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The 1990 International Conference of The Planning Forum held in Washington, D. C. set a new attendance record. Some 1300 senior executives exchanged war stories, business theories, and points of view while attending three days of presentations by major company CEOs, consultants to leading corporations, noted academics, and practitioners of strategic management. Many of the star presenters had the discerning Bernard C. Reimann, chairman of the Department of Management at Cleveland State University, in their audience busily taking notes. Professor Reimann regularly reports on major strategic management conferences for Planning Review.

More of Professor Gary Hamel's thought‐provoking analysis appears in his long‐awaited book written with Professor C. K. Prahalad, Competing for the Future: Breakthrough Strategies for Seizing Control of Your Industry and Creating the Markets of Tomorrow (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1994). Our diligent conference reporter, Bernard C. Reimann, Professor of Management at Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, is the author of Managing for Value: A Guide for Value Based Strategic Management, published by Basil Blackwell and The Planning Forum.

First Prize: This winner of our annual contest, in association with the Foundation for Administrative Research (FAR), describes an innovative strategy‐refinement process that uses four “filters” (tests) for picking high potential business initiatives.

Here's more coverage of The Planning Forum's annual International Conference in Toronto by our diligent reporter, Professor Reimann. His synopses capture conference highlights and, as usual, he seasons them with his insightful commentary. This is the third part of a three‐part article that began in the September/October issue.

We continue to be intrigued by the number of managers we meet who haven't read Michael Porter's book Competitive Advantage. For them and practitioners on the corporate battlefront, we offer this synopsis of Porter's ideas from Professor Reimann's Managing for Value.

This first Report in our two‐part coverage of The Strategic Management Society's annual meeting is devoted to three prominent conceptualizers—Richard Pascale, Gary Hamel, and C. K. Prahalad. They prescribe radical treatment for organizations seeking to transform their enterprise for success in the coming decades. (See our checklist of questions their provocative concepts should motivate managers to consider.) The second part, scheduled for the May/June issue, presents case studies by CEOs directly involved in transforming their corporations.

Strategic management gives an organization the power to “create its own future.” This was the gist of H. Igor Ansoff's message to management more than two decades ago. Yet, in spite of the obvious appeal of this idea, few, if any modern companies have been able to realize the full benefits of true strategic management.

This year's Planning Forum conference had a most timely theme: “Leading Strategic Change.” The focus on leadership and change provided a unifying thrust to the many ways strategists, both scholars and practitioners, have been trying to cope with unprecedented change in their industries and in our world.

This second “Conference Report” in our three‐part coverage of The Strategic Management Society's annual meeting presents case studies by CEOs and other agents of change involved in transforming large enterprises. Featuring—Bob Bauman, on the newly merged SmithKline Beechham; Sir Colin Marshall, on reforming the culture at British Airways; and Henry Mintzberg on “adhocracies.”

The Planning Forum's Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. posted another attendance record. Some 1300 senior executives exchanged war stories, business theories, and points of view with each other while attending three days of presentations by major company CEOs, consultants to leading corporations, noted academics, and practitioners of strategic management.