Executive Education In Smeal College Set To Kick Off Spring Programs

Penn State Executive Programs in the Smeal College of Business Administration--ranked among the top 20 providers of executive education worldwide--is primed to launch its 2001 open-enrollment schedule with a host of professional development opportunities in general management, finance, manufacturing and supply chain management.

"Each educational program is designed to help participants strengthen their personal abilities to enhance competitiveness, provide leadership, and contribute to the bottom line of their organizations," says Virginia M. Tucker, Associate Dean for Executive Education in Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration.

This spring's line-up begins with Leading with Impact on March 25. LWI is a five-day experience that helps burgeoning executives excel at the top through a series of activities that requires participants to apply program concepts to their particular organization's challenges, eventually creating their own action plans for future success.

In April, Executive Programs in Smeal College hosts Finance for Strategic Management: Balancing Profitability, Growth, and Risk (FASM). FASM focuses on the relationship between strategic decisions and financial performance and helps the upper-level executive make better decisions based on knowledge of the capital markets and frameworks by which the company is valued.

May brings Managing Effective Supply Chains, a roll-up-your-sleeves opportunity for middle managers to examine the factors involved in creating value across the supply chain and other real-world topics, such as convergent thinking across marketing, operations management, logistics and information systems.

In June, Penn State Executive Programs in Smeal College rolls out its flagship Executive Management Program .

"EMP is the premier educational experience for the upper-level executive in developing omnifarious vision and superior leadership capabilities," says Jeffrey L. Spearly, Director of Penn State Executive Programs in the Smeal College of Business Administration. "Specifically, EMP enhances one's ability to assess the external environment, evaluate the impact on one's own business, and provide better leadership through an expanded capacity to build, direct and manage work teams."

The Executive Management Program is offered in two formats this year--a three-week continuous session beginning June 10, or three, one-week sessions in Fall 2001.

While open-enrollment programs focus on the needs of the individual for the betterment of the whole organization, Penn State Executive Programs in Smeal College is also known for developing quality custom programs that serve the needs of the organization, as a whole.

"Clients, such as ARAMARK; PPG Industries; and Teleflex, Inc. have found that the personal touch of a custom program is the best way to facilitate organizational competitiveness and change through the education process," says Tucker

The one constant in the forty-five year operations of Penn State Executive Programs has been its ability to stay abreast, even ahead, of the constantly changing requirements for executive success.

"A key factor today is convergence. The term 'convergence' reflects the intersection of the dot-com world with the off-line world where the companies strive to combine the virtues of both. We realize that the success of our programs' depends on their ability to help them decipher what convergence means to the future of their organization," says Spearly.

Penn State Executive Programs in Smeal College is currently accepting reservations for all 2001 sessions. For more information about open-enrollment or custom program solutions, please call (800) 311-6364 or visit their Web site .