Barbara Kahn (Pivot or Perish)
“Working with the Wharton Learning Lab has been an incredible experience. The hardest part of marketing strategy is implementation – turning strategic concepts into actions that deliver tangible results. The Wharton Learning team turned my ‘Retail Success Matrix’ into a living breathing exercise, where the students make a series of concrete decisions that are typically required in the complex world of retailing. Each of those team decisions are tested in a competitive environment and produce financial and market outcomes.
Wharton Learning Lab not only produced a state-of-the art simulation with a complex set of inputs and outputs, but they also provide continuous classroom support. Further the relationship is dynamic, as we learn more about students’ behaviors and real market sensitivities, the simulation is continuously updated. The Learning Lab is a clear differential advantage for Wharton relative to any of our peer schools.”
Maurice E. Schweitzer (OPEQ)
“Experiential learning brings ideas to life. It is one thing to talk about the dynamics of trust, but the experience of having your trust violated is far different. Experiences create durable lessons and animated discussions. I love working with the Learning Lab. I see the future of education as the marriage of ideas, technology, and emotion. The people, technology, and space at the Wharton School enable us to teach in a way that was unimaginable when we were students.”
Peter Fader (Customer Centricity, Rules of Engagement)
“The Wharton Learning Lab team has done an amazing job of making my dreams come true. As corny as that might sound, it’s true. It’s wonderful to work with them to take some very risky “swing for the fences” teaching ideas from concept to reality. I’ve done this several times with them, and it’s always been successful In fact, I keep raising the bar in terms of the complexity of the simulations I have in mind, and they have always “over-delivered.” Their group is one the most unique and valuable assets in the Wharton Computing portfolio, and I’m very thankful to have had multiple chances to benefit from their excellent capabilities.”
Eric T. Bradlow (Rules of Engagement, retired sim: FutureView)
“Simulations like Rules of Engagement, which we developed for our marketing strategy class, have changed the way in which students fundamentally learn. Instead of learning by “talking”, students learn by doing, competing with their peers, and also learn in an integrative fashion by taking material from ALL of their courses and applying it to realistic marketing problems.”
Karen Lewis (International Exposure Management = IEMAV)
“Corporate financial managers must make risk management and valuation decisions based upon information available at point in time. I find that simulations based upon real world problems are crucial to help students understand the trade-offs faced by financial managers. In the simulations, students put themselves in the “manager’s shoes”, make a decision, and then face the impact of those decisions based upon market outcomes. To the financial manager in a company with international transactions, these problems typically involve managing currency risk as well as foreign market uncertainty. Students often tell me they finally understand the significance of these risks after running the simulations. I have really enjoyed collaborating with the Learning Lab team. Over time, the LL team has helped to improve the simulations and provided thoughtful feedback about how to make the product more accessible to students.”
Robert Stambaugh (Backtester)
“Backtester links theory with practice by giving students hands-on experience designing quantitative portfolio strategies and testing their historical performance using the up-to-date high-quality financial data provided by Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS). The goal in designing this software was to capture the essential elements of real-world back-testing in a user-friendly environment. Working with the folks in Wharton’s Learning Lab has been a pleasure. Their talent and expertise is surely evident in Backtester’s elegant interface, and their ongoing coordination with WRDS, vital to Backtester, delivers a uniquely Wharton experience to students of investment management.”
Ethan Mollick (retired sims: Startup Game, Saturn Parable, Idea Machine, Looking Glass)
“I’ve worked in simulation development for nearly 20 years, with teams ranging from well-known companies to the Department of Defense, and I have never found a partner as effective, innovative, and efficient as the Learning Lab. In three years, we have released three major products, all of which are in classrooms and built to scale around the world. The Learning Lab is one of Wharton’s best assets.”