Christopher W. Miller, Ph.D., NPDP
Past President, The Product Development and Management Association
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner
Founder, Innovation Focus Inc.

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Hunting for Hunting Grounds; discovering fundamentally new opportunities for your business.  Scouting, Beating the Drums, Blazing a Trail, Migration and Harvest

All businesses are confronted with the challenge of harvesting their maturing businesses and discovering new areas for growth.  The Hunting for Hunting Grounds Seminar will walk you and your team through a step-by-step guide for discovering new business opportunities and mapping out a migration path from today’s mature core business into an uncertain and exciting future.

Objectives

After completing this seminar you will have an understanding of the processes necessary to align your organization around a shared proprietary “future-pull” vision that provides a strategic framework and guiding criteria for decision-making on such areas as:

•    In which opportunities to invest
•    At what levels to invest
•    New branding opportunities
•    Strategic alliances
•    Joint ventures
•    Acquisitions and divestitures
   
Our goal is to help you help your team to identify, prioritize and mobilize around breakthrough new business opportunities that create significant “waves of competitively sustainable growth,” moving appropriately beyond today’s core businesses.

Who Should Attend

Marketing and technology managers, product managers, business unit managers and managers of strategic planning—This course is designed for anyone charged with the development and management of a longer term product pipeline and business unit planning. Cross-functional teams from mature B-to-B companies who take the class together will find the tools and techniques of special value and applicability.
    

Seminar Content

Seeing and accepting the signs of maturity and develop your charter for innovation
•    What is your tolerance for innovation
•    What is really worth your effort
•    What is the make up of the team
•    Success stories

Scouting for Hunting Grounds
•    Ten scouting tools for discovery
•    Business environment sampling techniques
•    Pitfalls and successes in scouting

Beating the drums around the fire
•    Analysis of options
•    Selecting your problem worth solving
•    Building a case for your problem
•    Telling your story

Blazing the trail for your team
•    Building a path of ideas
•    Backward planning
•    Building your case for an alternative future

Tribal migration
•    Early experiments
•    Necessary losses

Format

The two day seminar meets from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day. The seminar will use a mix of presentation, discussion, case studies, and experiential exercises. The course and exercises are set up to simulate that actual process of moving through the Hunting for Hunting Grounds process flow.

Date and Location

This seminar will be held on May 11 - 12, 2010 in the Philadelphia, PA area; venue and hotel information will be provided upon registration.

Cost and Registration

ISBM Members: $1,500
Non-members: $2,500

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Instructor

Christopher W. Miller is Founder and CEO of Innovation Focus Inc.; a Past President of the Product Development and Management Association; an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner; and a business partner with Second City Communications (the Chicago based improvisational comedy club). He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Case Western Reserve University. His doctoral research targeted the life-long career development of engineers.  He has over 30 years of experience in facilitating, consulting and exciting interdisciplinary high performance teams on product development, customer interaction and rapid project completion.  He has held positions in two Fortune 500 companies; North American Phillips and White Consolidated Industries. 

Chris has published over 200 articles, manuals and workbooks, and has been recognized for his series of Growth Forum articles for the PDMA publication Visions.  He has written Chapters for all of the PDMA Tool Books including topics such as Hunting for Hunting Grounds; Ethnography, Slingshot Groups and Ideation. As a Volunteer for the Product Development and Management Association he pioneered the webinar training program, the annual Voice of the Customer Conference and the Annual Front End of Innovation Conference. He held multiple positions on the PDMA Board, helped to found the Philadelphia Chapter and chaired the International conference. He is a Certified New Product Development Professional. He is a recipient of the Ruth Waxman Award from Volunteers for Medical Engineering.

Chris will draw on his experience in ushering over 1000 teams through their innovation processes. He will present numerous successful and public cases from corporations such as diverse set of products and business solutions including: T.D. Williamsons Hot Tapping technology; WD-40’s Smart Straw, Big Blast and the Handy Pen; Sprint's manufacturing market strategy; Acorn Health Insurance Plus's Veterans Life Insurance; the Technology Forecast on Moldless Forming; Health Care Resources Conservation Coalition; High Concrete Structures Mega-T and Carbon Fiber product line; the National Bearing migration to become National QualPac and New Pig Corporation.

For More Information

Contact Paula Dorminy or Gary Holler
Phone: 814-863-2782
Email: isbm@psu.edu