Mack Institute Co-director George Day is retiring from the Wharton School after nearly twenty-five years as a faculty member.
Happily for those of us at the Mack Institute, he will continue to be actively involved as ever. Among his activities in support of the mission of the Mack Institute, he will continue his research on helping firms accelerate their rate of organic growth, and will apply the insights from Mack Institute research in his role as Academic Director of the Wharton Executive Education program in “Innovate to Grow.” He will also continue to help with the recruiting of corporate partners, maintaining relationships with the current partners, and contributing to the planning and delivery of Mack Institute conferences.
Day has been instrumental to the Mack Institute since its beginning, providing leadership from its initial mid-nineties incarnation as the Emerging Technologies Management Research Program.
In an early description of the nascent program, Day wrote,
We believe that when an emerging technology creates a new industry, or transforms an existing industry, you need different business practices to compete, survive, and succeed…
The challenge – and adventure – is to look for different ways to address these changing needs, to challenge existing practices, and come up with different ways to manage in the environment we call emerging technologies. That’s what has brought us together.
Although the scope of the institute has widened since those initial years, Day’s words still ring true, and the founding principles Day describes remain the same: A determined cross-industry focus, a confidence in the value of sharing questions and ideas, and a reliance on collaborative research to provide guidance in periods of turmoil and uncertainty.
In addition to his vital leadership role at the institute, Day has authored eighteen books on marketing and strategic management, including the now-classic Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies. His most recent book, published by Wharton School Press, is Innovation Prowess: Leadership Strategies for Accelerating Growth. Day has been the recipient of numerous awards for his teaching and academic work, which are detailed in his full bio. In 2011 he was selected as one of eleven “Legends in Marketing,” and will be featured in a forthcoming book.