Conference Summary

Seeing Differently: Improving the Ability of Organizations to Anticipate and Respond to the Constantly Changing Needs of Customers and Markets

This report summarizes the key points from a conference on "Seeing Differently: Improving the Ability of Organizations to Anticipate and Respond to the Constantly Changing Needs of Customers and Markets," held on February 18-19, 1993, in Philadelphia, PA.

The intent of this conference was to encourage research on the topic of enhancing organizations' abilities to learn about and respond to changing customer needs and markets with an emphasis on making better decisions faster.

To stimulate research on organizational learning, the Planning Forum's Research and Education Foundation is sponsoring a competition for the best research proposals, and the Marketing Science Institute and the Huntsman Center for Global Competition and Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania jointly sponsored this conference. The conference brought together executives and academics to help researchers in their efforts to understand "real-world" concerns so chat they can develop specific proposals to address those issues.

• Keynote Address: Seeing Differently
  John Seely Brown, Vice President, Xerox Corporation, and Director of Palo Alto Research Center

• The Organization Design of Flexible, Global, Continually Learning Organizations
  Arie Y. Lewin, Professor of Business Administration and Sociology, Duke University

• Amplifying the Voice of the Customer: Challenges and Research Opportunities
  Vince Barabba, Executive in Charge, Business Decision Center, General Motors Corporation

• Panel Discussion: Issues and Research Needs
  Liam Fahey, Babson College
  George Day, University of Pennsylvania
  Rohit Deshpandé, Dartmouth College

• Break-out Discussion Groups
  George Day, University of Pennsylvania
  Liam Fahey, Babson College
  Arie Lewin, Duke University
  Rick Staelin, Duke University
  Peter Palij, Columbia University

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