Department: Operations and Information Management
Graduated: PhD 1996
Present Position: Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, Technology and Operations Management (TOM) unit
Current Focus: Professor Frei's research focuses on drivers of performance in service firms. Her academic research has been published in top-tier journals such as Management Science and Harvard Business Review. In addition, she has published dozens of case studies on companies in financial services, government, retail, software, telecommunications, and travel & leisure. She consults at firms around the world on issues from customer data analysis to strategies for improving performance.

Wharton Teaching
"To be taught at Wharton starts out as pure intimidation because you're looking at professors who are the best in their field, and frankly, you feel like a moron in their presence. Then you realize that they're really kind and really accessible, and that they really want to help you. Still, you never lose sight of the fact that it's a privilege to be taught by them. Their generosity is humbling. I know there is no such thing as a dumb question, but let's face it when we began all our questions were dumb questions. However, we were never made to feel that our questions were unimportant or stupid."

"As far as teaching goes, I learned by watching what everyone else did and then taught review sessions as a sort of warm-up. What I learned was two-fold. The first is that you have to give a compelling reason to come to class. There has to be something that will happen in class that you couldn't do on your own, no matter how much you studied. Second, you have to create a safe environment where people can ask questions. That classroom exchange of ideas is all-important."

Wharton Philosophy
"Wharton is not an environment where they tell you the right way to do it. You are given tasks and told to go off on your own. It's not a place of low expectations, which is great because there's value in high expectations. It's an individualistic approach, much more so than at other schools. To sum it up, I would say that at Wharton research is the most important thing and that the professors touch the lives of the students every day. I was never told to teach, or for that matter do research, like someone else. The approach is more to find your own way and come to the professors when you have problems. We are responsible for finding our own way of doing things. "

"It all comes down to asking the right questions. It is rare and amazing to have a school where everyone learns how to do this. Wharton does it systematically, and they do it by allowing and trusting the students to find their own way. The professors give a lot of open-ended assignments and it forces the students to grapple with the questions."

The Students
"The students at Wharton are still my closest colleagues. I had no idea that I was going to bond with the people in my department for the rest of my life. We took all our classes to together, and it felt like a cohort. It was a shared experience doing a really difficult task. It felt collegial. We were reliant and supportive of each other and we have stayed in touch. I send work to them and they continue to inspire me and help me tighten up the questions. "

Wharton Research
"The strength of the research is unparalleled. It's world class across the board. One of its strengths is that it's not only applied. My dissertation on financial services research — with Dean Pat Harker as my advisor — was very applied. Still, I benefited from research that was not. Dean Harker had theoretical training, and I was grateful to have access to that training, because it is so rigorous. You cannot get away from the theory. My work has solid theory behind it; there's nothing fluffy about it. Theory is what gives rigor to applied work. Theory is what allows you to articulate questions that are within the context of the existing literature. It's the foundation on which you can build an applied house. If you don't have it your house falls down. If your work isn't solidly grounded in theory it reads like conjecture or opinion."