WEBINAR


presents

John Hagel III
FAST Strategy

May 9, 2007
11:00am -12:30 pm EST
Register Now >>

Just how well do conventional approaches
to business strategy work?

The Death of Traditional "Strategy"

Let's look at the fundamental measure of performance - survival.

Everyone knows that the survival rate of new start-ups is vanishingly small. But even if we just focus on the largest, most successful companies in the largest, most prosperous economy in the world, the performance record is alarming.

Over the last sixty years, the average lifetime of
companies on the S&P 500 list has declined
by 80%, from 75 years to 15 years.

Clearly, traditional approaches to business strategy are broken, even at the most fundamental level of survival.

It's time to ask:
"What if everything you learned
about business strategy is WRONG?"

Let's face it. The basic principles of traditional strategy - the principles still taught at most business schools and company executive education programs - are wrong:

Introducing
FAST Strategy

There is a pervasive trend business today, described by many as the tyranny of success, in which successful companies face considerable difficulty in maintaining their strength - and their innovative edge - in the face of changing markets, technologies, and consumer demand. It's a worldwide dilemma.

However, if we look at how some of the most successful companies in the world maintain their advantages, we can begin to synthesize a new approach to strategy, an approach that we call FAST strategy.

This approach integrates four elements in an innovative way:

· Focus - building alignment around a long term, five to ten year destination.
· Accelerate - ensuring that the highest impact operational initiatives over the next six to twelve months receive a critical mass of resources
· Strengthen - designing organizational initiatives that can be implemented over a six to twelve month period to address key bottlenecks preventing the firm from moving even more rapidly.
· Tie it together - effectively integrating the first three elements in ways that speed up learning and enhance performance.

The FAST strategy approach respects the need for both near-term performance and longer-term direction, learning and adaptation. It favors incrementalism but recognizes that, without direction, incrementalism will inevitably sub-optimize relative to longer-term opportunities.

Properly executed, FAST strategy provides significant advantages relative to more tempting "big bang" transformational initiatives:

· Provides clear, near-term operational performance metrics to assess progress
· Focuses management on delivery of significant near-term operating results consistent with longer-term direction
· Enhances ability to fund major strategic thrusts by emphasizing the need for tangible returns early – initiatives potentially become self-funding
· Helps to build organizational support for longer-term direction by demonstrating tangible returns quickly while at the same time helping to neutralize opposition
· Accelerates organizational learning by providing clear metrics and creating rapid performance feedback loops
· Strengthens ability to adapt based on new information gained from near-term operational and organizational initiatives

Our FAST strategy webinar is targeted to anyone working to strengthen the performance of the organizations where they work.

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Why You Should Attend

In the old world of top-down strategic planning, this webinar would have been developed for senior corporate and technical executives including:

Executive Vice Presidents
Vice Presidents of Marketing
New Product Development
Research and Development
Human Resources
New Business Development
Chief Information Officers
Chief Technologists
Corporate Strategists
Corporate Planners

And while the FAST strategy principles were first observed in the context of corporate strategy, these principles can be applied successfully at multiple levels:

· business units
· functional groups
· departments
· work groups

Business executives, technologists, academics, policy makers, and anyone interested in business strategy -
you're all invited!

FAST strategy is appropriate for enterprises of all sizes, ranging from start-ups to the largest global corporations, as well as a variety of other institutions, including schools, non-profit organizations and governments.

FAST strategy provides a powerful set of tools for individuals like you to apply in your efforts to achieve greater personal success.

FAST strategy effectively integrates strategic, operational and organizational initiatives into pragmatic programs to deliver near-term performance improvement and longer-term capability building.

Our FAST strategy webinar will provide you with a basic understanding of:

· The need to pursue a different approach to strategy
· The rationale for a new, more effective approach to strategy
· The key components of this new approach to strategy
· The basic tools required to successfully deploy this strategy
· Diagnostic questions to measure progress in deployment of this strategy

Change your organization's trajectory...

The webinar will teach you how to:

· Understand and implement a FAST strategy
· Avoid the pitfalls of conventional approaches to strategic thinking
· Identify your real competitive advantage
· Keep your strategy focused
· Measure your success
· Create a winning strategy for any size of company
· Become the strategic champion in your organization

FAST Strategy can be applied to the following areas:

· Company Strategy
· Innovation
· Branding
· Technology
· Operations
· Mergers & Acquisitions
· Offshoring/Outsourcing

It can even be applied to the personal side of business - your career and your life.

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About John Hagel

John Hagel is an independent management consultant and author focusing on the intersection of business strategy and information technology. He works with senior management of companies around the world to shape business strategies and improve business performance.

Last year, Harvard Business School Press published his new book, The Only Sustainable Edge, co-authored with John Seely Brown. John also wrote the best-selling business books, Net Gain and Net Worth and Out of the Box, which have been translated into twelve languages. John has published seven articles in Harvard Business Review and has published extensively in other business publications including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, McKinsey Quarterly and CIO Magazine.

On John Hagel's latest book, The Only Sustainable Edge, co-authored with John Seely Brown>> "Hagel and Brown’s vision of new innovation processes is compelling—and quite frightening. These disruptive forces will create exciting growth opportunities for the firms that harness them and will ruin those that ignore them." — Clayton Christensen, author, The Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovator’s Solution " ... check out a smart new book by the strategists John Hagel III and John Seely Brown entitled The Only Sustainable Edge. They argue that comparative advantage today is moving faster than ever from structural factors, like natural resources, to how quickly a country builds its distinctive talents for innovation and entrepreneurship - the only sustainable edge." — Tom Friedman, "What, Me Worry?" New York Times "As a practitioner working with global supply chains, I find this book captures the essence of our efforts to orchestrate loosely coupled networks on a global basis. This book is a must-read for all executives seeking to improve the performance of their global supply chain." — Victor Fung, Group Chairman, Li & Fung "Intensifying competition in global markets calls for an effective business strategy. This book introduces fascinating views on how to renew strategic thinking with valuable insights on how to spur innovation and talent development." — Pekka Ala-Pietilä, President, Nokia Corporation "The two great theorists of information technology, John Hagel and John Seely Brown, show the importance of talent development, specialization, connectivity, and coordination. This indispensable book is an absolutely fascinating guide for business leaders." — Walter Isaacson, President, the Aspen Institute and author, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life "The authors brilliantly challenge conventional thinking with a penetrating analysis of the forces shaping the current business environment. This book is both intellectually powerful and downright practical, with straightforward questions and guidelines for business success in the global economy. It will force more than a few executives to rethink their strategies." — Robert D. Hormats, Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs International "In a rapidly evolving global capitalist system, this book is the shortest path to survival and success – it is a bible for the new connected age. It is an absorbing narrative, an acute assessment of the environment, and a must-read for everyone." — Vinod Khosla, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers "The authors document the impact of globalization and provide a roadmap for competitive success through continual cultivation of distinctive capabilities. Their compelling message is relevant for those developing strategies for institutional survival in the private and the public sectors." — William H. Janeway, Vice Chairman, Warburg Pincus LLC "Hagel and Brown brilliantly articulate the stages of evolution for organizations and construct a framework for creating sustainable value through accelerated capability building. This book offers a valuable guide for organizations seeking answers for operating effectively in a borderless world." — K. V. Kamath, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank

From 2000 to 2001, prior to setting up his independent consulting practice, John served as the Chief Strategy Officer for 12 Entrepreneuring, a San Francisco-based operating company focused on building businesses using Web services technology.

Prior to 12 Entrepreneuring, John was a Principal with McKinsey & Company, and a Global Leader of McKinsey's Strategy Practice and Electronic Commerce Practice (which he founded and led from 1993 – 2000). At McKinsey, John spent sixteen years working with a broad range of clients across the world, focusing on strategic management and operational performance improvement using information technology as a key enabler.

Before McKinsey, John served as Senior Vice President for Strategic Planning at Atari, where he played a key role in the turnaround of Atari’s Home Computer Division and the development of Atari’s software business. Prior to Atari, John was Founder and President of Sequoia Group, a systems house selling turnkey computer systems to physicians. This start-up became the largest provider in its vertical market before being sold to MetPath, the largest clinical lab company in the U.S. John began his business career by working as a consultant with Boston Consulting Group.

John is a Forum Fellow at the World Economic Forum and a member of the International Academy of Management. John also has served on the Steering Committee of the Harvard Business School Research Center.

In 2003, Accenture identified John as one of the top 100 business “gurus” in the world. In 1999, Business Week named John one of the 25 most influential people in electronic business and he was designated one of Upside's Elite 100 Most Influential People in the Digital World.

John also received the McKinsey Award for Article of the Year in 1999 for the best article published in Harvard Business Review. His article, Your Next IT Strategy, published in the October 2001 issue of Harvard Business Review, also received the McKinsey Award.

John received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, a graduate degree (B.Phil.) in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from Oxford University and a B.A. in economic history from Wesleyan University.

For more information, visit www.johnhagel.com >>

Register now >> The webinar will be held on May 9, 2007 at 11:00 am EST Yes! I am interested in learning about a radical yet effective approach to strategy. I am taking John Hagel and StrategyWorld.org up on this incredible offer today at the steeply discounted price of $1497.00 which saves me over 40% from the normal retail price. I understand that participating in this webinar on FAST Strategy will give me insights not available elsewhere. [Note from the editor of StrategyWorld.org: John charges over $25,000.00 for a one hour presentation; StrategyWorld.org was fortunate enough to convince John to share his FAST Strategy methodology for the price of a plane ticket.] In addition to the invaluable webinar notes and the Q&A session, all participants will be given access to the following documents by John Hagel after attending the webinar: - Free Access to StrategyWorld.org's FAST Strategy Newsletter with John Hagel in which he answers your questions over the next six months. - Article: "Restoring the Power of Brands" by John Hagel - "Connecting Globalization & Innovation: Some Contrarian Perspectives" by John Hagel and John Seely Brown (Prepared for the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland January 25 – 30, 2006) (PDF) - "Moving from Push to Pull - Emerging Models for Mobilizing Resources" (PDF) by John Hagel and John Seely Brown; offers a preview of some of the research for our next book. - "Interest rates versus innovation rates" (PDF) - by John Hagel an insightful look at how competition is changing in the global marketplace. - "Capturing the Real Value from Offshoring in Asia" (PDF) by John Hagel - "Creation Nets: Harnessing the Potential of Open Innovation" (co-authored with John Seely Brown) - "Funding Invention Vs. Managing Innovation" (co-authored with John Seely Brown) - "Innovation Blowback: Disruptive Management Practices from Asia" (co-authored with John Seely Brown) - Article: "Two Laws for Creating Wealth" [It's not about getting rich quick, but about strategy and your organization] - Paper: "Making IT Strategic: A Response to Nick Carr" by John Hagel Register now >>