STRATEGY & INNOVATION

BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION

IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Visit our website for more

information on fees and
upcoming dates.

click here »

Bill Little
Founder and President, DMD America, Inc.

Overview “ The business model we were shown in the class applies to any
company of any size in any industry. So we adapted our thinking, and it
helped us frame the secret sauce our company has that makes customers
want to work with us. It got everyone excited, and we’re not looking back.
This is how we’re doing things in the future.

Companies today—no matter their size, history, I’d recommend the course 100 percent, to any business. It would be especially
or industry—are constantly looking over their good for companies who are incumbents, to challenge their thinking and clear out the cobwebs of
shoulder. Facing hyper-competition and increasing what seems to be working now but might not work so well in six months or a year. I enjoyed the
class so much that I decided to take another Wharton Executive Education course, Strategy and
demands for growth, they see innovation as their
Management for Competitive Advantage.”
best hope, typically focusing on new products,
services, and technologies. But the cost of those
innovations is significant, in terms of money,
time, and risk. What these companies are missing Manuel Dulitzky
is a systematic framework for creating and Executive leader of multinational companies, Santiago, Chile
implementing profit-generating ideas that leverage
existing products, markets, and infrastructure.
“ I loved the program. The course went beyond just theoretical
approaches. It demonstrated how to experiment, allow oneself to risk
failure, and to take learnings out of that experience. It helped change my
That opportunity can be seized by innovating your
mindset.
business model. Less risky and less costly than
other forms of innovation, it can also add powerful I would recommend the program; in fact I’ve already recommended it to several
competitive advantages. Success, though, requires people. I’m still very excited about the things I learned and how much the course
a structured process that eliminates guesswork inspired me. I think we all realize that there are big opportunities and challenges in the digital space,
and Business Model Innovation is a very strong program to help you face that more effectively.”
and subjectivity and can be duplicated across
all areas of the organization. Business Model
Innovation in the Digital Age enables business
leaders to learn and adopt this process—and
uncover potential innovations that range from
simple but highly effective adjustments to
industry-disrupting changes that are difficult or
even impossible to copy.

execed.wharton.upenn.edu
BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
 Session topics include:
•  The Imperative of Business Model Innovation in the Age of Digital Disruption

Overview •  The Language of Business Models

•  The Risk-Driven Business Model Approach

•  Opportunities and Challenges of Digital Transformation

In Business Model Innovation in the Digital Age,
•  Navigating Digital Disruption
you will:
•  Creating a Culture of Innovation through Agile
•  Uncover within your organization currently
unidentified ways to dramatically improve •  Competitive Advantage in the Age of Digital Transformation
profitability and productivity •  Artificial Intelligence in People Management
•  Improve your ability to get organizational
•  Leading and Managing Innovative Change
buy-in and execute on new business models
•  Platform Ecosystems: Strategies that Leverage Networks
•  Conduct an audit of your current business
model and generate ideas for innovations •  Lean Development and Discovery-Driven Planning

•  Learn a systematic framework for evaluating, •  Business Model Innovation in Large Organizations
experimenting with, and prototyping your
ideas
•  Develop defense mechanisms beyond
intellectual property protection
•  Master a framework for driving and managing
innovative change in your firm

execed.wharton.upenn.edu
BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
 Highlights and
Key Outcomes
Most organizations systematically and rigorously
maintain and monitor key metrics such as
quarterly financial statements, productivity levels,
and market position. But they rarely evaluate
their business models as thoroughly, leaving the
opportunity to modify and even transform these
models untapped. Business Model Innovation in the
Digital Age helps participants unlock this potential
by developing a process for innovation that can be
managed and turned into a driver of growth.
Unlike innovation that involves the creation of
new products, services, or technologies, this
brand of business model innovation can come
from anywhere in the company. It requires fewer
resources and less time to implement, and can
result in innovations that are far more profitable
and transformative than product- or technology-
driven ones.
execed.wharton.upenn.edu
Business Model Innovation in the Digital Age provides a systematic framework that
relies on practical management rather than startup agility or luck. You will begin
applying this framework to your own business during the program, conducting
an audit of your current models and identifying areas for potential innovations.
You will also learn a process for experimentation that addresses weaknesses in
proposed business models and experiment with those models to quantify their
value and viability. Working in small groups, you will apply class learnings to a
real company.
Because the critical last step in the process is implementation, you will be
immersed in a half-day simulation on change leadership, strengthening your ability
to get buy-in and drive change in your organization. You and your team will act as
consultants to a company going through a change effort, working to successfully
sell that effort to those in the organization. This powerful learning experience, a
highlight of the program, allows you to apply new approaches, learn from real-
time feedback, and hone your skills.
Led by Professor Serguei Netessine, a global thought leader in business model
innovation, the program also leverages the expertise of other Wharton faculty
who specialize in big data, artificial intelligence, business ecosystems, and digital
disruption. In addition, successful business model innovators will share their
experience and insights with participants in two highly interactive sessions. By the
end of the program, you will have the tools and skills needed to create value in
your organization and to better position it in your market and industry.
BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
 Participant Profile
This program is designed for executives who are
experiencing significant changes in their markets,
anticipating more nimble and robust competition,
and/or facing profit margins that are under
pressure. The curriculum is particularly relevant for
business unit leaders who have been tasked with
finding new avenues for growth within an existing
Job titles may include:
product line, service, or geographic territory.
C-suite-level executives and board members •  CEO, COO, CMO, CIO, CTO
seeking to maintain their organizations’ relevance •  Managing Director, Regional Director, Country Manager
and standing in their industry will also benefit.
•  Senior Vice President, Vice President
Because business model innovation requires input from •  Director of Business Development
a diverse set of cross-functional leaders, we encourage
•  Innovation, R&D Manager
companies to send teams of executives to Wharton.
We offer group enrollment benefits to companies •  Senior Directors
sending four or more participants. •  Director of Operations

•  Director of Group Strategy and Digital

execed.wharton.upenn.edu
BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
 Faculty ADDITIONAL FACULTY

Saikat Chaudhuri, DBA

Adjunct Associate Professor of Management;
Serguei Netessine, PhD Executive Director, Mack Institute for Innovation
Management, The Wharton School
Academic Director
Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of Innovation Eric K. Clemons, PhD
and Entrepreneurship; Professor of Professor of Operations, Information and
Decisions; Professor of Management,
Operations, Information and Decisions;
The Wharton School
Departmental PhD Program Coordinator; Vice
Dean, Global Initiatives, The Wharton School Rahul Kapoor, PhD
Professor of Management, The Wharton School
Serguei Netessine is the Dhirubhai Ambani He received BS/MS degrees in Computer
Nancy Rothbard, PhD
Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Science and Electrical Engineering from David Pottruck Professor; Professor of
professor of Operations, Information and Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology Management; Chairperson, Management
Department, The Wharton School
Decisions; and vice dean for Global Initiatives and MS/PhD degrees in Operations
at the Wharton School of the University Management from the University of Scott Snyder, PhD
Senior Fellow, Mack Institute for Innovation
of Pennsylvania. He was previously the Rochester. Management, The Wharton School;
Timken Professor of Global Technology and Partner, Heidrick & Struggles
Innovation at INSEAD.

His current research focuses on business

model innovation and operational excellence,
and he has worked with numerous
organizations including the Federal Aviation
Administration (U.S.), Lockheed Martin,
Procter & Gamble, Rolls-Royce, Comcast,
Sberbank, Temasek, Keppel, ABB, and the
U.S. Air Force. He is an angel investor in
technology startups and serves on advisory
boards of multiple ventures.

execed.wharton.upenn.edu
BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Session Highlights
THE IMPERATIVE OF BUSINESS MODEL
INNOVATION IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL
DISRUPTION Innovation is at the heart of
entrepreneurial success and transformational
growth. Conventional strategies for innovation
are typically based on product innovation,
but this session introduces an alternative,
novel method for innovation. Business model
innovation relies on delivering existing
products and services to existing customers
with innovative operating models. This
session explores comparative advantages
and disadvantages of different innovation
approaches and what it takes to implement
business model innovation in a company.
THE RISK-DRIVEN BUSINESS MODEL APPROACH
Business model innovation can be a relatively
inexpensive way to gain a competitive edge.
Some of the most sustainable types of business
model innovation are obtained by addressing
and managing risks. By taking steps to identify
and manage these risks, businesses can improve
efficiency and drastically increase returns.
This session demonstrates how assessing the
existing business model against the business
model innovation matrix in a programmatic way
can offer almost any company ways to innovate
its business model.
execed.wharton.upenn.edu
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
This session provides an overview of
emerging digital technologies and helps
define the broader envelope of how
digital is transforming experiences, ways
of working, and business models. The
session will also provide a framework
for executives to stay ahead of digital
disruption by leveraging digital to
improve the current business while also
incubating the next generation business.
This session will challenge leaders to
raise their own digital dexterity to be able
to look ahead for the next major shift,
effectively implement digital technologies,
and rapidly experiment to reinvent their
business.
NAVIGATING DIGITAL DISRUPTION
Today’s firms need to continuously
navigate rapid changes in both
technologies and business models. Digital
transformation presents opportunities
and challenges across industries, and
established companies must understand
how to defend themselves and adapt. This
session will discuss strategies to manage
digital disruption and ensure greater
innovation success rates.
CREATING A CULTURE OF INNOVATION
THROUGH AGILE In this session, we
will define the key characteristics of a
culture of innovation, and learn about
agility as a set of general principles and
concrete instruments for fostering such
a culture. We will review case studies
from IT, banking, and other industries.
The participants will practice the skills
necessary for successfully creating
and navigating an innovative agile
organization.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE
AGE OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Much of strategic management involves
recognizing the ways in which a new
problem fits into, matches, and differs
from an existing framework. Although
digital transformation has disrupted
our familiar set of patterns, a new set
greatly facilitates the development of
information-based strategies. This session
provides a firm understanding of the
power of these new patterns and develops
skills for rapid strategic analysis and
decision making.
BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION
IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Session Highlights
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN PEOPLE
MANAGEMENT This session introduces the
participants to the frameworks and best
practices of AI-based people management:
workforce planning, recruitment and hiring,
coordination and teamwork, performance
management, talent development, and
retention. In comparison with visible gains from
artificial intelligence in marketing and customer
relations, the progress in management faces
some domain-specific challenges and legal
constraints. We will identify possible responses
to these challenges, including causal algorithms,
randomization, and novel organizational
processes, that lead to more effective, legal, and
ethical AI-management systems.
execed.wharton.upenn.edu
LEADING AND MANAGING INNOVATIVE LEAN DEVELOPMENT AND
CHANGE (LECTURE/SIMULATION)
Although the ability to lead and manage
DISCOVERY-DRIVEN PLANNING
Creation of a new business model
change is critical to organizational is an inherently uncertain process,
success and survival, most changes where careful forecasting and planning
fall short of achieving their intended should give way to cleverly designed
results. This session is organized around experiments. Fortunately, new business
an experiential change management models lend themselves naturally to
simulation that has been used with experimentation, which is often harder
Fortune 500 executives, U.S. military and more expensive to do with novel
generals, and MBA students. The technologies. This session uses a case
simulation provides the opportunity to study to discuss the benefits of lean
test your intuitions, identify strengths, development, and focuses on creating an
discover vulnerabilities, and master a organization that is naturally predisposed
framework for leading change more toward discovery-driven planning.
effectively.
PLATFORM ECOSYSTEMS: STRATEGIES
THAT LEVERAGE NETWORKS The
proliferation of digital technologies has
been associated with a significant shift
from product-based to platform-based
business models and the disruption of
several major industries. The two types
of business models have significantly
different drivers of value and vectors of
strategic choices. We will draw on recent
research in strategy to explore how firms
can navigate these platform ecosystems
and manage the tension between value
creation and value capture.
BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
 Wharton LIVE Program Duration:
Oct. 12 – Oct. 16, 2020

Programming 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. EDT (most days)

Real-time, synchronous peer learning Building Your Network

Business Model Innovation will also include multiple opportunities for you to
The live, virtual version of Business Model get to know the other participants and build your professional network. These
Innovation is a five-day program that will sessions include:
be delivered online and taught by the same
•  Q&A Networking Forum
Wharton faculty who teach in the on-campus
During these sessions, faculty will examine and discuss the most
program. The virtual sessions are structured to
promising opportunities and most significant challenges participants’
allow for extensive Q&A so that participants can
organizations are facing. Participants act as a sounding board while
discuss their respective business challenges. simultaneously identifying the commonalities that connect the issues
across organizations.
Participants will have direct access to Wharton
faculty throughout the program and engage in
dynamic group exercises that help reinforce the
learning and enable networking among the peer
community.

This virtual program is a fully immersive and

structured learning experience that culminates
with a new set of knowledge and tools that can
be put to immediate use.

execed.wharton.upenn.edu
BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
 Business Model Innovation OCT. 12–16, 2020
LIVE Program Schedule* LIVE Virtual

Wharton LIVE Programming

Monday, October 12 Tuesday, October 13 Wednesday, October 14 Thursday, October 15 Friday, October 16
Program Introduction and Integration Session Integration Session Integration Session Lean Development and
Building Your Network 9:00–9:30 9:00–9:30 9:00–9:30
Discovery-Driven Planning

Platform Ecosystems Navigating Digital Disruption Leading Change

9:00–9:45

The Imperative of Business 9:00–10:30

Model Innovation in the Age The Better Place: Group Case

of Digital Disruption and the Work
Language of Business Models
9:30–11:30

9:45–12:00 break
break Creating a Culture of
9:30–12:30
The Risk-Driven Business Innovation through Agile 10:30–12:30

Model Approach break break

Opportunities and Challenges Action Plan Development and
of Digital Transformation Program Wrap-Up

12:30–2:00 12:45–2:00 12:00–2:00 9:30–2:00

networking forum (optional)

2:05–2:35 1:00–2:00

SCHEDULE A CONSULTATION:

+1.215.898.1776 (worldwide) | execed@wharton.upenn.edu

execed.wharton.upenn.edu
*Program start and end times are subject to change.

CP-BMID-0820
 BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION
Sample Program Schedule* IN THE DIGITAL AGE
ON CAMPUS

DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5

BREAKFAST

Program Introduction Navigating Digital Artificial Intelligence in Platform Ecosystems: guest speaker:
Disruption People Management Strategies that Business Model Innovation
Leverage Networks In Large Organizations

The Imperative of Business

Model Innovation in the Age
of Digital Disruption
Program Wrap-Up: Highlights
and Next Steps
The Language of Business
Models

LUNCH OPTIONAL LUNCH

The Risk-Driven Business Creating a Culture of Leading and Managing Lean Development and
Model Approach Innovation through Agile Innovative Change Discovery-Driven Planning

Opportunities and Challenges reception and discussion:

of Digital Transformation Competitive Advantage in
the Age of Digital The Better Place:
Transformation Group Case Work

DINNER DINNER ON YOUR OWN DINNER GRADUATION DINNER

n Executive Event n Lecture n Simulation n Group Work
SCHEDULE A CONSULTATION:

+1.215.898.1776 (worldwide) | execed@wharton.upenn.edu

execed.wharton.upenn.edu
*Program start and end times are subject to change.
Please DO NOT make travel arrangements based on this agenda.

Visit our website for more information on fees and upcoming dates. Click here » CP-BMID-0820

Wharton staff took a lot of
the stress out of the logistical
concerns so I could really
focus on absorbing the course
content.”
— Megan K.,
Energy industry executive
execed.wharton.upenn.edu
learn more and tour campus:
YourWhartonExperience.com
plan your
stay with us
Most Wharton Executive Education programs are
offered on the University of Pennsylvania campus in
Philadelphia. Located between New York City and
Washington, DC, Philadelphia is easily accessible from
most major cities around the world.
HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS
Your Philadelphia program fee includes hotel
accommodations. Most participants stay at the
Steinberg Conference Center, a 103-room full-service
hotel and classroom facility on Penn’s campus. There
are also several other hotels available nearby, including
the Hilton Inn at Penn.
MEALS DURING YOUR STAY
The majority of your meals are served in the Steinberg
Conference Center and are included in your program
fee. With advance notice, we can accommodate special
dietary needs.
HISTORIC AND CULTURAL HUB
A historic and cultural powerhouse, Philadelphia offers
numerous tourist attractions, including the
Independence National Historical Park, the National
Constitution Center, the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
and the Barnes Foundation.
BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION
IN THE DIGITAL AGE