Global Business Network: Difference between revisions
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==History== |
==History== |
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GBN was founded in [[Berkeley, California]] in 1987 by a group of |
GBN was founded in [[Berkeley, California]] in 1987 by a group of entrepreneurs including [[Peter Schwartz (futurist)|Peter Schwartz]], [[Jay Ogilvy]], [[Stewart Brand]], [[Napier Collyns]], and [[Lawrence Wilkinson]].<ref name="About">{{cite web |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105183523/http://gbn.com/about/started.php |work =GBN.com|title= Where We Started}}</ref> The company grew to include a core group of "practice members", and over a hundred "network members" from a range of different fields, such as [[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] editor [[Kevin Kelly (editor)|Kevin Kelly]],<ref name=turner203>{{Cite book | publisher = University of Chicago Press | last = Turner | first = Fred | title = From counterculture to cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the rise of digital utopianism | location = Chicago | date = 2006 | page=203 }}</ref> social media expert [[Clay Shirky]], anthropologist [[Mary Catherine Bateson]], economist [[Aidan Eyakuze]], musician [[Brian Eno]], biotechnologist [[Rob Carlson]], and China scholar [[Orville Schell]]. |
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For its first 15 years, corporate clients would pay up to $40,000 annually in order to gain access to this network of advisers through a private website, attend meetings on emerging trends and training seminars, and receive a selection of literature about future issues each month.<ref name="Boom">{{cite news |
For its first 15 years, corporate clients would pay up to $40,000 annually in order to gain access to this network of advisers through a private website, attend meetings on emerging trends and training seminars, and receive a selection of literature about future issues each month.<ref name="Boom">{{cite news |
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Revision as of 23:38, 14 February 2016
Global Business Network (GBN) is the part of Monitor Deloitte that helps businesses, NGOs, and governments use scenario planning to plan for multiple possible futures. It was previously a member of Monitor Group, prior to the acquisition of Monitor by Deloitte.[1][2] GBN is based in San Francisco, and has offices in New York City, London, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.[3]
History
GBN was founded in Berkeley, California in 1987 by a group of entrepreneurs including Peter Schwartz, Jay Ogilvy, Stewart Brand, Napier Collyns, and Lawrence Wilkinson.[3] The company grew to include a core group of "practice members", and over a hundred "network members" from a range of different fields, such as Wired editor Kevin Kelly,[4] social media expert Clay Shirky, anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, economist Aidan Eyakuze, musician Brian Eno, biotechnologist Rob Carlson, and China scholar Orville Schell.
For its first 15 years, corporate clients would pay up to $40,000 annually in order to gain access to this network of advisers through a private website, attend meetings on emerging trends and training seminars, and receive a selection of literature about future issues each month.[5][6][7] GBN no longer offers this membership service, concentrating instead on scenario-based consulting and training.
Before GBN, Peter Schwartz had been employed at SRI International as director of the Strategic Environment Center; following that, he took a position as head of scenario planning at Royal Dutch/Shell, from 1982 to 1986,[8] where he continued the pioneering work of Pierre Wack, in the field of scenario planning.
The Network has been a part of Monitor Group since 2000.[3]
Scenario planning
Unlike forecasting which extrapolates past and present trends to predict the future, scenario planning is an interactive process for exploring alternative, plausible futures and what those might mean for strategies, policies, and decisions. Scenario planning was first used by the military in World War II and then by Herman Kahn at RAND (“Thinking the Unthinkable”) during the Cold War, before being adapted to inform corporate strategy by Pierre Wack and other business strategists at Royal Dutch/Shell in the 1970s. The key principles of scenario planning include thinking from the outside in about the forces in the contextual environment that are driving change, engaging multiple perspectives to identify and interpret those forces, and adopting a long view.
The GBN Diaspora
Over the years, a number of people have worked at GBN and then taken their skills in scenario planning, facilitation and strategy into other ventures. Organizations with significant GBN heritage include:
- Monitor Institute: A social enterprise that surfaces and spreads best practices in public problem solving, led by Katherine Fulton.
- Worldview Stanford: A group at Stanford creating interdisciplinary learning experiences about the future to prepare leaders for the strategic challenges ahead, led by Brie Linkenhoker and Nancy Murphy.
- Independent Scenario Consulting Practices: Long time scenario practitioners: Matt Ranen, Jonathan Star, Steve Weber, Nicole-Anne Boyer and others have created new firms focused on scenario planning and strategy.
References
- ^ Garreau, Joel (November 1994). "Conspiracy of Heretics". Wired.
- ^ Futurist Peter Schwartz '68 Eyes the New Century. Rensselaer Mag. December 1999.
- ^ a b c "Where We Started". GBN.com.
- ^ Turner, Fred (2006). From counterculture to cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the rise of digital utopianism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 203.
- ^ "Long Boom or Bust". The New York Times. June 1, 1998.
- ^ GBN Book Club Selections. Archived from the original on 2007-10-10.
- ^ GBN Members. Archived from the original on 1999-01-28.
- ^ Long Boom or Bust. The New York Times.
Further reading
- Schwartz, Peter (1991). The Art of the Long View. ISBN 0-385-26731-2.