CEO of Bon Ton kicks off Wharton lecture series

In front of a modest crowd of 30 students on Thursday, Bon Ton Chief Executive Officer and President Heywood Wilansky chronicled his life by talking about his career and risks he took along the way. The talk kicked off this year's Musser-Schoemaker Lecture Series, which was started by the Wharton School in 1991 to provide undergraduates with exposure to business and government leaders. Speaking candidly about the "secrets of success," Wilansky explained his rise up the retail ladder from buyer for Abraham & Strauss to president and CEO of Bon Ton, a thriving department store with a "new direction." Wilansky started his career in a haphazard way. After trying to circumvent the military draft, he was later deemed ineligible due to his flat feet. His original plans falling through, he instead found a job with A&S.; From then on, Wilansky's flexibility -- working both the sales and the executive sides of numerous companies -- can be explained by his belief that one must simply "apply basic principles with logic." Wilansky dedicated most of the speech to a discussion of Bon Ton and the reasons why he chose to leave a stable job with May Department Stores for a new risk. "People want to do something to have input and ownership," Wilansky said. And it was precisely this idea that pushed him to take his position at Bon Ton. Wilansky felt that his creativity was being stifled by a lack of decision-making freedom at the May Company and that he could no longer contribute much to the business. At Bon Ton, one of Wilansky's main goals is to "create a corporate culture that fosters entrepreneurship." With these words he makes it very clear that his career hasn't only been the search for the "white picket fence," but a search to contribute something to those he has worked for and with. His message to those who were able to stay until the end of his hour-long lecture was, "If you believe you have more to contribute, find a place where you can contribute." His inspirational remarks were received extremely well by the audience. Wharton junior Yuriko Tse said that the speaker was not only "informative" but also "very high-energy." Bon Ton aims to reach secondary markets throughout the United States, Wilansky said. In response to the increasing role of the Internet in reaching smaller markets, Wilansky suggested that brick-and-mortar stores such as Bon Ton offer care and service which he argued cannot easily be recreated in the onliineworld. He explained that the Web can be used especially for the more established names in retail as a tool to redirect customers to the retail centers. Throughout his speech, Wilansky offered a vision for the workplace with one predominant message: "You don't have to have knowledge but questions."