Hometown: Queens, NY
Title: SVP, Senior Strategist
Company: Sudler & Hennessey - IntraMed
George Carystinos
My Story About Me
These are the people, in my mind, who will be successful people in the future — the movers and shakers of the next decade.
A PhD in pharmacology gave George Carystinos the skills he needed to head the Medical Affairs Division of a leading healthcare agency, but he couldn't shake being thought of for his technical expertise and not his business acumen. "Even though I was moving up in the company it was hard convincing people that I have a knowledge and understanding of marketing, business, and management," he explains. "I thought an MBA would prove to people that I understand firm operations and not just the technical side of things."
George entered Wharton intending to use his MBA as a springboard up the ladder of his current company. But surrounded by people from different industries in different stages of their career, he began to rethink his goals. George compared his skills and abilities with those of his peers, whom he calls the next generation of "movers and shakers," and realized how far he could go in his career and what risks he would have to take to get there. Now, his objective is to lead a large healthcare corporation, growing on the corporate side and helping to develop new products and bring them to the marketplace.
In addition to his new career perspective, George talks about the network of friends he gained while at Wharton and overcoming embarrassment in unlikely negotiations.
New career perspectives
I started to see what other fields offered. I was intrigued by the possibility that you can take part in a corporation on a bigger scale, be involved in more aspects of a project than the straight marketing or commercialization of the product at hand. For example, you can be involved in product development in a healthcare role, identifying new drugs to cure diseases, while also being involved in the selling of them. My long-term goal now is to move more to the corporate side of a pharmaceutical company or a biotech company and grow there. I think marketing is very interesting; it optimizes our access to pharmaceuticals. But I want to create more value, and I think value is created in developing new products and bringing them to the market and forging relationships between companies.
Fellow students — the success stories of the future
The level of the classmates drives the level of the courses. But also these are the people, in my mind, who will be among the success stories of the future — the movers and shakers of the next decade. You see what they can do, and you see what your strengths are next to theirs. You start comparing yourself with them and seeing how they've done things, how accomplished they've been, and how they've managed to succeed. You understand what risks you can take, what choices you can make, and what the fallback is. You learn how to push the envelope more, be more aggressive in your career and realize your options — which maybe you couldn't see before.
Also, having people around you who've done a lot of different things and have achieved a lot of successes in different fields is incredible and gives you a better perspective in these fields. I still remember when we started talking about the California energy crisis that someone in class was involved in that event. You get firsthand knowledge from different industries about how things work and what the issues are.
Reaping benefits at work
I brought problems I had at work to the classroom and to my classmates. They helped me tremendously. These had to do more with managing people and resources as well as client services. We have some people who are experts in management, and they've worked for years managing big groups. They helped me learn different ways of communicating and motivating people. In terms of taking things away, I immediately used most of the things I learned — when it came to marketing, I applied most of what I learned in marketing and marketing strategy directly at work. My clients loved it. In addition, I used a lot of the strategy concepts and frameworks that I learned in class. These were very powerful tools, and bringing them to clients was extremely useful. These were among the reasons we were awarded so much new business over the year.
Exceptional professors
We had exceptional professors; they made a big difference. These are the same people who teach in the regular MBA program, and we are lucky to have them without the bidding system. They are exceptional, bright academicians who are also involved in their industries and have a lot of insight about the practical applications of their teaching. It's very easy to learn a lot from them — and not just about academics. They also have a lot of experience.
Overcoming discomfort and risking change
The negotiations professor, Dr. Schweitzer, used information from behavioral sciences to teach us how people act and communicate. The class teaches you how to get out of your comfort zone, trust what you learn, risk a little bit, and change the way you see things. For example, we had two projects and both were to go to a place where people don't typically negotiate and try to negotiate with them using the concepts of the class. The first one was a disaster for me. Instead of a deal, I got dirty looks and was very embarrassed. I realized I wasn't very comfortable doing this, and I identified why I failed, specifically, what steps I didn't take because I was uncomfortable. The next time, I was mindful about taking those steps even though I was uncomfortable, and the negotiation went well. It was enlightening.
