April Meeting Creativity Consortium
Mining Ideas using Anticipatory Management Tools
Date: April 29, 1998
Topic-the need for Anticipatory Management-5 tools for spotting corporate
blind spots (blind-spotting), competitive intelligence and mining ideas and
opportunities
The turbulent 80's and 90's have caused business to question and
re-evaluate its very strategy, culture, structure and purpose. The
traditional drivers of success in previously protected domestic markets,
have in many cases turned into inhibitors of success. In this new, dynamic,
unbalanced marketplace not only are the rules changing every day, but
shifting circumstances create new unimagined success factors.
The steel, plastics and glass industries once existed peacefully in
isolated markets, serving largely different clients. In financial services,
banks never competed directly with insurance or stock brokerage firms for
the same customer dollar. Today this has changed. In the future these
distinct boundaries between industries is likely to blur even further.
Sudden, unexpected technology advances and deregulation is rapidly changing
the rules, the game and the field of play. Canadian companies now compete
globally against businesses that have inherent human and natural resource
advantages, protective law and taxation policies, exist in less opulent and
simpler lifestyles and have possible greater economic clout.
To compete in the future, Canadian business must out-think and
out-anticipate its competitors, if they want to out-perform them.. Yet the
paradox as stated by Gary Hammel in recent issues of Harvard Business
Review and Sloan Management Review is that the strategic planning
discipline has a "dirty little secret"-according to Hammel. It does not
have a theory on how ones develops strategic thinking capabilities or how
one creates or finds new opportunities.
Walter Derzko, Director of Brain Space (formerly the Idea Lab at the Design
Exchange in Toronto) presents 5 tools developed and refined by the I-Lab to
help entrepreneurs, managers and executives develop their anticipatory
management insights. He will explore the benefits and applications of
surfacing and challenging assumptions, environmental scanning, opportunity
clinics and audits, and idea cultivation and harvesting.
Bryan Davis, Director of the Kaiter Institute for Knowledge Management will
explore the growing use of intelligent agents on the internet.
For the workshop session, a company will be randomly selected from all the
attendants in the room and given the opportunity to experience the I-Lab
process for their industry. Everyone in the room will collectively
participate in the I-Lab process to generate ideas and opportunities
on-demand for the selected firm.
Date & Location: Wednesday April 29th
Ontario Club, 30 Wellington St West; 5th floor Commerce Court South,
Toronto, Ontario Canada. Registration, networking cocktails, cash bar,
finger foods 6:15 pm. Lecture and workshop 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm.
Advance tickets (prior to Friday, April 25)
$30 members; $40 guests; reservations and cancellations will be accepted
until April 24th. If you reserve and do not attend you will be invoiced.
At the Door
$40 for all tickets
For reservations call the Creativity Consortium at (416) 588-1122 before
April 24th
Walter Derzko
Director Brain Space
(formerly the Idea Lab at
the Design Exchange)
Toronto
(416) 588-1122
wderzko@pathcom.com