Strategic News Service - Recent Issues

“As discussed, I am forwarding to you a copy of the SNS newsletter - the edition where the Editor, Mark Anderson, accurately predicts the turnaround in the semiconductor market and rationally explains why he believes so (and did so during the midst of the most recent correction, may I add).

“Please let me know if you’d like to discuss anything else related to the newsletter and/or the Future in Review (‘FiRe’) conference. I would not press FiRe participation if I did not truly believe that the potential benefit/ROI was not significant.”

Cheers,

John Petote

CEO

CIO Solutions

Santa Monica

“SNS (just read the latest issue) is the only publication I know of that lifts your head up to the sun while anchoring your feet firmly to the ground.” – Sidney Rittenberg, Author, The Man Who Stayed Behind, and Founder, Rittenberg Associates, Inc., Beijing and Fox Island, WA

“The New York Times/Wall Street Journal etc. can barely deliver meaningful analysis of yesterday’s news. Mark clearly and actionably illuminates what is on our, and our families’, horizons – both storm clouds and sunshine.” – Rob Berkley, Managing Partner, Group MV LLC, Tisbury, MA

“SNS has been a staple of my weekly reading for years. As the economic storm was gathering, Mark and SNS [were] a primary source of information leading me to exit the market one week before the bottom fell out. Not only did we not lose any money, we have moved into safe havens and have been able to increase our net worth during one of the most severe downturns in recent history. SNS has been a valuable source of market intelligence that leads to informed action.” – John K. Thompson, CEO, U.S. Operations, Kognitio Inc.

“Not surprisingly, it looks like FiRe is doing even better in the midst of crisis. Of course: that’s when the awareness and responsive innovation you offer via FiRe are most valuable.” – Bob Jacobson, Lead on U.S. / Shanghai 2010 Expo Team

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Save the date! October 15th, 2009

Join the Launch of a New SNS Conference, in a New Format, at a New Location:

www.futureinreview.com/global/wc

The first-ever FiReGlobal will be held this fall at Herban Feast/Sodo Park, Seattle

What is FiReGlobal? Sure, it will be the best technology event held in the Northwest.

Following the successful format of the annual SNS FiRe (Future in Review) conference, we are launching the first of a new series of shorter conferences, scheduled for a single day and night, bringing to bear the best of the FiRe model and FiRe thought leaders on local issues and problems. Keynote interviews will include Michael Dell, Nobelist Lee Hartwell, and conservation scientist Roger Payne. Speakers will include Governor Christine Gregoire. Local leaders in all major sectors in the Northwest are contributing guidance, including assisting with the definition of the most pressing of local problems, which global and local CTOs will help to solve.

Now, there is a concept. This is an extension of our CTO Design Challenge at FiRe, brought to our friends in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia.

The agenda will include a full day’s discussion, lunch, a reception for world-changing FiReStar companies (both local and global), dinner, and a local/global economic summary by Mark Anderson.

The problem-solving process is beginning now, and will culminate in solution report-outs, live, at the conference. As at FiRe for the last few years, we expect to discover real answers to real problems. And yes, these conversations may continue after the conference.

Who is involved? Here is the roster of the FiReGlobal Steering Committee, up-to-date as of today. Perhaps you, or someone you know, should be on it?

Steering Committee for FiReGlobal: West Coast / 7.16.09

Mark Anderson

Chairman, FiRe and FiReGlobal: West Coast

CEO, Strategic News Service

Greg Bear

Science Fiction Author

Jesse Berst

Managing Director

GlobalSmartEnergy.com

David Brin

Science Fiction Author and Physicist

Bill Bryant

CEO

Envision Ventures

Ty Carlson

Architect, SiArch

Microsoft Corporation

Frank Catalano

Principal

Intrinsic Strategy

Brenda Cooper

CIO, City of Kirkland, Washington

Futurist and Science Fiction Author

Karl da Gama Campos

Manager, International Business Development

Information & Communication Technology

State of Washington’s Department of Commerce

Robert Davidson

CEO

Seattle Aquarium Society

John Delaney

Program Director and Principal Investigator

Neptune

University of Washington

Maury Forman

Managing Director

International Trade and Economic Development

State of Washington Department of Commerce

Enrique Godreau III

Founding Partner

Voyager Capital

Lee Hartwell

Nobelist

President and Director, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Denis Hayes

President and CEO

Bullitt Foundation

Glen Hiemstra

Founder and Owner

Futurist.com

Ed Lazowska

Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

University of Washington

Rick LeFaivre

Venture Partner

OVP Venture Partners, Seattle

Thomas Lindeman

Founder and Managing Director

ideaspheres

Janis Machala

Founder and Principal

Paladin Partners

Ken Myer

President and CEO

Washington Technology Industry Association

Michael Pfeffer

Managing Partner

Kolohala Ventures

Honolulu

Senator Kevin Ranker

40th Legislative District

Washington State

Linden Rhoads

Vice Provost, Office of Technology Transfer

University of Washington

Mike Schwenk

Vice President and Director of Commercial Partnerships

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Bryce Seidl

President and CEO

Pacific Science Center

Chetan Sharma

President

Chetan Sharma Consulting

Jeffrey Short

Pacific Science Director

Oceana

Barry Thom

Northwest Regional Administrator

NOAA Fisheries Service

Nancy Truitt Pierce

CEO and Founder

Woods Creek Consulting

Kathy Wilcox

President and Founder

Kathleen P. Wilcox & Associates

Is there a FiReGlobal Early Bird price for SNS Members? Of course there is!!

SNSers can sign up this month, July, for $695; Early Bird non-SNS-member rate is $895. As of August 1, the price will be $795 for SNS members and $995 for non-SNS members.

Here is the registration site. Sign up now, since we’ll once again sell out:

www.futureinreview.com/global/wc

FiReGlobal: West Coast is sponsored and supported by the Washington State Department of Commerce:

To arrange for a speech by Mark Anderson on subjects in technology and economics, or to schedule a strategic review of your company, email shane@stratnews.com.

FiRe 2009 Photo Gallery: See more than 1,000 photos from FiRe 2009, at http://futureinreview.smugmug.com/FiRe%202009

SNS Member Early Bird Call for Future in Review (FiRe) 2010:

We are moving next year’s FiRe conference to the Terranea Resort, about 20 minutes south of the LAX airport:

www.terranea.com

Terranea was 15 years in the making, a four-star business hotel on its own promontory, and just opened last month. Members may register now for the terrific Early Bird price of just $3400, vs. $4900 retail We have already signed up a record number of Early Birds from those who attended FiRe 2009 (up 62%). Here is your chance, as an SNS Member, to reserve a seat and get a great price. Registration is at:

https://www.tapsns.com/fire/registration.php

Save a lot of money by registering now, and join us at “the best technology conference in the world” [The Economist]. – mra

» The Shaping Opportunity:

Uncovering the Emerging Logic of Deep Change

By John Hagel III

with John Seely Brown and Lang Davison

Publisher’s Note: What happens when a fast- (or slow-) follower company overruns its competition? It turns inward, often without great result. The same can be asked about competing global economies, whether one is chronicling the ongoing malaise in Japan or the robust excitement in China and most of Asia. In both cases, there is a good deal of talk about how Innovation will save the day, but – in my experience, at least – this is more easily said than done.

Wed those issues to the problem of what happens as we move forward into a knowledge-based society in which, to quote a librarian friend of mine from the Hopkins Marine Station, “the problem is no longer how to remain abreast of the literature, but how to fall most strategically behind.” In a world in which the log growth rate of information is demonstrably greater than that of knowledge creation or distribution, this is an uphill fight.

As the authors of this week’s Special Letter conclude, these pressures are moving society away from a time when value was in hard assets and we learned from those above us, to a time when value walks out the door at night, and peer-to-peer learning becomes the requirement.

Not so surprisingly, this is exactly the problem facing K-12 education today; and, in studies done by SNS Project Inkwell, it turns out that successful revolution in classroom dynamics includes peer-to-peer instruction, realtime information acquisition, and advanced infrastructure foundations as well.

I think our members will find a deep resonance with the ideas put forward here by John Hagel III, who expands upon some of the themes he brought to us in his opening talk at FiRe 2009 last May. Think about Return on Assets, one of the great bedrock metrics of business operations, and then be very glad you read this Letter. – mra.

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