Corporate Survival Kit: Preview
September 13 - 16, 2008
Pinehurst Resort
One Carolina Vista Drive
Village of Pinehurst, NC 28374
(910) 235-8507
www.pinehurst.com
Registration Deadline: August 4, 2008
Preview
In an uncertain economy the typical knee-jerk reaction is to slash discretionary spending and restructure the company to do more with less. But some view turmoil as an opportunity to position their firms for rapid growth when the economy turns. Your future, and that of your company, hinge on making the right decisions.
This DiamondExchange offers a survival kit to help you navigate through today's uncertainty - a dodgy economy, the presidential election, rising oil and food prices, and global political instability. By the end of the session, your toolkit will include:
- An understanding of the seven major strategic mistakes seasoned executives commonly make - and guidelines for how to avoid them;
- A roadmap for where and how to invest during turbulent times, based on new research conducted by Diamond;
- Understanding the role of innovation in propelling your company out of the slump;
- Renewed focus from a brief respite from the day to day pressures of the business - a few days where you can sit back and think; and
- Relationships with a network of peers and advisors you can continue to call on.
We will begin on Sunday morning by celebrating the launch of Billion Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last Twenty-Five Years, a book by Paul Carroll and Diamond Fellow Chunka Mui which makes its debut on September 11. Paul and Chunka will share what they have learned as they researched 2,500 multi-million (and billion) dollar mistakes that business leaders have made over the past twenty-five years. They found seven common strategic mistakes and have practical advice on how to avoid them.
Braced by this new knowledge, we will turn on Monday to the tricky issue of deciding where, and where not, to cut spending in this economic downturn. Diamond has extensive experience helping companies decide where to trim and where not to, and we will share with you our new research - currently underway - on what makes companies successful during uncertain times. Together, we will examine how to balance cost-cutting with investing during a downturn, and how to find creative ways to fund vital projects. We will also hear from some seasoned executives about how they approach making these tradeoffs during a tough economy.
We will then turn to address geo-political risk to get our bearings on where the market is headed. Diamond Fellow Marvin Zonis (professor emeritus of the Political Economy at the Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago) will close the day by sharing his view of where the U.S. currently stands in the world - and how we are all likely to be affected in the future by a rising China, high oil prices, the war in Iraq, and the upcoming presidential election. Marvin has a long history of making accurate predictions about world events, so his insights are likely to provide us all with valuable guidance.
On Tuesday, we will discuss the importance of innovation, and how companies can take advantage of the current market turbulence to improve their positions. John Kao, author of Innovation Nation: How America is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back, will discuss the importance of innovation - which he calls "the new currency of global competition." We will close our DiamondExchange with a panel discussion of all our speakers, tying together the themes of the session - avoiding mistakes, investing wisely, and encouraging innovation.
Learn to not only survive but prosper during this period of uncertainty. If you have any doubt about where the economy is headed or how to proceed, this DiamondExchange can help you navigate your company's future more effectively. Come join our conversation!
