WHAT IS THE WINE EXECUTIVE PROGRAM?

Started in 2000 as a unique partnership between the University of California at Davis Graduate School of Manage­ment and the UC-Davis Department of Viticulture & Enology, the UC-Davis Wine Executive Program completed its seventh year this March with a sold-out roster.

The program is an annual skills and information-based "executive summary" series of courses. The three days of mini-classes focus on issues that decision-makers in the wine industry currently grapple with as well as provide a refresher on less glamorous (but critically important) topics, such as cost accounting and financial management. Taught by faculty of the Graduate School of Management and the Department of Viticulture & Enology, an optional fourth day is also offered, which affords attendees an in-depth look at how the topics explored in the first three days apply to running a winery or farming operation. The "campus" consists of adjacent Embassy Suites Riverfront Promenade and One Capital Mall, the Sacramento branch of the UC-Davis Graduate School of Management. Lodging, all meals and educational materials are included in the fee ($3,600 for three days, $4,800 for four days).

Perhaps the real value that most graduates take home is the high quality networking opportunity the intensive program offers. The in-class group activities, case studies and lively discussions all are ways to get to know your cohorts in the classroom. It is during the daily lunches and dinners at downtown Sacramento eateries, however, and the short walks to and from "base camp" that can throw a winemaker together with a competitor's CFO, or that get a boutique winery owner talking to a supply chain executive of the largest beverage conglomerate in the world. Like any good "graduate" program, albeit an abbreviated one, the UC-Davis Wine Executive Program succeeds in imparting hard data and changing attendees' perspectives while challenging them to stretch beyond their own particular spot in the wine industry.

WHO WOULD BENEFIT FROM ATTENDING?

This is not a program to attend casually. With a cost that's an obvious barrier to entry and the fact that you've got to commit almost an entire work week, this is not something you send your junior winemaking staffers to. Designed for professionals who have managed both people and money, the Wine Executive Program gets well beyond the usual technical industry seminars and offers up a fast-paced, all-day class schedule coupled with in-depth, and sometimes even respectfully adversarial, discussions. To get the most out of the program, as well as to be able to contribute quality insight, attendees should be experienced in their field, have had budgetary responsibility and personnel management experience and be in a decision-making position in their company. This year's class carried titles like winemaker, director of operations, supply chain manager, brand manager, partner, and VP of sales and marketing; it represented growers, beverage conglomerates, banks and wineries, both large and small, established and start-up.

WHAT DO YOU LEARN?

Due to the diverse nature of the participants, the class schedule attempts to be a little bit of everything to everybody. On the first day, "brush up" breakout sessions were offered that allowed non-production managers to get a little "Grape growing and Winemaking 101" while non-finance professionals got a quick intro to the vocabulary, terminology and basic principles of accounting. All 68 attendees sat through lectures on big-picture financial management, brand loyalty, strategic cost accounting, effective leadership, corporate apologies and ethics (especially timely after Jet Blue's incident in February) and consumer relationship management. The optional fourth day's morning session covered industry legal matters (an inch-thick brief on the recent Costco cases was issued as preparatory reading) while the afternoon was devoted to current events issues like high-Brix winemaking, environmentally sound winery management and using technology to make smarter vineyard decisions.

In general, winemakers and growers probably came away with a better understanding of how to talk to their accounting departments and justify capital expenditure requests. Marketing professionals most likely were re-energized by case studies that analyzed the successful branding techniques of companies like Target, Starbucks and Nike. Lenders, like everyone else, were no doubt excited by all the positive industry trend, sales and category data being reported. The handful who came because they were looking to get into the wine business probably left with a sense of how far they've progressed (or not) in their cost-benefit analysis but with a pocketful of valuable contacts to call upon. That points up another benefit of the program--its wide perspective on the entire industry helps attendees identify their own areas for future professional growth and development.

IS IT WORTH THE COST OF ADMISSION?

I spoke to a few winemakers who wanted to go but didn't; when asked why, they cited the high cost and the big time commitment. Additionally, they communicated a clear desire for business education like this but in more of an "à la carte" format. There seems to be great demand for wine business and finance educational opportunities among winemakers and other production professionals, but perhaps in a format that is more accessible and friendly to the schedules of working production professionals.

When I spoke to my Wine Executive Program classmates about the program, most agreed that the fees were indeed "just on the sharp edge of painful," as one gentleman put it. All also agreed, however, that they were glad they had enrolled and would recommend the program to others, citing the networking, the global industry perspective and the "neutral ground" where diverse industry principals could discuss challenges openly as the main positive points. Take-home educational value was confirmed by the number of non-number cruncher types who were excited by the new-to-them cost accounting and financial management sessions. Similarly, many finance professionals really learned a lot more about how to understand their grower and winemaking clients and colleagues.

However, many attendees also proposed (privately as well as through the daily evaluation sheets passed around) various ways to improve the program. One or two of the classes were geared towards huge commodity-based companies manufacturing and marketing cars and electronics; a few attendees from the big beverage conglomerates felt the experimental modeling research presented in those sessions didn't apply to organizations of even their size and scope. The "Intro to Winemaking" course was reported to be a little over-simplified; it seems the level of winemaking and grape growing knowledge among this group of non-production professionals was higher than anticipated.

Dr. Robert Smiley, Graduate School of Management coordinator, emphasized that the program improves every year based on open dialogue and input from students. Sometimes suggestions were taken to heart the day they were made; computer cords were provided, tweaks were made in the curriculum midstream and Smiley and his staff went out of their way to make attendees feel they were a part of shaping the program's value.

There is no doubt that $4,800 is a lot to pay for a four-day professional seminar. That would buy a winery staff member a year of ASEV, Unified Symposia and Vinquiry seminars and, for many people, lodging and the plane tickets to get there as well. The UC-Davis Graduate School of Management's Wine Executive Program is no "Using Micro-ox in the Winery" or "Identifying the Vine Mealybug," however. The Wine Executive Program amply fulfills its mandate to provide a unique opportunity for wine industry leaders to come together in an intensive, collaborative and professionally intimate environment. Attendees leave the program with a better understanding of wine industry financial strategies, better equipped to evaluate threats to their organizations and especially to take advantage of the unique opportunities in today's increasingly global, competitive and dynamic industry.

Download the entire 2007 program at www.wineexecutiveprogram.com. While you're there, you can sign up for the 2008 Wine Executive Program, slated for March 9-13, 2008, before it sells out. wbm

2008 UC Davis Wine Executive Program Details
When: March 9-13, 2008
Where: Sacramento, CA
Now accepting applications. Visit www.wineexecutiveprogram.com  for details.

Contact Information:
UC Davis Wine Executive Program c/o Graduate School of Management, One Shields Avenue, AOB IV, Davis, CA 95616, Tel: 530-754-6450, info@wineexecutiveprogram.com, www.wineexecutiveprogram.com

UC Davis Graduate School of Management,  University of California, Davis One Shields Avenue Davis, CA 95616, develop@gsm.ucdavis.edu,  www.gsm.ucdavis.edu