Tim Ogden, EMTM’07

Networked

A U.S. Naval Academy graduate in general engineering and U.S. Marine, Tim moved from examining the military potential of new technologies in the marine Corps Warfighting Labs to designing civilian wireless networks for Fortune 500 clients as a Systems Engineer at Cisco Systems. He turned to EMTM to gain business knowledge in a technical context. Half-way through the program he was promoted to his current position, managing Cisco's account with the Federal Reserve. According to his supervisor, Blake Sallé, Director of Cisco's Mid-Atlantic Enterprise Operation, "Tim has also reshaped and elevated the expected performance for all System Engineers within Cisco."

Why EMTM?

Tim was eager to expand his role at Cisco beyond the purely technical. He was confident that he had a sound engineering background, but wanted to round it out with more business fundamentals. He realized that he also needed to understand the business drivers for his clients' decision making, and not solely consider the technical justifications.

Tim started out looking at Executive MBA programs. He knew he wanted a top ten school, which would require that he commute from the DC area. While visiting Wharton, he became aware of the EMTM program. "I loved the flexibility built into EMTM — knowing that I could alter my schedule from full-time to half-time, based on what's going on at work or with my family." As the father of two young children, Tim also preferred a program that did not hold summer classes. Tim ultimately picked EMTM for Penn's reputation, Wharton's top ten ranking, the ability to stay current in technology, and its scheduling flexibility.

Career Impact

Tim quickly found EMTM valuable back on the job. "The cases and role playing we worked on in my Negotiations course involved complex, multi-party scenarios with widely divergent interests. That helped shape my own strategy for crafting deals with customers that create the best outcomes for everyone."

Finance became a new-found passion. As a follow-up to the core Finance course, he took Case Studies in Finance, which examined other technology firms like AOL and Dell. "Professor John Percival makes the subject fascinating. Now that I have a better understanding of the various levers of corporate finance, I can now design and sell networks more effectively across the range of customer decision-makers in a project. Because I understand how different functional players evaluate the investment, I can address all of their considerations."

Tim's supervisor, Blake Sallé, Director of Cisco's Mid-Atlantic Enterprise Operation, has been impressed with the difference EMTM has made. "As a result [of joining EMTM], Tim has significantly and exponentially evolved his technical systems design role into a trusted advisor status for providing functional business solutions. His education and application of learned practices has allowed Tim to provide business-impacting solutions and processes, which have direct correlation to the success of our organization and our clients. In doing so, Tim has also reshaped and elevated the expected performance for all System Engineers within Cisco."

After one year in the EMTM program, Tim was promoted to his current position as Cisco's Account Manager for the Federal Reserve.

How Tim Manages His Time

Tim follows the rubric of former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz: "WIN — What's Important Now?" During the work day, he focuses on his customers, with increased attention to their business requirements as drivers for their technical requirements. Getting home to be with his family for dinner is a high priority, and after his children are in bed, he spends 2-3 hours on EMTM studies. The support and cooperation of his wife Becky, as well as Cisco policies that enable occasional work at home, are also key factors in his successful EMTM experience.