July TLA Meeting 07/24

TLA July 24th Meeting Announcement

Technology Leaders Association (TLA) was established to help senior level IT executives develop and manage their careers. As part of this effort, we hold monthly meetings to network, share ideas, and learn from featured guest speakers in the career management field.

Think back - what is it that you wish you knew three years ago that you know today? Why didn't we see more clearly what is happening to us right now? Would that information have driven different business or personal decisions? Now, look ahead. Despite the many data points, analyses, and research that describe what is happening today, a company’s current strategy or business model may no longer be relevant in 5, 3, or even in 1 year. Addressing these critical issues is the focus of Managing Uncertainty’s presentation at the TLA July meeting.

Steve Hirshfeld a Director of Managing Uncertainty (and former VP of Corporate Strategy and Business Development at Honeywell) (www.managinguncertainty.com)
will describe the forces and complex interdependencies that are redefining the basis of competition as the economic crisis has been a wake-up call to the reality of global integration. Steve will use examples to engage the audience in how we help clients unfreeze their strategic thinking and uncover ways to succeed in the future. New market spaces such as the “seniorpreneur”, the “aerotopolis”, the blurring of health and wellness companies blurring, and the emergence of the emerging country competitor represent the type of examples to be addressed.

Here are some points to consider for our session:

• Don’t focus on the narrow “problem” but the larger context that sets everything in place
• Put yourself in a true outsider’s perspective so you can entertain real alternatives
• Find the “inconsequential” game changers earlier and start to explore them
• Take advantage of overlooked resources as we have more assets than we think
• Inaction is the greatest risk of all- out of sight does not mean out of trouble
• Understand your biggest bankruptcy threat is lack of new ideas, not your balance sheet.

Date: Friday, July 24th
Where: IBM’s Oak Brook Terrace office (2 Lincoln Centre) – see directions below
Cost: No charge

Special thanks to TLA member and IBM employee George Shanine for hosting us this month.

As a special facilities note, all TLA members must be escorted throughout the IBM facility. Please do not leave the conference room without an escort.

For reservations, (1) Please sign up online on the TLA website (www.techleaders.net) under ‘Events’ – or, if you don’t have access to the website, (2) Please reply to Patrick.Moroney@gmail.com with your name and telephone number.

Reservations must be made before 5pm on Thursday, July 23rd with the first 80 reservations accepted. No walk-ins please.

For location information: Contact Jim Anfield at jdanfield@illinoisalumni.org.

Directions
From the West - Take I-88 East and exit at Highland Avenue. Stay in the center lane until after the toll booth and turn left. Keep to the right crossing over the highway and turn right on Butterfield Road. Proceed east approximately 1 1/2 miles to Meyers Road. The Oakbrook Terrace office is approximately 1/2 mile ahead on the left in the Com Ed building. Turn left on Trans Am Plaza Drive and take a quick right into the parking garage attached to 2 Lincoln Centre.

From the North or South - Take North/South Tollway (I-355) to Butterfield Road East exit. Proceed east on Butterfield Road approximately 2 miles to Meyers Road. The Oak Brook Terrace office is approximately 1/2 mile ahead on the left in the Com Ed building. Turn left on Trans Am Plaza Drive and take a quick right into the parking garage attached to 2 Lincoln Centre.

From the East - Take I-294 (Tri-State Tollway) to the East/West Tollway (I-88). Take I-88 West (Route 83 North/Cermak Road) exit. Turn left (west) at the end of the exit ramp, on 22nd Street (Cermak Road). Proceed on 22nd Street approximately 3 miles to the stop light at 22nd and Butterfield. The Oakbrook Terrace office is approximately 1/4 mile ahead on the right in the Com Ed building (you'll see Com Ed at top of bldg). Turn right on Trans Am Plaza Drive and another quick right into the parking garage attached to 2 Lincoln Centre.

IBM’s Oak Brook office has an attached parking garage that all guests can park in. When you arrive at the building, let the security guard know you are attending the meeting in conference room 1D & 1E. All guests will have to sign in at the desk.

Agenda
7:00am – 7:15am Check-in and coffee
7:15am – 8:30am Structured networking – two table rounds
8:30am – 8:40am Announcements
8:40am – 9:30am Steve Hirshfeld
9:30am Adjourn

Structured Networking
Structured networking is a technique used at most major executive transition groups. It is meant to be a powerful method of generating ideas that might help each of our searches. During this process, we will quickly brainstorm potential job lead ideas, gain networking contacts at desired companies, and generate advice from the members by sharing our backgrounds as well as our career objectives. It is designed to generate ideas, but given the time constraints, not get into immediate detailed discussions. You should plan on following up with anybody who may have had an interesting idea or a good contact.
Please bring business cards, handbills (career overview) or resumes (plain paper is fine) to pass around if you have them. Figure on about 20 copies of the resumes/handbills and 50 business cards.
We will run our networking, dividing the room into small tables of a maximum of 8 people and doing 2 table rotations before our speaker begins. At each rotation, you will have 90 seconds for your pitch and about 90 seconds for Q&A. Spend no more than 1/3 summarizing your past (this is not the time to rehash your resume), then spend about 1/3 on what you are looking for and 1/3 on what we can do to help (such as target contacts) or ask for advice on an issue.

Speaker Bio – Steve Hirshfeld
Steve Hirshfeld helped establish Managing Uncertainty in 2003, a futures oriented firm focused on helping major global corporations create the foresight needed to master uncertainty in times of rapid global change and industry transformation. He works with clients to reinvent their strategic planning process, launch new businesses, and integrate strategy with financial, operational and people systems. Steve has expertise in a wide range of industries including manufacturing, retail, consumer, technology, healthcare, food & beverage, and energy in the United States, Europe and Asia. He heads their Disruptive Events Assessment Program (DEAP) that helps companies unearth unexpected patterns that could impact their business in both the near and longer term, before those patterns are clear to anyone else. Once those patterns are identified, he works with clients to activate innovative growth initiatives.

Prior to Managing Uncertainty, Steve spent 24 years at Honeywell. He served as the company’s Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development and led its strategic planning process. He was the company’s advocate and architect of new ideas and market opportunities. He managed its Corporate GROW Program. In the late 1990’s, Steve led Honeywell’s Corporate Transformation Initiative for the 21st Century called “Vision 2005+, which has been benchmarked for its innovativeness and impact on a company’s future strategic direction. Early in his career Steve ran a section of Honeywell’s R&D labs. Earlier Steve was a research scientist in a US government research lab and a college professor.

Steve has worked extensively in the area of innovation. He recently published an article in the Journal of Business Strategy on the use of jazz behaviors as a way to support business strategy renewal and innovation. Steve has a B.A. in Mathematics from Rutgers University (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa), and an M.A. in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and Measurement from the University of Minnesota.