Strategic Trend Evaluation Process

An ongoing service that addresses strategic information needs of managers in:

• planning
• public affairs
• product development
• investments
• marketing, advertising and communications
• human resources and training
• issues management

We offer two STEP programs: one focused on issues of executives of large businesses and the other, Small Business STEP, for CEOs and principals of smaller businesses.

STEP is a client-focused, participatory program that provides you with:

• A continuous look at emerging issues in the external environment and also at what is happening in the social, economic, political and technological climates that could affect your company’s customers, strategies and operations.
  
• Quarterly forums in New York for you or a member of your staff to participate in the analysis of these emerging issues, along with our other clients, executives who have similar needs for getting an early handle on these changing times.
  
• Many hours of additional and tailored assistance in applying the information and analyses to your own particular needs.

STEP is a multi-client offering that combines components of other services that we have provided at much higher cost to individual clients. Here’s how it works:

1. We will send you a monthly package of approximately 80 abstracts from about 60 carefully selected and tested publications and other sources. These abstracts will provide pertinent information about trends and developments shaping your social, economic, political and technological environments.
   
   
2. Four times a year, we hold a one-day meeting for subscribers, at which participants:
   1. Discuss new issues emerging from the prior quarter’s abstracts.
   2. Develop implications of emerging issues for business in general -- and for client-specific business interests.
      
      
3. Included in your STEP contract are up to 35 hours of consulting time, which include any necessary preparation or travel, and these can be used by telephone or in person, at your discretion. You might use this time for:

• Development of your own internal strategic scanning and analysis program. Working with members of your company’s management and staff, we help to further refine the information into intelligence for you and your organization, and, at the same time, help you to involve critical thinkers and decision-makers in your company on an ongoing basis.
  
• Briefings for you and your colleagues on the specific implications of external developments.
  
• Development of seminars on relevant social, technological, economic and political trends and developments and their implications for marketing, new product development, public and government affairs, one or more of your customers, or any other operational area you may be charged with.

Small Business STEP is for the CEOs or Principals of smaller businesses, and includes points 1 and 2 above, but does not provide individualized consulting.

Sometimes forgetting is as important as learning. We are incapable of changing with the times if we cling to the methods and visions of the past. Neglecting to alert your company to new technology, new markets, changed markets, new approaches to managing, new product and service opportunities, new interest groups and new public challenges is a sure way to allow competing organizations, both traditional and new, to enter your world and pick off your best ideas, best customers, best employees and best chances to master the quickening pace of future challenges. STEP is a tremendous resource for you in these changing times and we will personally work with you to tailor the program to your needs.