Why I Still Go Back to School

In January 2023 Stanford’s admissions committee asked me a fair question. I had finished Wharton’s Advanced Management Program in 2021. Why did I want another executive program so soon?

My answer, in full on the main point:

My interest in another executive program within a short time frame is that I am committed to making sure I stay at the forefront of my industry through continued learning.

I listed what I wanted from it: problem-solving, leadership, a broader base across technology, and a better understanding of how to run operations efficiently. I also listed courses Stanford offered that Wharton had not, from “Secrets of the Silicon Valley Ecosystem” to “Creating Lasting Behavioral Change.”

That is still the honest reason. Here is what it has looked like in practice.

Two at once, in December 2020

In late 2020 I took two sales programs at the same time: Kellogg’s Mastering Sales, delivered online, and the Indian School of Business’s Rethinking Sales Force Effectiveness, which ended with a group case presentation on 19 December. Both while running the businesses.

I did not keep the Kellogg material to myself. In 2021 I put the course videos in front of a salesperson joining us, and when he wrote that the training was excellent and he would finish the week four module that day, my reply was: “Glad you are finding it useful.” Several of the articles on this site start from frameworks I first encountered there.

Class around the business

Wharton’s AMP in 2021 ran partly online and partly on campus. The business did not stop for it. In June, in the middle of correcting a vendor on a missed commitment, I told them:

I will be around if you need me this afternoon; I am in class from 8 a.m. – 1.30 p.m. EST.

Not all of it was easy. When the pre-reading for one module arrived, my reply was a single line: “You want me to read 232 pages?!?”

And in October, when Purdue asked to bring a dean to Naples to visit, I had to say no: “I am currenting attending and finishing my Advanced Management Program (AMP) from October 16-31 at UPenn, School of Wharton.” I left the typo in.

Bring it home

The part I value most is what comes back with me.

In February 2025, during Harvard’s Owner/President Management program, I sent the head of a local community bank one of the cases from class, about another bank:

A great case study here at Harvard. You might enjoy reading it and possibly even implementing some of these items….

His team came back with the controversies around that bank’s founder. I knew of them. My reply: “At the same time, their performance is their performance.” That exchange, a banker and I arguing about a case, is the kind of thing a program is for.

It started earlier than any of this

The habit is older than the executive programs. In 2005, six years out of Purdue, I wrote to a professor there about the doctoral program:

My interests lie in the same areas as yours and I am desperately seeking to get involved in the Doctoral program.

I did not end up doing a doctorate. I did keep going back.

What I would tell someone considering it

Go for the reason I gave Stanford: to stay at the front of what you do. Pick the program for the specific courses and the people in the room, not the name. Expect it to compete with the business for your time, and let it. And measure it by what you bring home: the case you send a friend, the training you give your team, the framework you test on a real deal the following week.

Related: Systems and People, What Counts as Normal and Tuesday Mornings at 8:30.