opportunity to construct and implement quantitative models using data from the same award-winning platform used by companies like S&P Capital IQ, CRSP, NYSE, and Thomson Reuters.

Key Certificate Program Takeaways

Participants will learn how to:

  • Create quantitative models that reflect real-world elements, like risk and uncertainty
  • Use models to facilitate decision-making for optimum results
  • Use Excel or Sheets to build models and decision trees

Business and Financial Modeling Faculty

The online Business and Financial Modeling Certificate is led by senior Wharton professors, including Bob Holthausen, Rick Lambert, Sergei Savin, Senthil Veeraraghavan and Richard Waterman. Their work has appeared in leading journals, including Management Science , Operations Research , and Manufacturing & Service Operations Management , among others.

They have also published books such as Financial Literacy for Managers: Finance and Accounting for Better Decision-Making and Corporate Valuation: Theory, Practice and Evidence .

Faculty research interests include:

  • Capacity and patient flow management in healthcare operations
  • Categorical data analysis
  • Diffusion models for new products and services
  • Cost analysis
  • Effects of organizational structure on financial performance
  • Empirical operations management
  • Environmental statistics
  • Financial reporting
  • Management compensation issues
  • Non-traditional adult learners
  • Operations analytics
  • Operations management
  • Operations strategy
  • Pricing and revenue management
  • Revenue management
  • Service operations management

Sergei Savin, PhD

Associate Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Capacity and patient flow management in health care operations, diffusion models for new products and services, revenue management

See Faculty Bio

Senthil Veeraraghavan, PhD

Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Empirical operations management, operations analytics, operations management, operations strategy, pricing and revenue management, service operations management, supply chain management

Richard Paul Waterman

Practice Professor of Statistics, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Categorical data analysis, environmental statistics, likelihood methods

Richard Lambert, PhD

Miller-Sherrerd Professor; Professor of Accounting, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Financial reporting, cost analysis, incentive compensation plans

Robert Holthausen, PhD

The Nomura Securities Co. Professor; Professor of Accounting; Professor of Finance, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Effects of organizational structure on financial performance, management compensation issues, valuation

Don Huesman

Former Managing Director of Wharton Online

Research Interests: Higher education management, technology enabled learning environments, non-traditional adult learners

The Wharton School is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU.

The Wharton School is accredited by IACET

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Business Plan

A business plan is a detailed summary of a business, its mission, vision, and goals, why these are going to be successful, and how they’re going to be achieved. The downfall of Wally Corp was its inability to execute its business plan.
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Close Counts in the Wharton Business Plan Competition

Close Counts in the Wharton Business Plan Competition

Let’s make the educated guess that David Kreiger C99 WG07 went into the Wharton Business Plan Competition (BPC) with a very uncommon strategy: he had no ideas for what his business would be. He just had a blank white board and thought that to build a great company, he didn’t need to come up with a revolutionary new business. He could reshape an old business model in a revolutionary new way.

Perhaps another contestant or two have entered into the Wharton BPC without an existing startup since the student event was founded in 1998. Generally speaking, however, most students use the BPC to test an entrepreneurial pursuit, to refine a business plan they’ve already been working on, to land investment dollars that could take their company from a side project in its infancy into a livelihood worth pursuing full time.

In Kreiger’s case, he confesses he didn’t have a clear-cut plan when he entered the competition in 2005. Entrepreneurship had always compelled him. He hoped BPC would inspire him to the next step. It did—in conjunction with his background in brand management and inside sales management. He survived the gauntlet of the first two rounds and appeared in the Wharton Business Plan Competition Finals in the spring of 2006. He finished in third place, which gave him “a little bit of validation, a little bit of encouragement,” he recalls.

And his company was born: SalesRoads . Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and business plan competitions.

Coincidentally, he also earned a spot in one of the first classes of the Wharton Venture Initiation Program (VIP) , an educational incubator program that assists students as they develop businesses. VIP and BPC gave him the validation he needed, as a calculated risk-taker.

“If it weren’t for the BCP or the VIP, I would not have launched SalesRoads,” he said.

He thinks of Wharton Entrepreneurship staff, faculty and fellow students as “almost family” who helped him work through the decisions he faced at MBA Commencement: Should he accept one of his multiple corporate job offers, or go full time with SalesRoads? He chose the latter. His first year he spent in Philadelphia in VIP space. In year two in 2008, when the company appeared to have legs, he and his wife decided to move the business to its current headquarters in Coral Springs, Florida.

Get another competitor’s perspective on the Wharton Business Plan Competition in our video above, “ZenKars and the 2013 Wharton BPC: Student Entrepreneurs Day in the Life.”

Success followed him—the company was listed on the 2014 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing U.S. companies (at No. 1,028)—in part because of the innovative business plan he put together at Wharton. SalesRoads essentially is an inside sales outsourcing firm. Kreiger knew from past professional experience that B2B call centers are tough places to work with high employee turnover. His solution at SalesRoads is to decentralize the call center by allowing sales staff to work from home. This allows call centers to seek top talent from around the country, then attract and retain salespeople who had become disenfranchised by a centralized call center environment.

Kreiger’s eureka moment came at Wharton when he was reading a paper about activity systems by Nicolaj Siggelkow , Wharton’s David M. Knott Professor and co-director of its Mack Institute for Innovation Management . Kreiger realized that by leveraging the power of technology and the Internet, he could have inside sales executives work from their home offices instead of a loud, busy, centralized call center environment. He felt this change would not allow him to create a better way to recruit a more qualified workforce. More importantly, it would enable him to create a series of different activity choices based upon the virtual model and create a sustainable competitive advantage. The foundation of traditional call centers’ strategy is based is on a centralized model. As a result, it would be difficult for them to replicate SalesRoads’ activity system because the tradeoffs would be incompatible with their core strategy.

Wharton Entrepreneurship product and Wharton 40 Under 40'er Jordan Lloyd Bookey

Jordan Lloyd Bookey

Funny enough, we didn’t first hear about Kreiger because of his SalesRoads success; we heard about him through other entrepreneurs whom he’s helped. First, there was Jordan Lloyd Bookey WG07 , co-founder of ZooBean and Wharton 40 Under 40 honoree, who shared her story of how she reached out to Kreiger —essentially cold-called him—for business advice. He provided hours’ worth. Then serial entrepreneur and Wharton entrepreneurship product  Alex Furmansky ENG07 W07 told us about how Kreiger connected him with Bookey during Furmansky’s recent participation on the TV reality show Shark Tank . (Bookey was a previous contestant.) Furmansky and Kreiger have known each other since they served in leadership roles in the Wharton Club of South Florida (Kreiger on the board, Furmansky as president). It’s a testament to how much Kreiger gives of himself that Bookey and Furmansky wanted Wharton Magazine to know about him.

These anecdotes are two of certainly many, as Kreiger takes it upon himself to be a connector—and influencer—in the Wharton community. He is a humble guy and doesn’t look at himself as an influencer. It appears to be in his nature. As he says, he is always trying to find ways to help others as a way of building meaningful personal and business relationships. Particular to Wharton, these relationships give the Wharton degree its true power, he says. Wharton was not a two-year transaction for Kreiger; it carries lifetime benefits.

Let’s make the educated guess that many Wharton graduates already know this.

Editor’s note: The Finals for the 2015 Wharton Business Plan Competition just took place this past Friday, May 1. Read the Wharton Entrepreneurship blog post, “ Bungalow Insurance Wins Wharton Business Plan Competition Perlman Grand Prize ,” for highlights.

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Funnest Moments From the Wharton BPC

From gravity to levity, this year’s Business Plan Competition Finals featured free sandwiches and a wailing infant.

The Complexification of Entrepreneurship

The Complexification of Entrepreneurship

A member of the “Greatest Generation” asks if there is anything more to entrepreneurship than what he sees today.

Catching up With Tinder of Mobile Marketing

Catching up With Tinder of Mobile Marketing

A Wharton startup team believes they are on the cusp of figuring out mobile marketing with an app called Slidejoy with Tinder-like functionality.

Do Budsies Win With the Shark Tank Investors?

Do Budsies Win With the Shark Tank Investors?

Alex Furmansky will be featured on the entrepreneurs' reality TV show. Was the experience his toughest since launching his second startup Budsies?

Scaling Business for Profitable Growth

Program overview.

Growing a business can be a complex challenge that touches every area of the firm, presenting obstacles that test even highly experienced leaders. Scaling Business for Profitable Growth takes a holistic view of the process, incorporating strategy, finance, marketing, and leadership. These four pivotal elements, and how they work together to create a viable plan for growth, form the foundation of the program.

Scaling Business for Profitable Growth offers solutions to the critical challenges faced by growing companies, and will show you how to put your learning directly into practice. By the end of the program, you will know how to determine which approach to growth is most viable for your organization, transition for that growth, and be able to communicate an action plan that addresses strategic, financial, marketing, and leadership concerns.

Academic Director Gad Allon says Scaling Ventures: Developing the Playbook for Profitable Growth provides solutions to the critical challenges faced by growing companies.

Academic Director Gad Allon says Scaling Business for Profitable Growth provides solutions to the critical challenges faced by growing companies.

Date, Location, & Fees

If you are unable to access the application form, please email Client Relations at [email protected] .

November 17 – 21, 2024 San Francisco, CA $12,500

June 2 – 6, 2025 Philadelphia, PA $12,500

 Drag for more 

Program Experience

Who should attend, testimonials, highlights and key outcomes.

In Scaling Business for Profitable Growth you will:

  • Determine whether or not your company’s existing operational structure and capabilities are ready to scale
  • Learn how to stress test current organizational structure and processes to discover readiness to grow
  • Identify and measure the key performance indicators needed for scaling
  • Create a financially viable, scalable strategic plan
  • Understand the capital requirements needed to grow and how to attain them
  • Balance people, culture, and processes to achieve successful strategy execution
  • Explore how rapidly growing organizations best attract, retain, and develop its employees
  • Integrate a framework for your marketing brand strategy as you scale
  • Expand and adapt your ability to scale globally

The Playbook for Growth: This program will help you determine whether the timing is right for your organization to grow.

Experience and Impact

Scaling Business for Profitable Growth takes you from start to finish as you explore whether the timing is right for your organization and then determine how to move forward by creating an actionable plan. Through this program you will discover the key challenges firms face when trying to scale, including the relationship between people and processes, and move from tactical, short-term opportunistic thinking to a long-term focused strategic vision.

Scaling Business for Profitable Growth, which contains some curriculum from Wharton’s internationally recognized Scale School Workshop , will enable participants to tackle both sides of the growth coin — people and processes. Specifically, this program will help participants assess their firm’s current organizational structure and determine how to resolve the common tension that exists in growing companies between hiring people for skills or for cultural fit. This program will also reveal what type of organizational culture a company needs to have to grow and how to define the role of the company’s founder or owner/operator as the firm embarks on this new phase of growth.

People and Processes: This program will help participants assess their firm’s organizational structure.

The program’s cross-functional approach brings together the strategic, financial, marketing, and leadership concerns of expanding a business operations. You will consider whether your current strategy is scalable from both the execution and financial viewpoints, and also examine the risks inherent to your plan and analyze how to build the right portfolio of processes, assets, and people to address those risks.

Through case studies, a business simulation, framework applications, and breakout sessions, you will analyze your organization and apply new tools during each day of the program. Then in small discussion groups, you will develop an actionable plan to scale your organization.

Session topics include:

  • Opportunistic to Strategic: Alignment, Capabilities, and Value Creation
  • Metrics for Scaling: Identifying and Measuring KPI for Scale
  • Managing Assets for Growth
  • Local to Global: Scaling in Foreign Markets
  • Marketing Strategy: Competing in the Age of Disruption
  • Financing the Growing Business
  • Scaling Up Quality: Hiring, Leading, and Organizational Growth
  • Value Creation in Fast Growth Companies

Wharton LIVE Online Programming

Real-time peer learning with deep faculty engagement and global networking

Program Duration:

  • [wee_upcoming_session_shortcode program_post="69259"]
  • Q&A Networking Forum During these sessions, faculty will examine and discuss the most promising opportunities and most significant challenges participants' organizations are facing. Participants act as a sounding board while simultaneously identifying the commonalities that connect the issues across organizations.

Post-Program Webinar

Scaling Business for Profitable Growth also includes a webinar conducted one month after the program ends to help participants integrate key learnings. Led by Professor Gad Allon, the program’s academic director, this one hour session allows participants to share the main achievements in implementing concepts and ideas from the course as well as the challenges participants faced implementing concepts. Bringing the cohort back together, this webinar reinforces the importance of peer support as well as faculty insights.

Convince Your Supervisor

Here’s a justification letter you can edit and send to your supervisor to help you make the case for attending this Wharton program.

Due to our application review period, applications submitted after 12:00 p.m. ET on Friday for programs beginning the following Monday may not be processed in time to grant admission. Applicants will be contacted by a member of our Client Relations Team to discuss options for future programs and dates.

This program is ideally suited for company founders, C-suite executives, and other senior leaders who are responsible for accelerating growth. Participants may come from:

  • Entrepreneurial startups about to receive a massive infusion of investment capital
  • Large publicly traded companies looking to expand the operations of a new or revamped division
  • Privately held firms that previously moderated their growth but are now looking to significantly expand operations geographically or product-wise in order to attract new investment

Potential job titles and roles include:

  • Chief Innovation Officer (CINO)
  • Chief Technology Innovation Officer (CTIO)
  • Senior Director of Corporate/Business Development
  • Senior Director of Strategy
  • Managing Director, Senior Vice President (large corporations)
  • CEO, CFO, COO, President, General Manager (mid-size enterprises)
  • Founders or CEOs of rapidly growing, successful entrepreneurial ventures

The program’s content is relevant across numerous industries. Executives in the following industries will find the program’s content particularly valuable:

  • Banking and financial services
  • Information technology
  • Logistics and transportation
  • Manufacturing and consumer products
  • Pharmaceuticals and health care

Fluency in English, written and spoken, is required for participation in Wharton Executive Education programs.

Plan your stay in Philadelphia

Plan Your Stay

This program is held at the Steinberg Conference Center located on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia. Meals and accommodations are included in the program fees. Learn more about planning your stay at Wharton’s Philadelphia campus .

Group Enrollment

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.

Gad Allon

Gad Allon, PhD See Faculty Bio

Academic Director

Jeffrey A. Keswin Professor; Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions; Director, Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Operations management and operations strategy

Exequiel Hernandez

Exequiel Hernandez, PhD See Faculty Bio

Max and Bernice Garchik Family Presidential Associate Professor of Management, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Immigration, global networks, firm internationalization, innovation, corporate strategy

Barbara Kahn

Barbara Kahn, PhD See Faculty Bio

Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor; Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Brand loyalty, consumer choice, customer-relationship management

David Wessels

David Wessels, PhD See Faculty Bio

Adjunct Professor of Finance, The Wharton School

We had multiple geographies, multiple sectors, and multiple cultural backgrounds represented, all of which led to a real lift in the level of discussion and debate around the content subject matter, and the application thereof.”

Dr. Gareth Thomas  B2B Services and New Ventures Executive

We started our company ProCloud AG from scratch, an IT startup with 0 customers. Ten years later we are welcoming our 500th customer. We scaled the company in an intuitive way and found out later how crucial it was not only for the success but as well for the survival of the company. With the lesson learned how important scaling is, my target was to find the best expertise on this topic to help us use our sound growth for further, and especially structured, scaling. As a Wharton GMP student, I shouldn’t be surprised anymore, but my highlight was definitely again how practice-oriented this program was. Professor Gad Allon and his team represented Wharton’s motto “Knowledge for Action” perfectly. At the end of the course my lens was sharpened and I took several action points with me. Especially, I got valuable and personal feedback on my individual challenges in the areas of company structure, product development and KPIs. In my personal opinion differentiating between growth and scaling and applying that to a business is one of the most important topics a successful company has. I can highly recommend Wharton’s Scaling Ventures program for this challenge, especially for entrepreneurs and founders like me.”

Stephan Mahler  CEO & Founder, ProCloud AG

I am a real estate developer and we deal with national companies that are expanding their businesses into new locations. I enrolled in Scaling Ventures for two reasons. One involves my core business — with retail shrinking, we’re thinking about how we could scale up some of the growing areas. The second reason is that I’m on the board of a couple of startups, and I wanted to more fully explore what those ventures could do. The program was wonderful. The most valuable topics for me were Financing the Growing Business; Hiring, Leading, and Organizing for Success ; and Value Creation in Fast Growth Companies . They really hit the areas of interest that I had, and I thought they were exceptional. In the course we discussed how scaling a venture is about integrating the process of growth and sales, and got some valuable tools to assess where a business is at and how to avoid growing too fast or too slowly. My thought process had been that you just ‘go in and run as fast as you can, as long as you can,’ so it was really beneficial to discover how much of successfully scaling a venture is about timing. The principles I learned are useful for scaling up people and processes at both my real estate business and the telco software company that I’m on the board of. Professors Gad Allon and David Wessels are all-stars in my book . Gad has the ability to translate his knowledge of technology startups and apply it effectively with business processes through growth stages of companies. David is probably the best finance teacher around. I truly appreciate his level of expertise. Regarding the participants, the insights and conversations that happen at lunch and over a cup of coffee were very beneficial. The people that come to take these classes are an impressive group. I would recommend the course 100%. ”

Tom Rocca  Partner/Manager, Seven Hills Properties

I earned an MBA from Wharton in entrepreneurial management about seven years ago. Even if the  Scaling Ventures  course had just refreshed what I learned in my MBA, that would have been fine, but what I loved is that this was completely new . The professors weren’t just teaching the materials they teach their MBAs; the topics that were discussed, the curriculum, were truly focused on someone who was building a business and trying to scale it . My company, Cotopaxi, is a digitally native outdoor gear retailer with the mission of inspiring adventure and moving people to do good. We use a percentage of revenues to support poverty alleviation, and we employ refugees. Scaling Ventures  allowed me to step away from the day-to-day of running my company and really reflect on what we're doing right and what we can do better. When I came back, I actually pulled in my entire executive team and shared some of the highlights from the class. We started looking more critically at areas where we’re getting the best return on capital, and we’ve made some changes based on that learning. It’s been really impactful. One important lesson was that a lot of startups make the mistake of scaling without first going through an efficiency phase. I'm a huge believer in the concept that before you go scale, make sure that you build efficiency into the business. Another great takeaway was about hard growth versus easy growth. For example, instead of opening up a bunch of new stores — which is a relatively easy way to grow revenues but is not very capital efficient — figure out ways to make your existing stores more profitable. That goes straight to the bottom line as profit. As a Wharton alum, there were some fun elements about being back. I already had an affinity for the school, and was very familiar with some of the  Scaling Ventures  professors: David Wessels, Karl Ulrich, Ethan Mollick. There were a few other Wharton alums in the class so we had an instant connection, which was great. I enjoyed being reconnected with this place that has had such a big impact on my professional career. Gad Allon was just phenomenal. He did a great job of connecting with students. I've talked with him after the course, and he has reached out to the whole class by email a number of times. All the professors were world class, and the participants were a great mix of people running larger and smaller companies and family businesses. I would recommend Scaling Ventures  highly to any entrepreneur who’s looking to scale their business. It was incredibly relevant and worth every minute of time I gave it. I've gone back to my notes from that class countless times, and my whole team has benefited from the lessons I learned in the course. ” 

Davis Smith  CEO, Cotopaxi

Scaling Ventures exceeded my expectations. That’s not just a slogan — it’s really true. It had a perfect blend for the variety of people who were there. I have a finance background — I’m a CPA with a master's in finance and business administration — and I really liked the finance part of the program. I thought it was spot on, world class. It was relevant whether you’re looking at it from an overall company perspective as a small startup or an established company, or from within a sales organization like mine. At VMware Latin America I do strategy planning and operations and track sales performance. I’m an entrepreneur within a big company, in a way. I enrolled in Scaling Ventures because I’m always trying to find new frameworks and practical applications and to refresh principles that I haven’t used for a while. The professors were amazing. It was a pleasure to have David Wessels teaching; I have his books. Gad Allon was also great. I was really pleased with the way the faculty delivered the content and how they conducted things in general, managing the intensity and mood of the class. The concepts I found most valuable, that I’m going to keep using in my work, were decision trees, the cause and effect of metrics, tracking metrics related to actions, depicting metrics in a way that’s easy to understand, the importance of cash flow, and keeping in mind that you have to create value or you will destroy cash. Those concepts are powerful and they’re my bible. Hearing them again and refreshing them at Wharton was really amazing. I learned a lot from my classmates too, who were from very diverse business backgrounds — from a plastic surgeon to another executive who founded a large lending company in India. I’ve taken courses at several universities and done postgraduate work, and Scaling Ventures was one of the best classes in terms of the balance of content, the depth, and the length of time. I’ve recommended it to my boss and another colleague. I’m considering taking another Wharton Executive Education course this year, probably in negotiations or corporate valuation.”

Gabriel Arbe   Director of Operations, VMware Latin America

Our company is 21 years old and was started in the garage of John Pantanella, our founder and CEO today. We have experienced consistent growth over the past 20 years and now employ 85 people with offices in St. Louis, MO and Los Angeles, CA. We regularly evaluate the structure of our business to ensure it can support our future growth. Scaling Ventures offered a curriculum that focused on providing insights and strategies that were meaningful to our team. I especially valued the personnel component of the course — attracting the right people, conducting a disciplined interviewing process, and supporting them with the right individual goals. As a result, we implemented a new interviewing process at Chemline that ensures we are considering different aspects of the role and eliminating groupthink. Another valuable aspect of the course included a deep dive into KPIs. The strategy focused on return on invested capital and offered significant insights. As a result we are designing new KPIs for Chemline based on that return-on-invested-capital lecture. I found the quality of the faculty very high, with Professor Gad Allon as a true standout. We met with him individually after one of his lectures. He assisted us in working through our challenges and made himself available throughout the course. The participants were a diverse group from many different industries and a variety of company life stages. Many great insights came from fellow classmates as we covered the material.”

Ted Thurmond  President, Chemline

I own a plastic surgery practice here in the Palm Beach, Florida area, but I’m also a serial entrepreneur. I’ve developed and owned a range of businesses through the years, including commercial real estate such as shopping centers. As a serial entrepreneur, what we normally do is jump in with both feet and then say, what have I gotten myself into? Sometimes it works out fabulously and sometimes it flops. But at this point in my life, I don't know that I want to take the same approach as when I was younger. I decided to enroll in Scaling Ventures because although I’m good at starting businesses and putting systems in place, scaling a business is not a strength of mine. When I saw an ad for this course, it really spoke to my needs. I was really looking forward to the course; I was excited about it, did prep for it, and had high expectations. And the program was amazing. It truly exceeded my expectations. The faculty were rock stars. I can't say anything short of that. Not 'outstanding,' not 'fabulous,' but rock stars. They were clearly the best of the best, and I don’t say things like that easily or readily. One major concept I learned was that growing a business does not equal scaling a business. In order to scale, you must be growing profits at a faster rate than revenue. Another important concept was analyzing and measuring the return on invested capital. I also learned that not all ideas are worth trying to scale. I have been working on two different business opportunities, and the teachings from the course helped me make smart decisions about them. For one of the opportunities, I realized it didn’t make sense to try and scale it, and for the other, I’m applying a more measured approach to scaling. This was all as a result of taking the course. I would give Scaling Ventures the highest possible recommendation."

Brian Hass, MD  Owner/Founder, Hass Plastic Surgery/Brand Properties

My company, Sherpa Prep, is a standardized test prep provider in the Washington, D.C. market. It’s a small company in relation to many of our competitors, but we’ve established a beachhead locally and are looking to expand on numerous fronts, both physical and technological. In truth, I've been thinking about the issue of scale for several years now. This specific course inspired me to take action for my business. Scaling Ventures exceeded my elevated expectations. The curriculum is thoughtfully conceived and well curated. In each session, we discussed different aspects of scale — strategic, technological, financial, and human. I knew that I made the correct decision within the first hour, when Professor Allon defined scale and how it differs from growth, and how not all firms are built to scale nor should. Professor Allon explained it all in a way that was crystal clear: I doubt that I’ll ever forget that lesson. Another important takeaway for me was the Return on Assets Tree, in which managers are challenged to identify their firm’s value drivers: the operational performance measures that affect the firm’s financials. It’s a holistic, thought-provoking exercise, so much so that I started working on it during the course and am continuing to tinker with my findings now, months after the course has ended. Professor Allon is incredibly transparent, earnest, and friendly. He expressed genuine interest in helping us tackle our individual challenges. A month after the course ended, he graciously scheduled a video conference so that we could discuss what was happening in our companies, what was working for us, and what was not. I was also impressed by the achievements and acumen of the other participants. Our group was diverse and represented a variety of regions and industries and — perhaps more importantly — entities across the scaling spectrum. Many of us have stayed in touch post-course, holding ourselves accountable to our scaling initiatives and providing each other with constructive sounding boards. I recommend this program without hesitation and with enthusiasm. As a small business owner, I spend much of my time 'fighting fires,' getting lost in the trivialities of day-to-day operations, and not thinking strategically. Forcing myself to make the time to attend a week-long program was a welcome and necessary respite. Investing in myself and in my company by stepping away and thinking about big-picture questions is something I wish I had done earlier.”

Nafeez Amin  President and Co-owner, Sherpa Prep

We’re an upstart company that makes 3D computer models of buildings for use in engineering, prefabrication, and design. We started about three years ago with nine employees, on very limited financing, but we scaled. Today we’re a tech services company with nearly 100 employees. We’ve had incredible growth. I wanted to attend Scaling Ventures because as a CEO it's my job to set strategy for my relatively new business. It’s lonely at the top. I can’t always go to my people and say, ‘Hey what do you guys think?’ So it’s good to get outside input to make sure you’re on the right course. I searched several prestigious business schools for courses, but the Wharton course description really nailed what I was looking for . I felt like it was designed exactly for a guy like me, whose company is still sort of early-stage and who wants to get validation on where it's going. Taking the program was tremendously beneficial for me. Based upon input from Professor Gad Allon and some of my fellow participants, I was inspired to make changes to my three- and five-year strategic plan. So the program altered the direction of how I plan to grow my business . That’s a pretty big impact! In addition, I took back a lot of the course content and taught the highlights to key managers in my company. I really benefited from being with the other participants, who were from all over the U.S. and overseas. It was great to have a peer group that is facing some of the same issues. They came from a wide variety of backgrounds: software, chemicals, health care, retail, entertainment. It was enlightening to see that — like me — some of them might be incredibly strong in one area and weak in another. I came away feeling like I really do 'have game!' The instructors were all fantastic. Gad Allon is a rock star in my book. David Wessels really stood out too. The professors made the course real-world with great content and case-study material. Scaling Ventures was worth every penny spent on the trip and the time away from work. I would recommend it absolutely and unequivocally. "

Ken Smerz  CEO, Eco3d

At Navian, we have recently spun out our technology into a standalone fintech platform called Luma Financial Technologies. We have a very unique and compelling opportunity to scale our fintech platform nationally, and we want to make sure we’re as equipped as possible to do it effectively. The Scaling Ventures program was fantastic. Almost the entire curriculum was very applicable to what I am dealing with and implementing at my company right now. Some high points for me were the return-on-invested-capital value drivers and decision trees, and the exercise around a firm’s 'alpha' assets. We've put many of the pieces into practice with our management team. Also really valuable to me was the part about scaling up staffing in the organization, since we’re more than doubling our staff this year. In the program we examined the process of what types of hires you should be looking for, and being careful that you don't have too many “joats” (jack-of-all-trades). The program helped me become more focused on recruiting A-listers with strong connections in the industry. Professor Gad Allon was excellent, as were all the faculty members. They added a lot of value from their individual perspectives, and they delivered the information really well. A big benefit of the course was interacting with the other participants, as well as staying connected over time and sharing experiences as we implement the principles we’ve learned. I think the network that you build with the other participants is critical, and the Wharton program did a good job of encouraging that interaction. I’ve taken a Wharton Executive Education course before but it was nearly 20 years ago. I wish I had come back sooner! This program was of immense — and immediate — value to me. I would recommend it very highly. I’m thinking about sending some of my senior managers through the program."

Timothy Bonacci  President and CEO, Navian Capital

I work in business development and strategy at Thorlabs, a family-owned company started by my father about 30 years ago. We manufacture scientific instrumentation for researchers in photonics. We’ve had tremendous growth year after year, but that has come with some growing pains. So a lot of the work I’ve been doing lately involves looking for projects or initiatives that will help us get to our next stage of maturity as a company. Initially I wasn’t sure if Scaling Ventures would be relevant for me since we’re not a startup, but a private, family-owned business that has existed for many years. But the tools from the class are pretty broadly applicable, and they were focused on the types of business problems we are dealing with. The program was incredibly valuable and packed with useful information. Professor Gad Allon was great, a really engaging lecturer. The whole faculty had a lot of insight and were very open to answering questions. And being around the other participants was an important benefit of the class that I hadn’t anticipated. I learned so much from them, and I’ve stayed in touch with some of them too. It was really helpful for me to learn about linking your KPIs and metrics to real indicators of how you’re successfully — or not successfully — scaling your business. One of the projects I manage is developing a company-wide dashboard that gives us both performance and operational measures, and I’ve been layering in some of the work I did at Wharton to create a better, richer tool set for the organization. I got a lot out of the discussions about hiring people. In fact, I’ve been talking with our HR director about using the interviewing and recruiting tactics from the program. I also took away insights into my own leadership and management style, and the communication aspects of management. I really enjoyed the program, and I left feeling that it would be beneficial for me to take another class at Wharton. I’d like to get a deep dive in finance, so I’m thinking about programs in that area.”

Jennifer Cable  Strategy and Business Development, Thorlabs

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Eight great business plans … and then there was one, april 24, 2002 • 16 min listen.

Yes, but which one was it? On April 22, 2002, eight finalist teams in the Wharton Business Plan Competition presented their business plans to a panel of six judges, hoping their venture would win the $25,000 Grand Prize ($15,000 for second place, $10,000 for third place). Read the summaries, pick your winners, and see if the judges agree.

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Wharton's Class Recording Permissions app allows you to view and submit video access requests for particular course dates in Canvas .

Although you access the Class Recording Permissions app through Canvas, it is a separate service.  The app can be used from within Canvas on desktop or on mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) via the Canvas app.

Before You Start

Using the Class Recording Permissions app requires:

  • Being enrolled for more than one business day in a class that is using the Class Recording Permissions app. Check with your professor for more information on their policies around the use of this tool in your class.
  • A working PennKey and password.
  • The Canvas Mobile app is not required but recommended ( Apple | Android ). 

Class Recording Permissions Access

Professors can enable different levels of access around Class Recording Permissions, which determines whether you will have access to view and submit permission requests.

To view the application's availability for your course:

To View Access to Class Recording Permissions:

For step-by-step instructions,

  • Log into Canvas.
  • Select the course you are viewing Class Recording Permissions for.

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  • Select either the View Requests button from this screen to view any current permission requests or the New Request button to submit a new request.
  • Class recordings are not being made available for this course. Please contact your instructor if you have an accommodation or need to review a class recording.
  • Class recordings are available to everyone in the course without submitting permission requests. Please visit the Class Recordings tab to view session recordings as they are made available.
  • Class recordings are being made available only with a valid accommodation or need. Please contact your instructor if you have an accommodation or need to review a class recording, and visit the Class Recordings tab to view session recordings as they are made available.

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Viewing Class Recording Permission Requests

Viewing your Class Recording Permission requests gives you a quick way to check on the request's status. You can still view your current permission requests if a course is set to Restricted Access to Recordings (see above).

To View Class Recording Permission Requests:

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  • Approved video requests can be accessed via the Class Recordings tab in Canvas once the Video Available sub-status is displayed.
  • Pending video requests require instructor approval before you can access the recording.
  • Declined video requests are those not approved by the instructor; please contact them for further information.

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  • Select the section for courses with more than one section (e.g. lecture and recitation) to view requests from.
  • Select a start date and end date to filter requests within a specific time period.
  • Filter requests based on the submitted reason; options include Personal Illness, Personal/Family Emergency, Religious Observance, Recruiting, and Other.
  • Show requests based on their final status; options include Approved, Declined, and Pending.

Submitting New Class Recording Permission Requests

When the Class Recording Permission app is enabled, you can submit one or more requests for class recordings on specific class meeting dates for a given section.  

Requests can be submitted for past, current, and future meeting dates for your classes, e.g. if you plan on being absent.

To Submit New Class Recording Permission Requests:

  • Select the course you are requesting Class Recording Permissions for.

business plan wharton

  • Reasons apply to all requested dates - if you require access to multiple recording dates for different reasons, separate requests should be submitted.

business plan wharton

  • You will receive on-screen confirmation that your request was submitted and an email summarizing your video requests at the end of the day.
  • Your submitted requests and their status at this point can also be viewed by clicking the View Permissions button.

If your video request is approved, you can access the video in a folder within the Class Recordings tab in the course Canvas site.  Please allow up to 48 hours after the end of that class AND up to 6 hours after approval for video access to begin.

Troubleshooting

When I try to use the Class Recording Permissions app for my class, I get an error saying, "We were unable to determine your Canvas identity. Please reload and try again."

You must be enrolled in a course for more than one business day to view or request Class Recording Permissions requests. If you enrolled in a class on the same day you try to use the app, you will receive the above error. Try again on the next business day, and you should no longer encounter this error.

Contact Student Support for help.

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