S 02 | Ep 24 From Wharton to Amazon : Business Model Innovation in Action Serguei Netessine , Senior Vice Dean of Innovation at the Wharton School and Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship , brings a rare combination of academic rigor and real - world application to this conversation . As an Amazon Scholar and active venture investor , he has spent years studying what separates companies that successfully reinvent themselves from those that quietly stagnate . Serguei walks through two of Wharton ' s newer initiatives , the Global Youth Program targeting students ages 15 to 19 and Wharton Academy , a non - degree offering for undergraduates and working professionals seeking short - form business education . Both reflect a broader shift he sees away from traditional degree programs toward stackable , skills - based credentials . The conversation gets into the mechanics of business model innovation , where Serguei argues that most large organizations lack any structured process for it and that culture , not technology , is the primary obstacle to change . He shares observations from his work at Amazon , including published research on the economic impact of fulfillment centers on local communities .