One wrong move and they'll fall off. The issues of synergy and divestiture are very close to home, now that his company is being bought by The Learning Company. Like Stanford's other general management programs, participants spend their days in classes that draw on the research and interactions that GSB faculty have had with companies, then meet in small groups in the evening to prepare for the next day. Later that morning, Robert Burgelman, Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management, will introduce Strategic Leadership with a discussion of Sunrise Medical, Inc.'s wheelchair products. Questions range from how attractive the basic industry was in 1993 to how introduction of a lightweight wheelchair will affect the competitive dynamics in the industry.
Discussions often spill over into lunch time, when faculty regularly join participants at the table.
After lunch, the specific case discussion picks up, continuing until about 3 p.m. Late afternoons are devoted to individual study or optional sessions. But, it is after dinner when a lot of the EPGC action takes place. At that time, study groups made up of seven or eight participants who represent different industries, functional expertise, companies, and countries of origin, get together to discuss cases, share ideas, and prepare for the next day's classes. Often participants bond with their small groups to the extent that they keep in touch long after the course is completed. About half of us were from foreign countries.