Fourth Annual Wharton Leadership Conference

Sponsored by the Wharton Center for Human Resources

and Center for Leadership and Change Management 

LEADING WITH SPEED

Developing Leaders for 

Fast-Moving Organizations  

Four Seasons Hotel, Philadelphia

May 18, 2000

Business firms and public organizations are learning to move fast before their markets and publics move past them. Fast-acting leadership is increasingly essential for companies and agencies to stay ahead of the curve, and the challenge is to build leaders within and recruit them from outside who know how to make fast and accurate decisions, who can implement strategies and create change at the speed of sound if not light. A capacity to drive a fast-moving organization and to be a quick and nimble mover is an essential skill for leadership ahead.

Conference sessions will include panels with

• Executives who are building fast-moving companies
• Leadership developers who are building capacities for leading fast
• Business consultants who specialize in decision acceleration
• University researchers who analyze speed in decision-making

SPEAKERS

Lawton Burns, Professor of Health Care Systems and Management and Director of the Center for Health Management and Economics at the Wharton School, and author of many articles on the restructuring of medical centers and health systems.  

John Byrne, senior writer at Business Week and author of Chainsaw: The Notorious Career of Al Dunlap In the Era of Profit-At-Any-Price (1999).   

Peter Cappelli, George W. Taylor Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School, and author of The New Deal at Work: Managing the Market-Driven Workforce (1999).

JoMei Chang, co-founder, President and Chief Executive, Vitria Technology, Inc.

Ram Charan, co-author of Every Growth Business Is A Growth Business and co-author of “Why CEOs Fail,” Fortune Magazine, June 21, 1999.  

Kathleen Eisenhardt, Professor of Strategy and Organization at Stanford University and co-author of Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos (1998).

Patrick Harker, Dean, Wharton School, and Reliance Professor of Management and Private Enterprise. 

Monica McGrath, Director of Leadership and Teamwork at the Wharton School and President, Resources for Leadership, Inc.

William Pasmore, principal at Delta Consulting Group and author of Creating Strategic Change: Designing the Flexible, High-Performing Organization (1994).    

John Ross, President and CEO, Deutsche Bank Americas 

Noel Tichy, author of The Leadership Engine: How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every Level (1997), and co-author of Every Growth Business Is A Growth Business: How Your Company Can Prosper Year After Year (1998).    

Michael Useem, Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the Wharton School, and author of The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All (1998).

Mark Walsh, President and CEO, VerticalNet 

Edward Zajac, Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, and author of numerous articles on strategy, leadership, and governance. 

The conference also features ImprovEdge demonstrating how improvisational theater can be used to develop creativity, build teamwork, and foster fast thinking.  

AGENDA

8:00 – 8:30 a.m.  Continental Breakfast

Welcome:  Peter Cappelli, Director, Wharton Center for Human Resources and Michael Useem, Director, Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management 

8:30 – 9:00   Speed and E-Commerce at the Wharton School:  Patrick Harker, Dean of the Wharton School  

9:00 – 10:00   Speed in Corporate Leadership:  Ram Charan, Principal of Charan Associates and author of Every Business Is A Growth Business 

10:00 – 10:10   Break 

10:10 – 11:00   Cross-Cultural Issues in Mergers:  John Ross, President and CEO, Deutsche Bank Americas 

11:00 – 12:00   Competing on the Edge:  Kathleen Eisenhardt, Professor of Strategy and Organization at Stanford University; Strategic Speed: Taking Charge of Your Industry by Changing the Pace of Competition, William Pasmore, Principal of Delta Consulting Group

 12:00 – 1:15 p.m.  Lunch Speaker:  Leadership.com: Leader Teacher Organizations in the New Economy:  Noel Tichy,  Professor at the Business School of the University of Michigan and author of The Leadership Engine

 1:15 – 2:15 p.m.   Speed in Action:  ImprovEdge, a New York-based improvisational theater group puts us through our paces 

2:15 – 3:15 p.m.   Strategy and Speed:  Edward Zajac, Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Kellogg School, Northwestern University; Speed in the Bankruptcy of a Hospital System:  Lawton Burns, Director of the Center for Health Management and Economics at the Wharton School 

3:15 – 3:25 p.m.   Break 

3:25 – 4:10 p.m.  Fast Reporting on Fast Moving Companies: John Byrne, Senior Writer, Business Week 

4:10– 5:20 p.m.   Leading with Speed in the Internet Era: JoMei Chang, co-founder, President and Chief Executive, Vitria Technology, Inc., and Mark Walsh, President and CEO, VerticalNet 

5:20 p.m.  Cocktail Reception

PRIZES

A drawing will be held at the conference for multiple copes of the latest books by our conference speakers, including those by John Byrne (Chainsaw: The Notorious Career of  Al Dunlap in the Era of Profit-At-Any-Price), Peter Cappelli (The New Deal at Work: Managing the Market-Driven Workforce), Ram Charan and Noel Tichy (Every Business is a Growth Business: How Your Company Can Prosper Year After Year), Kathleen Eisenhardt (Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos), William Pasmore (Creating Strategic Change: Designing the Flexible, High-Performing Organization), Noel Tichy (The Leadership Engine: How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every Level), and Michael Useem (The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All).