EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED…BUSINESS INNOVATION STRATEGY BEYOND MARKETS

Taft College and The Taft College Foundation Petroleum Partners is asking the business community of Kern County to expect the unexpected. As part of an ongoing business-education-workforce partnership, The Taft College Foundation has designed bi-annual Strategic Leadership Summits to enlighten and engaged the oil and energy industry, and now the business community at large. In doing so, the college has continued to strengthen it’s ties to the community, its growing industries and its leaders.

On May 17th, the first Strategic Leadership Summit of 2017 will take place at the Aera Training Academy, one of Taft College’s Petroleum Partners, and take a look at Business Innovation and forecasting Beyond Market Constraints, presented by Dr. Steven Callander, Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management, Stanford University.

Steve Callander’s research interests lie at the intersection of business, politics, and society. As a researcher, he uses the tools of game theory to build models of political and economic institutions (legislatures, bureaucracies, markets, etc.) to understand how they work, how they can be designed better, and how business strategy can incorporate “beyond market” issues. At the GSB, Professor Callander teaches classes on Strategy Beyond Markets and Strategic Crisis Management in both the MBA program and a variety of Executive Education programs. Dr. Callander’s research has been published in leading journals of economics and political science, including the American Economic Review, the American Political Science Review, and the Journal of Political Economy.

“What happens beyond the market shapes the rules of the game for market competition. Knowing how the beyond-market environment works — legislators, regulators, media — gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace. In this program we’ll develop the tools and strategies to compete effectively beyond the market,” says Dr. Steven Callander, Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management, Stanford University.

What is Strategy Beyond Markets and How Is It Beneficial?

The performance of business is determined by more than interactions with customers and competitors in the marketplace. Equally important to firm performance are factors beyond the market environment. These factors can be thought of as forming the “rules of the game” for market competition. In today’s sessions we’ll gain an understanding and appreciation for what goes on beyond the market and develop tools and frameworks with which to analyze it.

The “rules of the game” are as important for new and growing companies as they are for established multinationals. Often the rules of the game for a market are set before the market even exists. Understanding the rules that are in place and designing a business plan that takes them into account are important parts of innovating and growing businesses. Sillicon Valley entrepreneurs have embraced this intersection of innovation and beyond-market constraints. We’ll explore how they do it, why it works, and what this evolution means for established firms through the lens of Uber, Tesla, and other prominent examples.

For more information or media inquiries, please contact The Taft College Foundation at

661-763-7936 or e-mail shorn-bunk@taftcollege.edu