BizEd

SeptOct2008

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Anticipating by Dipak C. Jain on the World Trade Center. Nothing in my life had prepared me for the suddenness of this I catastrophic event. All of us instantly knew that our world had been forever altered. I no longer recall what I was going to say that day, but I am sure that I have been saying something vastly different ever since. Our history is punctuated with examples of massive change set off by devastating events. But in the 21st century, change itself has undergone a profound, if decep- tively subtle, shift: It occurs more quickly and is more disruptive than ever before. In this new environ- ment—which my colleague Philip Kotler and I refer to as the nanosec- ond culture—prediction is nearly impossible. At the same time, looking into the future to try to determine what awaits us is more important than it has ever been. With this in mind, I now say that we need to anticipate the What trends and forces will shape the next decade of management education? Some changes are subtle, others sweeping. future, not try to predict it. As management educators, we all look to the future of business so we can determine what we should be teaching our students now. But given today's unpredictable business environment, we must hone our anticipatory skills and become even better at identifying important trends early in the game. That is the only way we can drive our institutions, as well as the students and businesses we serve, in the right direction. BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 39 was to deliver my first speech as the dean of Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management on the morning of Septem- ber 11, 2001. I had just begun to address the incoming class of MBA students when I received news of the terrorist attack theFuture

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