The interconnectedness of the stakeholder value chain is the focus of the next Big Talk event from the Institute for the Study of Business Markets on May 4-5 in Chicago. Event registration is now open.

“Sales, marketing and supply chain managers need to look at their value and supply chains not in silos, but as interconnected systems,” said Institute Executive Director Suzanne Lavin. “Our Chicago event will explore this shift and the business opportunities and challenges it presents.”

The institute, part of the Penn State Smeal College of Business, is the world’s only business-to-business think tank. Its mission is to pair renowned academic researchers and educators with world-class marketing practitioners.

For Big Talk: The Stakeholder Value Chain, the Institute will partner with Smeal’s No. 1-ranked supply chain program and Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business to present 10 speakers and eight workshops. Highlights include:

·      Phil Dover, emeritus professor at Babson College, will deliver the keynote address. He will define the value chain and then demonstrate why managing your value chain is a strategic imperative.

·      Joanne Wright of IBM will balance the marketing perspective by sharing how IBM is transforming its supply chain in the new cognitive era of computing and decision-making. This era is based on leveraging analytics, unstructured data, social listening, and transparency.

The remainder of the speaker roster is a who’s who of B2B brands and renowned academics.

More information on Big Talk — The Stakeholder Value Chain, including registration details, can be found online.