European Executives Explore Demand Generation at the Wharton School
Wharton Executive Education and ECR Europe Collaborate To Bring Global Insights To Consumer Goods and Retail Leaders

Philadelphia, PA, April 25, 2007 — The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is working with ECR Europe to bring leadership development programming to senior executives in the consumer goods industry. Wharton’s “Building Leadership in the Consumer Goods Industry” was held in January and February. Wharton faculty members discussed the marketing and operational skills needed to generate demand within the industry.

The leadership program, part of ECR Europe’s Progressive Management Programme (PMP), is a cooperative venture between ECR Europe and four leading business schools: Wharton in the United States, INSEAD in France, WHU’s Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany, and Cambridge’s Judge Business School in the UK. Each school brings a distinctive set of insights to the program during 20 days of education time across a six-month period.

ECR Europe is an industry organization that promotes the development and practice of “Efficient Consumer Response” (ECR). The ECR movement began in the mid-1990s with the understanding that companies could serve consumers better, faster, and at a lower cost by working together with trading partners.

“There are many factors influencing the future of our industry such as globalization, changing consumer needs, volatile demand, hybrid shoppers, and increasing competition,” said Bernard Karli, managing director of ECR Europe’s International Commerce Institute. “While there are generic programs out there, the board of ECR Europe wanted to team up with leading schools to do something tailored to our industry in particular.”

“The program is aimed at bringing together young, high-potential executives from the same industry to explore common challenges,” Karli said. “They share knowledge with each other and leading academics, who spark their imaginations and facilitate the journey.”

The Wharton segment offered stimulating insights and real-world examples on “generating demand” from senior faculty such as Wharton Professor Marshall Fisher, a leading researcher in operations management and the academic director of Wharton’s portion of the program. Other Wharton faculty explored topics such as linking marketing to financial metrics, exploring in-store shopping paths, mining point-of-sale data, and Internet retail -- all highly relevant for generating demand in the consumer goods industry.

During the Wharton session, the executives also developed a deeper appreciation of consumer products and retail dynamics through direct observation during in-market field trips, in-store visits, and discussions with managers, staff, and customers at a range of US retailers, including convenience stores, supermarkets, and department stores. “The store visits were very rewarding, and the Wharton faculty members who participated in the program are thought leaders, with strong credentials in research,” Karli said.

In designing the program, Wharton drew upon its experience in providing executive education programs for many global consumer products and retail clients, covering a wide spectrum of CEO-level issues across a variety of industry segments – from food and beverages to personal care products and luxury goods. “Wharton brings complementary strengths to these other schools, with its focus on delivering high-impact results by identifying key global emerging trends and creating sustainable competitive strategies,” said John Buggie, senior director for the Consumer Products and Retail practice at Wharton.

The next program begins in August 2007 and will return to Wharton in October. “The content is very flexible based on the feedback from the participants and the group composition,” Karli said.

About the Wharton School
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania -- founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school -- is recognized globally for intellectual leadership and ongoing innovation across every major discipline of business education. The most comprehensive source of business knowledge in the world, Wharton bridges research and practice through its broad engagement with the global business community. The school has more than 4,600 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students; more than 8,000 annual participants in executive education programs; and an alumni network of more than 81,000 graduates.

Each year, Wharton Executive Education works with more than 8,000 business leaders on its campus in Philadelphia, at Wharton West in San Francisco, and at sites around the world. The Wharton Learning Continuum is Wharton Executive Education’s model for delivering Impact Through Education™–-supporting companies and individuals in a 9- to 12-month learning process that is designed collaboratively with clients, delivered by Wharton faculty, and monitored to produce specific outcomes.

Wharton at 125

About ECR Europe
ECR Europe is a joint trade and industry body committed to making the grocery sector as a whole more responsive to consumer demand and to promoting the removal of unnecessary costs from the supply chain. With its secretariat in Brussels, ECR Europe works closely with national ECR initiatives in most European countries. Through participation in collaborative projects at European and national levels, best practices are identified which enable retailers and manufacturers to reduce inefficiencies in their supply chain and to optimize consumer value.

Media Contact:
Carol Orenstein
Chief Marketing Officer
Aresty Institute of Executive Education
The Wharton School
+1.215-898-2647
carolo@wharton.upenn.edu

Program Contact:
John Buggie
Aresty Institute of Executive Education
The Wharton School
+1.215.573.6154 (phone)
+1.215.386.4304 (fax)
john.buggie@wharton.upenn.edu