About the Strategy & Innovation Forum
The economy takes center stage at the 2009 SI Forum. The choices retailers make in challenging times can pave the way for our future success. Cutting costs, centralizing decisions, retrenching are common reactions. But there are also golden opportunities to invest in innovation and leapfrog the competition. When the dust finally clears, the retailers who have used this time to grow will not only survive; they will convert change into opportunity.
| FEATURED SESSION |
Chewing Gum and Bailing Wire. Big Ideas with Little Budgets.
With a long career in both retail and advertising, Bob Thacker has many stories to tell. As a brand architect for Target and now OfficeMax, Bob will demonstrate how building loveable brands, often without big budgets, is truly possible. In adverse times it’s an even greater challenge to find the true opportunities, but Bob has shown that it’s not impossible. In fact, his mantra “Don’t make ads, make news!” has even greater meaning than ever before. View the full agenda... |  Bob Thacker
SVP, Marketing and Advertising
OfficeMax, Inc.
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Some topics that we will cover at our 2009 Strategy & Innovation Forum include:
• Investing in innovation, to streamline as well as grow
• Long-term strategic planning around social media and Web 2.0 tools
• Technological innovations with immediate sales impact and limited upfront costs
• How to react to changing customer behavior
• Is international expansion a solution to help offset domestic challenges?
• How consumer behavior will make this economic recovery different from the past
• Disruptive business models for the Web 2.0 consumer
Avinash Kaushik
