What is strategy and how do we think about it? Why does management strategy matter to senior executives? What can each functional leader add to the strategy process? This highly interactive opening address will look at how boards of high-performance companies apply management strategy. Using a Fortune 100 company as an example, this session will provide an opportunity to generate ideas on how to turn around an industrial giant. Dr. Schrager will have attendees read an unusual letter from a CEO to understand what it means to look for solutions and develop your role as a corporate leader in management strategy

This panel of senior executives will candidly examine the ways in which select strategic changes can prepare your organization for growth opportunities as the business environment picks up again. Panelists will address the challenges and tensions that arise as they attempt to reconcile the competing demands of tending to their function’s priorities and contributing to higher-order, enterprise-wide objectives. The discussion will also focus on the tradeoffs between short-term decisions to address today’s pressing challenges versus longer term planning to retain a competitive edge coming out of the economic downturn.

James Braselton, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Lafarge North America

Bappa Choudhury, Vice President, Segment Management, Global Solutions, Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.

Jim Kissinger, Executive Vice President of Human Resources, YRC Worldwide, Inc.; Former Chief Human Resources Officer, Sprint Nextel

Moderator: Scott Bohannon, PhD, General Manager, Finance and Strategy Division, Corporate Executive Board

The age of data resources has quickly brought us to an age of information overload. The trouble is not only that information overload creates confusion, but also that the wide variety of data points available to us have conflicting implications, and there seem to be no friendly vehicles to use in discerning which information is the most relevant. Our enormous data resources are doing us no favors when they paralyze our decision making. Learn how to weed through the volume to extract the key pieces of data that will enable leaders to make decisions with both speed and accuracy.

David Apgar, Director, Investment and Risk Strategy, BlueOrchard Finance; Author, Relevance: Hitting Your Goals by Knowing What Matters

Pat LaPointe, Founder and Managing Partner, MarketingNPV

Ginger Whelan, PhD, Industrial and Organizational Psychology Consultant, Performance Associates Inc.

Moderator: John Roberts, PhD, Managing Director, Leadership Academies, Corporate Executive Board

Everyday our businesses make countless decisions based on our expectations of future events, be they predicted sales numbers, commodity costs, or customer behavior. Yet we struggle to meaningfully develop accurate information about those future events. This session will look at how successful companies identify, aggregate, and analyze the most accurate information on the future through the use of prediction markets. These cutting-edge forecasting techniques leverage the proverbial “wisdom of crowds” to improve decision making across the enterprise.

Mat Fogarty, CEO, Xpree Expert Predictions; Former Director, Corporate Financial Planning, Electronic Arts

Nathan Kontny, Co-Founder, Inkling Markets

Moderator: Avi Alpert, Research Director, Controllers' Leadership Roundtable, Corporate Executive Board

The session will highlight leading practices for identifying and conducting due diligence on potential acquisition targets in order to help ensure smoother integration and strategic fit throughout the acquisition process.  As economic predictions change for the worse, the panel will examine which practices are most relevant for promoting and protecting growth. 

Penney Boyd, Director, HR Strategies, First Advantage Corporation

Steve Burke, Director, M&A Integration, Intel Corporation

Mark Herndon, President, Parkwood Advisors, LLC; Author, The Complete Guide to Mergers and Acquisitions

Moderator: Jesse Levin, Managing Director, Corporate Strategy and Development, Corporate Executive Board

Gain insight into the priorities and considerations of senior procurement executives as they steer their organizations’ operations and sourcing strategy to reflect current economic constraints. Learn how to partner effectively with your procurement team to maximize value in your supply chain while remaining flexible enough to seize new opportunities in a changing business environment. .

Price Marr, Manager, Strategic Sourcing, Ameren Corporation

Joanna Martinez, Chief Procurement Officer, Alliance Bernstein L.P.

Raymond Schlaff,Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer, Owens-Illinois, Inc.

Moderator: Brian Powilatis, Managing Director, Procurement Strategy Council, Corporate Executive Board

This session will showcase best practices in hardwiring customer-informed decision making across corporate functions. True customer focus that enables your organization to differentiate itself from competitors goes beyond identifying and understanding priority segments: it requires galvanizing the entire organization around high-return customer opportunities.

Elijah Murphy, Senior Director, Marketing Leadership Council, Corporate Executive Board

A cross-functional session dedicated to the tools that effectively link IT to business strategy and financial management in order to produce effective, actionable strategies for bottom-line results. The session will identify where a company can focus efforts to produce maximum results in the planning, prioritization, alignment, and assessment of an IT budget, while improving IT’s bottom-line impact.

Robert Benson, Principal, The Beta Group; Co-Author, From Business Strategy to IT Action

Thomas Bugnitz, President, The Beta Group; Co-Author, From Business Strategy to IT Action

Moderator: Avi Alpert, Research Director, Controllers' Leadership Roundtable, Corporate Executive Board

World-class HR leadership requires flexibility, innovation, and the ability to reorganize workforce capabilities around a drastically new corporate strategy as mandated by the board or the CEO. Often, HR leaders and senior managers fail to recognize how changes in corporate strategy not only impact the product, but inherently challenge the viability of the existing HR strategy and approach to talent management. This session will identify key approaches for evaluating whether a change in the external environment or corporate strategy warrants “re-thinking” HR strategy and how to determine what those changes should be.

Dr. John Sullivan, Professor of Management, San Francisco State University College of Business; Former Chief Talent Officer, Agilent

Moderator: Peter Freire, General Manager, Human Resources Division, Corporate Executive Board

One of the most consistent challenges that organizations cite is increasing sales force capacity and productivity. In a dramatically changing economic environment, sales force effectiveness becomes an acute enterprise-wide challenge as senior executives across the organization jointly determine how to meet revenue and profitability objectives. Learn how to identify and quantify the barriers to productivity, calculate the dollar value of sales rep time, and effectively unlock the productivity potential of your sales force.

Alex Gershman, Director, Sales Executive Council Solutions, Corporate Executive Board

Simon Frewer, Senior Engagement Manager, Sales Executive Council Solutions, Corporate Executive Board

A Taste of Chicago
Networking Cocktail Reception

Vista Room A

Join us for a reception hosted by CEB’s Corporate Leadership Team, celebrating Chicago’s different flavors and unique jazz sounds.
Expand your learning on conference topics and gain further insights from your peers in an informal, relaxed setting.

“Generation Y”—those born between 1978 and 1994—are increasingly becoming the talent we need to establish sustainable competitive advantage in the market place. But how can we properly manage this generation if we do not understand them? A Gen Y’er himself, Peter Sheahan has worked with more than 100,000 members of this generation in workshops, seminars, and focus groups, and his client list includes Google, News Corporation America, L’Oreal, AECOM, Borders, and Ernst & Young. He will draw on these experiences and the collective research he collates from around the world to discuss how to better attract, manage, and retain this generation in our organizations.

Nightcap

Vista Room A

Close out the first day with evening refreshments and music immediately following the keynote address and dinner.

Today’s challenges demand both functional excellence and a firm understanding of the drivers of tomorrow’s business climate. Join Dr. Greenspan for a conversation about how economic conditions are affecting short and long-term corporate decision making.

This session will showcase companies who successfully put in place decision rules to establish their need for customization, and offer advice on how to make the most of standardized IT applications. Practitioners will share perspectives on walking the fine line between desired and needed functionality while balancing budget realities.

Matthew Karlyn, Associate, Foley and Lardner LLP

Tom Pisello, CEO, Alinean

Scott Rosenberg, CEO, Miro Consulting

Moderator: Deborah Goldberg, Practice Manager, Infrastructure Performance Improvement Lab, Corporate Executive Board

Your organization’s employees are its most important asset, but how can you help drive productivity in an atmosphere of cost-cutting? In this session, learn how to create a culture of recognition that inspires employee performance despite the threat of a recession.

Brian Gareau, Manager, Organizational Effectiveness and Engagement, Caterpillar, Inc.

Bob Nelson, PhD, President, Nelson Motivation, Inc.; External Consultant, Maritz; Author, 1001 Ways to Reward Employees

Michelle Smith, CPIM, CRP, Vice President, Business Development, O.C. Tanner Company

Moderator: Leah Johnson, Senior Director, Corporate Leadership Council, Corporate Executive Board

Structuring your business around key industry segments alone is insufficient to accelerate sales without a sound understanding of your customers’ long-term revenue potential and their fit with your company’s strategy and core capabilities. This session will feature a best practice for assessing the revenue opportunity and strategic fit of potentially attractive customer segments.

Thomas Insprucker, Vice President, Marketing, Schneider Electric - North American Operating Division

Moderator: Molly Maycock, Executive Director, Marketing and Communications Practice, Corporate Executive Board

Change management plans vary with IT implementation. With increased change management planning, organizations shorten implementation cycles, increase buy-in, and reduce consulting engagement costs, focusing on the IT changes that truly add value to the organization.

Jason Averbook, CEO, Knowledge Infusion

Kristin Cooke, Senior Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton Consulting

Karen Wilson, Director, Washington Federal Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Moderator: Mohamed Elansary, Director, Information Technology, Corporate Executive Board

Attracting the right talent is an essential struggle for any function in a growing organization. However, most organizations don’t adapt their strategies to compensate for an economic slowdown. This session will discuss the key decisions that matter most to talent attraction during a recession, so your function can prioritize its efforts and attract talent more efficiently.

Donald Breckenridge, Jr., President and CEO, Sendouts

Barbara Bruno, CPC, Good as Gold Training and Development, Inc.

Moderator: Leah Johnson, Senior Director, Corporate Leadership Council, Corporate Executive Board

Knowing who to influence is part of the key to long-term success with your most profitable customer segments; the other component to success is knowing how to influence them. At scale, customer engagements through traditional sales or partner channels can create backlash perceptions or miss emerging audience needs. Sustaining a scalable audience engagement approach can both compensate for the resistance and accelerate new product adoption cycles. Learn about Microsoft’s progressive approach to audience marketing and the resulting long-term relationship building strategy with influencer segments..

Michael Alcock, Director, Content, Community and Evangelism Programs, Microsoft Corporation

Moderator: Molly Maycock, Executive Director, Marketing and Communications Practice, Corporate Executive Board

Very few large companies manage to avoid stalls in revenue growth. These stalls, the vast majority of which are the direct result of strategic choices made by corporate leaders, are not attributable to the natural business cycle. In short, stoppages in growth are almost always avoidable. Derek van Bever will present his extensive research on the growth experiences of more than six hundred Fortune 1000 companies over the past fifty years to identify why growth stalls and to discover how to rectify a stall in progress or, even better, avoid one altogether.