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Continued from previous page
The Doctor is In
A Sea Change Leaves David Zlotowski, WG'85, Still Searching
How many people, even among Wharton alumni, can
say they have won marketing awards, helped a company
grow its profits by 50 percent in six months,
founded a consulting firm, and delivered a baby?
Few would argue that David Zlotowski, M.D.,
WG'85, has had anything but a conventional career.
After working 10 years in marketing, most of them
in brand management at Kraft General Foods,
Zlotowski made a life-changing career shift in
1994 when he enrolled in the Medical
College of Pennsylvania-Hahnemann
Hospital. He graduated summa cum
laude in June 1999 and became a resident
physician at Montgomery
Hospital Medical Center in
Norristown, Pa.
"I'd like to tell you it was part
of a grand plan, but it wasn't,"
he says, noting that he entered
college at 16 and was only 17
when he came to Penn as a
sophomore. "I took the path of
least resistance, which people do
at times when they're young and
immature."
Zlotowski, 40, earned a BA in
English from Penn and took a job as
an assistant manager of a suburban
Philadelphia cable TV company. Though
he enjoyed the post, he realized he needed
some formal business training and decided to
return to Penn as a Wharton student.
After receiving his MBA in 1985, Zlotowski joined
General Foods Corp. in White Plains, N.Y., as a business
analyst, overseeing one of the company's frozen
foods businesses. [General Foods was later acquired
by Philip Morris Cos., and merged with Kraft to form
Kraft General Foods].
"I had gone to work for General Foods in a financial
capacity, but realized it was a consumer products
company and the leadership positions were marketers,
not financiers," Zlotowski says. "I bucked
for, and was able to make a transition to, brand
management."
Zlotowski was named business analysis supervisor
for General Foods' packaged desserts unit in
1986, and went on to hold senior positions there. He
created and launched, on a regional basis, Kool-Aid
Kool-Pops, beating volume and profit goals by 50 percent.
Over the years, he continued to rise through the
ranks of brand management, working on such household
names as Jell-O, Sealtest and Kool-Aid. In 1991,
Zlotowski returned to Philadelphia to become product
manager for Breyers Frozen Desserts, then decided to
take a post at Wayne Pa.-based CONFAB Co., the
world's largest manufacturer of private-label feminine
sanitary and adult incontinence products. In the six
months he was there, he grew CONFAB's volume by
40 percent and profits by 50 percent through the
launch of two product segments.
But despite his successful career in brand management,
Zlotowski found himself distracted by his
long-time interest in medicine. In 1994, he finally
decided to take the leap: he left CONFAB to enroll in
some required pre-med courses at
West Chester University, then
set off for medical school.
Zlotowski calls
himself "a standard-issue, family-practice
intern, which means
for 80 hours a
week I do soup
to nuts — from
delivering
babies to taking
care of critically
ill patients."
He relishes the
"emotional
connection"
he makes with
patients. "People
will share things
with you that they
don't share with anyone
else in their lives. To me
it's the most satisfying part of
medicine," says Zlotowski.
But like an increasing number of physicians,
Zlotowski worries about managed care's influence on
his practice. "Many doctors are frustrated that the doctor-patient
relationship is being torn asunder. Although
I did not [become a doctor] to maximize my income, my
fear is it's not possible to make an adequate income
without providing substandard patient care.
So, Zlotowski is once again mulling career
options, with an eye toward areas that would allow
him to merge his consumer products and medical
backgrounds. Pharmaceuticals are one possibility,
he says, as is consulting. At least Zlotowski never left
the business world entirely: in 1994, he started Alpha
Zed Group, a consulting firm specializing in business
planning and marketing services for small companies.
Work aside, he and his wife Eileen, an occupational
therapist, and daughters Anna, 8, and Lila, 4,
enjoy camping, canoeing, hiking, cooking and organic
gardening.
"I enjoyed medical school, but as an older student
I had eyes and ears more open than those of the average
22-year-old when it came to the realities of the
marketplace," he says. "I unfortunately came to realize
something that could be said about medicine —
great profession, but bad career."
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