Learning Never Stops
By Robert Gunther
After earning their degrees, Wharton alumni finds ways to keep learning
When Mike Rechtiene, WG'93, joined
Wharton classmates for a 10th
reunion dinner on the top floor of
the new Huntsman Hall in May, they
marveled at how much the world had
changed since graduation. Most of
them had left Wharton ten years
earlier without Palm Pilots, cell
phones, laptops, or e-mail addresses.
Technological changes over the
decade have accelerated life, work,
and learning.
"We have to continue learning just to keep up with what
is going on in the business world – or just the world – since
we have been in school," said Rechtiene, now Executive
Director of Immunology Sales at Centocor, talking on his
cell phone while crawling along in a traffic jam on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Rechtiene felt the full impact of these changes when, at
the height of the Internet boom, he was asked to figure out
an e-business strategy at Centocor. "I had spent eight years
in marketing but had very little technology or technology
strategy background," he said. This new challenge brought
him back to Wharton's classrooms to join an innovative
executive program called The Wharton Fellows, which was
then focused on e-business.
He also has carried his passion for learning to others.
Starting in March 2002, he has brought more than 70 managers
from Johnson & Johnson (Centocor's parent) to
Wharton's campus for a custom executive education program
in marketing. He also has taught introductory marketing
in Wharton's Management Program for more than
seven years.
At Centocor, Rechtiene now finds himself in the midst
of another fast-moving, emerging technology. "There is a
high need to innovate in a business sense as well as
a scientific sense," he said. "For example, as these new
biotechnology products hit the market, they create
new challenges for reimbursement. There are tremendous
business challenges around forecasting new therapies and
making decisions about plants and equipment to build
them. It is living with ambiguity."
What became of his MBA degree? "I find I still use my
MBA on a regular basis," he said. "Those foundations don't
change. In fact, when new things come along like the
Internet, a solid foundation in marketing, economics, and
other areas allows you to innovate around those changes
even better. The foundations don't change, but you need to
interpret the foundation for your current environment."
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