The Flatter Business World Ahead - Inertial Forces and Inevitable Trends that are Transforming Business and Redefining Work

Consulting Futurist David Pearce Snyder plugs the latest government and industry forecasts into Thomas Friedman's best-selling The World Is Flat, to produce a dramatic 10-year scenario of the future U.S. business operating environment, that will include not only "flatter" trade barriers, but flatter organizational charts and career ladders, flatter inflation and internet rates, and flatter wage and employment growth.

Just as author Friedman argues, in order to compete successfully on the newly-level playing fields of the flat global electronic marketplace, it will be necessary for business in the U.S. (and other mature industrial economies) to make aggressively innovative and transformational uses of information technology (IT) in every aspect of their operations. Mr. Snyder will conclude his Briefing with a review of current literature, reporting improvements in business performance through organizational restructuring, process re-engineering and job redesign made possible by newly-mature IT.

Learning Outcomes:

- What, exactly, does Thomas Friedman mean by "flattening?" Specifically, what are the 5 different dimensions by which the world of business is becoming measurably flatter, and how fast is it happening?
- In practical terms, what will Friedman's "Great Sorting Out" mean for U.S. business?
- What are the 10 specific uses of the Internet that are making enterprise flatter?
- What are 3 different ways in which individual enterprises are becoming flatter?
- What are the 4 hallmarks of a successful flaw-world enterprise?

Presenters:

David Pearce Snyder
Consulting Futurist
The Snyder Family Enterprise

David Pearce Snyder is a data-based forecaster whose thousands of seminars and workshops on strategic thinking have been attended by representatives from most of the Fortune 500 companies, local and federal government agencies, educational institutions and trade associations. Before entering private practice as a consulting futurist in 1981, Mr. Snyder was Chief of Information Systems, and later, Senior Planning Officer for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, where he designed and managed the IRS Strategic Planning System. He was also a consultant to the RAND Corporation, and served as an instructor for the Federal Executive Institute, and for Congressional and White House staff development programs.

Mr. Snyder has published hundreds of studies, articles and reports on the specific future of a wide range of U.S. institutions, industries and professions, and on the socio-economic impacts of new technologies. He is the editor/co-author of five books, including Future Forces and a sequel, America in the 1990s, both published by the American Society of Association Executives. He has appeared on Nightline, the Today Show, CNN, MSNBC, and the BBC World Service.

Continuing Education:

- This is a CEU presentation. Earn 0.15 CEU credits for attending. For a list of organizations accepting this CEU, please visit http://www.iacet.org/content/accepting-ceus.html /resources/accept_ ceu.htm.
- This Program has been approved for 1.5 CM Continuing Education Credits. Please visit www.icpm.biz for more information.