Hometown: Coopersburg, PA
Title: Director of Business Development & Strategy
Company: Lutron Electronic, Co, Inc.
Glen Kruse
My Story About Me
I do every reading, every homework assignment, every sample exercise, and it’s because the return on the investment of that time is there.
At the midpoint of his career, Glen Kruse came to a fork in the road. He had been put in charge of a spin-off of his company, and while the subsidiary was successful, he realized he needed to advance his business education beyond his on-the-job learning to go to the next level. But like many other professionals interested in pursuing an MBA, Kruse had to choose between quitting his job to attend a full-time program and squeezing school into his current career path. Happy with his decision to take the latter path, Kruse talks about the benefits of a challenge, the commitment required of the program, and return on investments.
A transformative experience
The challenge is my favorite part of the Wharton experience. When I started, I knew it would be a good education, and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But in reality, it’s been another dimension altogether. Your life is completely transformed for the two years you are in this program. You are taking four to five courses at a time. And all of those courses are very demanding. Since you are in class with the cream of the crop, the courses, projects, and assignments are even more difficult.
A great return
I had this vision that I was going to get a lot of insight and wisdom from this program. I think I learned more in the first semester alone than I anticipated learning during the entire two years. It’s extremely intense. I probably spend 100 hours a month doing Wharton-related things, either in class, or on homework and working with classmates on assignments. You learn so much from the professors; you learn so much from your fellow classmates. It’s an extremely concentrated learning opportunity. You are spending an incredible amount of time doing it, and the knowledge per hour is maximized. It’s a great return on your investment from a time perspective.
Thirsty for knowledge
I was completely thirsty for knowledge when I entered the program. I wanted to get into an entirely different league so the investment of this ridiculous amount of time was all worth it to me. If I hadn’t been involved in rolling out a new company, with the millions of challenges that it involves, I probably wouldn’t have had as many questions in my head. Every course reveals different ways for me to expand my capabilities and knowledge. I do every reading, every homework assignment, every sample exercise, and it’s because the return on the investment of that time is there. At the end of a reading or assignment, I don’t think, "That was a waste of time." I think, "Wow, that was really interesting." And then I spend another hour doing it. I do it till I’m too tired to stay awake.
Giving back
The President of Dell’s Consumer Business spoke to our class during lunch one day. He shared a lot of insights from his career — many of them from success, but some of them from failures. It was a very fascinating discussion, a lot of good exchange between him and the audience. His talk was unscripted, straight from the heart, and not a pitch for Dell. Why was he doing it? The answer is he graduated from the Wharton EMBA program 16 years ago. He wanted to give back to the program that helped him get where he is today.
Hearing it first hand
The things we’re studying can be theoretical and academic, and what you learn in class is never quite the same as how it happens in the real world. However, WEMBA is a little different. I was sitting in one of my entrepreneurial classes, for example, talking about ventures and start-ups. The person next to me in class had done three start-ups and was commenting on what we were going over from personal experience. That was invaluable. Having real-world perspectives in the classroom, along with the academic perspective, is one of the reasons the executive MBA program is so good.
Getting in the door
First, all of the knowledge, skills, etc., that I’ve learned should allow me to do more in my business pursuits than I’ve been able to do thus far. Second, the Wharton brand itself is going to be every bit as important in putting my career on a steeper trajectory. It’s very difficult for your management team or employer to peer inside of your head and see what your capabilities are. The beauty of the Wharton brand is that everyone knows that name and has high regard for what that means. Wharton gets you in the door, and your skills and capability get you up the ladder.
Brace yourself
Make sure you have the complete support of your employer because this program is going to diminish your contributions during the two years you are in it — even though you are learning things that you can bring back to the organization. Your workload in the program makes it impossible to maintain your production level at work, so it’s really important to have your employer understand this. Let them know it’s an investment that will have a good return, but in the short term, you’re going to be in the office less and you’re not going to be working nights and weekends — your nights and weekends are going to be Wharton’s.
