Preparing for the Rebound, Part II
June 8, 2009
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In March of this year, WIMI, as it is called, announced a major strategic partnership with advertising industry giant Omnicom Group. In making the announcement, Randall Weisenburger, Omnicom's executive vp/chief financial officer and a 1987 Wharton graduate, said that the collaboration "combines the strength of the Wharton School's leading academic research on digital media with our leading practice in advertising, marketing and media services across mediums."
The partnership also creates a number of options for WIMI, which, according to Eric Bradlow, a professor of marketing, statistics and education at the Wharton School since 1996 and a co-founder of WIMI, could, in the future, include the creation of an executive education connection between Wharton and Omnicom.
"I see no reason why eventually that couldn't happen," he says. "I think the reason why people are interested in WIMI is not because they are spending more, but because they are trying to operate more efficiently. And we've seen a real move toward interactive media in the past few years because of its trackability and targetability."
In an interview in late May, Weisenburger cited his company's own internal executive education apparatus, dubbed Omnicom University, and said he was not aware of an executive education aspect to WIMI being created in the near term. But, he added, "If they were to create an executive ed component, we'd take a look at it."
Somewhat counter to what other schools are experiencing, Howard University in Washington, DC, is developing a growing success story with its Center for Excellence in Advertising (CEA), an executive education initiative that was created in September 2008 to foster greater participation by people of color in the advertising, media and marketing industries.
"We thought we were up against a really challenging time when we started this, but due to the topics we focus on, we're finding that companies are still willing to invest in it," says Adrianne Smith, executive director of the CEA.
The Center, housed within Howard's John H. Johnson School of Communications, recently offered a course titled "C-Suite Advertising Leaders," which featured David Plouffe, President Barack Obama's campaign manager. The CEA also has struck a number of key partnerships with industry groups, most recently the American Association of Advertising Agencies.
"I think companies realize that you can't go crawl into a hole during tough times," adds Janette Dates, dean of the Johnson School of Communications at Howard. "You have to keep working toward what you believe in. Companies are realizing the importance of diversity, and they want to be on that train in the future. And the smart companies, the ones who are involved in long-term thinking, want to be ready to hit the ground running when the recession finally does end."
In Manhattan, the faculty and staff who lead the executive education program at Columbia Business School also are preparing students for when the economy turns around. They've come up with a fresh way to build a curriculum that is designed to keep the programs relevant to the marketplace. Under the slogan "Three Ways to Tackle the Recession," Columbia offers a number of executive education courses, including Strategic Marketing Management. The latter is an intensive five-and-a-half day program that teaches the importance of creating a comprehensive marketing initiative that outperforms the competition and emphasizes customer value.
According to Michel Pham, a professor of marketing and related disciplines at the school since 1994 and one of the faculty members who leads the Strategic Marketing Management program, the course is on target on a number of levels during a down marketplace.
"In challenging times like these, you often find customers changing their relationships, so it's very important for people to be working as strategically as possible so they don't lose valued customers," he says. "It's also a time when other business relationships out there are vulnerable, and that can give smart companies a way to pick up new business. From both defensive and offensive standpoints, I think this material is going to give people an advantage on the job."
For more Executive Education coverage:
Preparing for the Rebound, Part I
Preparing for the Rebound, Part II
Preparing for the Rebound, Part III
