HOME > NEWS AND EVENTS > NEWSLETTER > DECEMBER 2009 > SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Special Announcement:

WDC to Launch a New Private Client Network on January 1, 2010

WDC is pleased to announce the formation of a new "Private Client Network" beginning on January 1, 2010.

In today's dynamic economy it is increasingly difficult to think about the future, let alone prepare for it. While a clear vision, an explicit strategy, and extensive corporate agility are essential to success, they are not enough.

Organizations also need a powerful peripheral vision—a wide-ranging sensitivity to the "weak signals" in the environment that offer clues to where the world is going (see "Pay Attention! To What?" from the October 2009 newsletter for an extended discussion of this idea). To thrive in the future you have to pay attention both to trends and to potential discontinuities to ensure your place in the future. And you can't do it alone!

Our mission is helping to create the future of work. We believe the next wave of corporate agility will come from the comprehensive integration of human resource management with technology and facilities management. Four pragmatic issues in particular will demand the attention of senior executives in 2010:

• Managing an increasingly mobile and dispersed workforce;
• Sorting out the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on work and the workplace;
• Designing new workplaces that support collaboration and foster innovation;
• Developing a new generation of workplace management professionals.

We invite you to collaborate with WDC in addressing these challenges. Beginning on January 1, 2010, we are forming a new Future of Work private network of strategically selected clients to foster collaborative inquiry and provide network members with confidential research and practical guidance as they confront these challenges.

One of the key promises we make to our clients is to act as a "weak signal" detector and amplifier. Our focus is identifying nascent trends, wildcard events, and anomalies in the larger global environment that can significantly impact your business. We are your "early warning system." Consider some of the "weak signal" indicators we have identified in the past:

February 2005—Open source is the business model of the future.

December 2006—There is a fundamental flaw in the financial markets. "We can hear the ice cracking."

June 2008—Changes in public policy (i.e., health care, energy use, environmental impact) will force major changes in business operations.

Looking back, these views may not seem so profound today, but at the time they were well over the horizon. If your business had begun to focus strategically on these issues back then, how different a place would you be in today?

We want to help you monitor the future in a highly leveraged, cost-effective way. That's where we come in; we will complement your own strategic planning resources with our continually expanding knowledge base and by calling on our global relationships with the smartest people we know.

To summarize, we are launching a new, private network of clients and expert resources that will make practical sense of the future. We'd like to you be part of it. We "go live" on January 1. Please choose now to be part of our growing community.

For more information about our 2010 research and network programs, and to schedule a conversation about becoming a member of the network, please contact us directly.

This month's "Notes from the Field: A ‘Weak Signal About Leadership in 2010" is an excerpt from our Executive Briefing Report #2010-1. One of the benefits of network membership is receiving a similar Executive Briefing report (with specific recommendations for action)  every month.

©Copyright 2003-2008 The Work Design Collaborative, LLC. All rights reserved. Website development by InMotionMedia, Inc