This collaboration is designed to strengthen closely held businesses and provide support at every step of the business life cycle. The goal of the Center is to provide business owners and key personnel with timely and valuable information through a series of educational programs on relevant business topics.

While there is a fee for premier events, most topics are free as is Center membership. Membership is available to entrepreneurs, families in business, and strategic level executives with closely held firms, and offers opportunities for professional, personal, and business growth.

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• Lifelong Learning
  Thought-provoking programs that have immediate impact on your business through the Member Education Program Series

• Affordability
  Cost effective professional development conducted by national and regional experts

• Networking
  In addition to learning from the experts, members have the opportunity to learn from each other through shared experiences

The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership also provides the services provided below:

Alvernia focuses on real-world, experimental learning opportunities and incorporates this approach into nearly every degree program through hands- on learning. Our learn by doing approach will nurture and develop the skillsets that organizations look for in their employees.

Our corporate partnerships receive exclusive preferred tuition pricing for employees who enroll in our School of Graduate and Adult Education degree programs. This preferred pricing is offered in addition to any employer tuition reimbursement assistance.

Alvernia’s Professional Development Programs start with understanding the “why”. Understanding the core values and the development path for your staff Is key to providing the best training solution to meet your needs. Our team of talented faculty will engage your executive leadership teams in developing customizable programs within our core curriculum to address your specific challenges.

Within our core leadership program offering, our team will work with you to customize these topics and more to find the development solutions that best suit your needs. Our leadership development program is offered in the following modules:

• Leaders vs. Managers
• Core Values and Ethical Grounding: “Getting the right results, the right way”
• Enhancing Decision- Making through Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
• Managing Change, Organizational and People Development: “Leading a culture of change”
  • As well as:
    • Creating & Leading High Performing Teams
    • Leading and Managing People
    • Leading Organizational Change
    • Strategic Decision Making
    • Persuasive Communication: The Art & Science of Selling Ideas
    • Conflict Management
    • Consultive Selling: Sales for Non-Sales Roles

Thinking it through, a university and a partner.

The business world demands well-prepared leadership and comprehensive planning to succeed, and our business education and services programs can help you grow your people and your enterprise. We offer business education, consulting and research services, and we can customize programs for your company or organization to meet your specific needs and even conduct them onsite at your location.

We help with:

• Leadership Development: Empowering future leaders and managers.
  Developing leadership and management skills for key employees delivers tremendous strategic value to the companies that invest in it. Our many programs teach the principles of leadership and other important skills to build future leaders and managers for your organization. Subject areas include:
  • Core values and ethical grounding.
  • Evolving company culture.
  • Developing a culture of accountability.
  • Decision-making essentials.
• Workforce Skills: Developing critical capacities for your employees.
  Improving soft skills can have a significant effect on employee and management effectiveness, team building, and morale. We offer training programs that can be customized to your business needs, including:
  • Communication skills.
  • Conflict resolution training.
  • Financial Literacy.

• Strategic Planning: Creating a blueprint for business success.
  Every business is unique, and we believe strategic planning should adapt to each one’s needs. Our strategic planning services are provided by Alvernia business professors who are both subject matter experts and private sector strategic planning consultants. We offer a no-fee needs assessment and then develop a planning process recommendation that is tailored to your exact requirements. Our services often include internal communications consulting to encourage an open and productive environment for the planning process.

• Market Research Planning: Finding answers to tough questions.
  We offer market research services that can help you gain a better understanding of your customers’ needs, and how to shape an ideal customer experience. Our services include surveys, interviews, and focus group research conducted by faculty and graduate students with a deep knowledge of business and research best practices.

• Custom Programs: Tailoring resources to your unique needs
  We customize many of our training and education programs to the specifics of individual businesses. This can range from examining the core values of a company, to working with specifics such as gross margin and cost of goods., to facilitating concrete solutions that move beyond theory and into everyday practice. To minimize disruption of the work process, our training programs can be delivered in shorter half-day sessions or even at lunch breaks to shorten downtime.

• High-Quality Content and Faculty Instruction
  Our faculty have real world business experience and help leaders and managers focus on core business elements such as ROI, process, and profitability. Alvernia is an accredited university, and many of our business education courses each credit towards post- graduate degrees. Our combination of high- quality content and experienced faculty helps us provide strategic value to companies throughout the region.

• For Businesses Large and Small
  We provide services to a wide range of companies, but many are small- to middle- market companies that are looking to grow into new markets or take new changes. In addition, many privately- held companies have used our consulting and education programs to facilitate transition of ownership from one generation to the next.

Reach out to schedule an appointment with us to discuss any specific training sessions we can offer.

Don Schalk
Director of Business and Corporate Development
(484)-254-2127
donald.schalk@alvernia.edu