About the Course:

Headlines throughout the nation are replete with companies that have lost revenues, customers, and shareholder value as a result of failing to assess their risks. Neglecting to take an occasional retreat to assess challenges that are on the horizon has cost thousands of companies existing business, opportunities, time, and market position. In too many cases, being remiss in detecting enterprise risk proves fatal.

Business leaders must assess how demographics, legislation, competition, new technologies, special interest groups and regulations will impact their companies’ future. Forward-thinking executives must project how cross-industry developments and changes in buying behaviors, and marketing initiatives will affect access to distribution channels. Successful executives must determine how exogenous factors will impact their firms’ access to credit, access to talent, and access to supplies.

This seminar takes a non-mathematical approach to risk management. This course presents case studies and provides the attendees with a coherent framework for developing a future-focused and proactive competitive intelligence initiative.

Issues to be addressed include best practices for:

• Collecting and synthesizing data
• Building an intelligence team
• Detecting blind spots
• Constructing a “future intelligence system”
• Going beyond media hype to determine potential risk
• Taking a systems approach to look beyond the obvious threats to a business model
• Creating a strategic discussion through implications analysis
• Using multiple scenarios to enhance decision making
• Trend analysis
• Scenario generation

About the Instructor:

Eric Garland ( Principal, Competitive Futures, Inc.) is a professional futurist, expert in competitive intelligence, and author of “Future Inc.: How Businesses Can Anticipate and Profit from the Future.” He guides executives in business and government to see the threats and opportunities of tomorrow by studying trends of society and technology. His clients include a wide range of Global 1000 companies and government agencies.

Course Schedule:

Course Length: Approx. 7 hours
Time: 8:30 am – 5:00 pm

Grand Rapids, MI - December 21, 2010 - Location:
JW Marriott Hotel
235 Louis Street NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Time: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM

Seating is Limited to 25 per session

Register online or by contacting

Registration / Membership Coordinator,

at 609-919-1895 ext. 100 or registration@bdacademy.com