Speakers & Organizers   

www.cartegic.com Biography
Art is a founding principal at Cartegic Group – a Boston-based consultancy specializing in organizational resilience and strategic planning using scenarios. Art is a seasoned writer, speaker, strategic advisor and executive, having spent two decades working with senior management teams at some of the world's most prominent global organizations. He has also worked closely in a consultative capacity with some lesser-known but successful high-tech start-ups and 'intra-preneuring' ventures, to develop informed, practical business plans. Art is a veteran meeting designer and facilitator, relying on a toolkit of unique but well-honed scenario-based methods for effective debate to help clients reach informed consensus: particularly where the uncertainty of disruptive technology and/or a shifting external environment makes decision-making unusually risky.

Before founding Cartegic Group in 2001, Art spent seven years at NerveWire, (formerly Northeast Consulting Resources: 'NCRI'), where he led a wide range of scenario engagements for very large (Fortune 50) corporate clients. Prior to joining Northeast Consulting, Art served as Senior Analyst and Consulting Director at two widely respected technology market research firms: BIS Strategic Decisions (now part of Forrester Research), and International Data Corp. (IDC). In those roles, he helped a wide range of technology vendor clients (in computing software, hardware, peripherals, telecommunications, and services) to connect technology and service innovations with evolving market requirements.

Art is a founding member of the Digital Commerce Society of Boston (DCSB). Started in 1995, the purpose the DCSB has been to connect 'bleeding edge' thinkers and developers of new information, network, and security technologies with their counterparts in the corporate world for dialogue about emerging technology applications.

Art writes extensively on the interplay between business strategy, uncertainty and rapid change (E.g., see, http://cartegic.typepad.com), and speaks and teaches at a range of industry events and symposia, including the Conference Board. Art earned his BA from Williams College. He is a longtime endurance athlete, having completed many marathons, Ironman triathlons and ultramarathon runs. He lives near Boston with his wife and their two teenage daughters.

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Session BI32: "Rehearsing the Future": Modular Interactive Scenarios for Pattern Recognition and Coordinated Strategy
February 20, 10:00 - 10:45 Abstract:
Traditional approaches to scenario-based planning in large organizations are often limited in their effectiveness by attempts to over-simplify what is truly complex and/or to assign precise probabilities to fundamentally unknowable future events. An open-ended "ivory tower" process often compounds these problems, isolating scenario builders and thinkers from principal decision-makers, rendering scenarios difficult to interpret and use.

This presentation will discuss how a modular, interactive approach to scenarios has been applied over two decades to the global strategic planning challenges of some of the world's largest corporations, government agencies and infrastructure players under headings such as "The Future of China", "The Future of Nuclear Weapons" and "The Future of Water and Wastewater". This unique, structured approach has helped such organizations to enhance their strategic resilience by weaving a durable scenario framework into the fabric of what they collectively look for, think about, debate and act on. We will also discuss how the 'fractal' nature of such scenarios helps organizations to set up monitoring systems and 'war-rooms' for tracking speculative future events in the holistic context of multiple, simultaneously evolving scenario 'endstates'.