3/20/07 Jeffrey Sampler

Ten Commandments for Competing in Turbulent Times

How to build a robust, future-focused business that has the flexibility to deal with any situation.

With his sleeves rolled up, Jeffrey Sampler has worked on strategy initiatives around the world as, among other things, director of Daimler Benz's executive education program on strategic planning; an advisor to the presidents of Nokia and Yahoo!Europe; and a consultant to the government of Dubai.

He's also stood back and thought about what strategy really means in today's international business climate: he's taught at MIT and the Tuck School and served on university faculties in London, Paris, and Budapest. He's currently Fellow of Strategy and Technology at Oxford and a sought-after consultant and speaker.

He sums up his core message in a few words: "Be quick or be dead." The technologies that can make or break a business virtually overnight are unpredictable, and the advantages any technology provides can be fleeting, easily imitated by competitors. What makes all the difference is executing a business model that fluidly exploits opportunities, dodges threats, and defeats competitors, and then moves smoothly into the next opportunities and challenges.

From his experience he'll show you the ten practical steps for creating the only kind of company that can thrive in tomorrow's marketplace: one that can reinvent itself at the pace of technology.