Wharton OKs e-commerce track for MBAs

Officials are following a national trend with the new concentration in Internet-related business. When the Industrial Revolution hit big business in the late 19th century, the Wharton School was founded to teach how to lead and innovate in this new, industrial environment. More than a hundred years later, as the Internet Revolution radically alters today's business landscape, Wharton finds itself in a similar role: teaching today's students to manage in an ever-changing high-tech world. With a unanimous voice vote, the business school faculty yesterday officially approved a new concentration in Managing Electronic Commerce, beginning with the MBA Class of 2000. Plans for an undergraduate version of the program are underway, although they are unlikely to be proposed until the spring. "E-commerce is transforming the face of business," said Operations and Information Management Professor Eric Clemons, who will be the assistant director of the program. "Being a stockbroker will never be the same with online trading. Being a travel agent will never be the same with [Priceline.com]. If we don't teach our students how to manage in this new environment, we will doom them to failure." The aim of the new concentration is to teach students to design and implement online marketing and management strategies and to conduct business over the Internet. It will integrate about 35 existing MBA courses offered by the Management, Marketing, OPIM and Public Policy and Management departments. "This was a carefully thought out program," Interim Wharton Dean Patrick Harker said. "Unlike other schools, this one cuts to the whole breadth of issues relating to e-business and e-commerce." Although other business schools -- including Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northwestern University -- have recently developed e-commerce tracks, Wharton faculty members said their program will be unique. It will leverage the overall strength of its world-renowned professors and departments, as well as already existing Internet-related resources, such as the Wharton Forum in E-Commerce. "It's not just putting old wine in new bottles," Clemons said. "This is something that Wharton does very well although no one knew we were doing it." Students will choose four courses grouped around five suggested tracks -- including electronic media and marketing, entrepreneurial management, information and e-commerce strategy and supply chain management. The idea for an e-commerce concentration had been discussed among students and faculty for months and Harker charged a committee of faculty over the summer to draft a proposal for the e-commerce proposal. After reviewing their plans with MBA students and other faculty, the committee submitted the plan to Wharton's curriculum committee earlier this semester. "Student involvement was very important," said Marketing Department Chairperson David Schmittlein, the director of the concentration. "Faculty talked with students about their interests in the area and asked about what subjects they would like to study." Just three months later, they submitted the proposal at yesterday's meeting. Indeed, few Wharton faculty members can recall another proposal so quickly adopted. But for a move that positions Wharton in the rapidly changing, fast-paced world of information technology, it should come as no surprise. "Every time the nature of business changes, the nature of the curriculum has to change," Clemons said. "And this one is a biggie."

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