THE FUTURE IS ONLY MOMENTS AWAY FROM THIS VERY MINUTE.

Technology can barely keep up with the demands of enterprise. Global corporations have an insatiable need to know where their next dollars, francs and yen are coming from.

Conversely, consumers have never been better equipped to make intelligent purchasing decisions and engage in highly sophisticated post-purchase information sharing.

As a result, new product failure rates are at an all-time high of approximately 92%. Television can no longer be counted upon to "pull-through" massive sales initiatives as it once did. In fact, every year less and less people tune in and the cost of network advertising creeps higher and higher.

Although there is great hope for the internet to reverse this fearful slide, there is not even a fraction of the advertising inventory on-line to create the critical mass of customers needed to support today's global corporation.

Mass merchandisers are stretching their supply chains further and further offshore to satisfy the need for cheaper manufacturing sources. The economic impact is wreaking havoc with consumer confidence and global GNP's.

The world is becoming flat. We are losing jobs and leadership to countries whose manufacturing and distribution abilities are far more agile than our own.

All of these events are converging on the need for companies to do far more with far less. At the forefront of these rapid developments is mission critical need for a new generation of marketing thought leadership. Tried and true no longer works. "By the book" is out the window.

The future belongs to the most brilliant minds in these new ways to go to market. The most critical need in business is to find these brilliant minds and put them to work.

The challenge facing the Institute is to create the new methodologies and train the new practitioners that will meet and satisfy this ever-growing demand. The work of the future will not wait until tomorrow.