Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect of strategic management, M&A can allow enterprises to grow or downsize, and change the nature of their business or competitive position.
Sir Geoffrey John Mulgan CBE is Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London (UCL). From 2011 to 2019 he was Chief Executive of the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and Visiting Professor at University College London, the London School of Economics, and the University of Melbourne. In 2020, he joined the Nordic think tank Demos Helsinki as a Fellow.
Futurists are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities about the future and how they can emerge from the present, whether that of human society in particular or of life on Earth in general.
PA Consulting Group is a professional services firm that works with public, private and third-sector organisations. It was founded in 1943 by Ernest E. Butten, Tom H. Kirkham and Dr David Seymour, who used a new approach to people management to increase productivity in munitions factories during World War 2. PA grew to become the world’s largest management consultancy by headcount in 1970.
Futures studies, futures research, futurism or futurology is the systematic, interdisciplinary and holistic study of social/technological advancement, and other environmental trends; often for the purpose of exploring how people will live and work in the future. Predictive techniques, such as forecasting, can be applied, but contemporary futures studies scholars emphasize the importance of systematically exploring alternatives. In general, it can be considered as a branch of the social sciences and an extension to the field of history. Futures studies seeks to understand what is likely to continue and what could plausibly change. Part of the discipline thus seeks a systematic and pattern-based understanding of past and present, and to explore the possibility of future events and trends.
In futurology, especially in Europe, the term foresight has become widely used to describe activities such as:
Blue Ocean Strategy is a book published in 2004 written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, professors at INSEAD, and the name of the marketing theory detailed on the book.
Mario C. Raviglione has been professor at the University of Milan, Italy since March 2018. He directs the activities focused on global health and aiming at pursuing didactic and research in this field as part of the new Multidisciplinary Research in Health Science (MACH) Centre. Part of his activities are devoted to teaching global health principles to undergraduate medical students, making the University of Milan the first in Italy, and one of the pioneers world-wide, introducing global health as a module among the required courses. At the same university, Raviglione is now coordinating the establishment of the first international online Master Course in Global Health in Italy . In 2019 and 2020, he was also Professeur Titulaire at the Global Studies Institute (GSI), Université de Genève, Suisse. Through the GSI, he has worked within the context of the Institute of Global Health. Previously, between 2003 and 2017, he was director of the Global Tuberculosis Programme at the World Health Organization (WHO) . He graduated in medicine from the University of Turin in 1980 and then trained in internal medicine and Infectious Diseases at Cabrini Medical Center in New York City and at Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston where he was a Harvard University Clinical Fellow in Medicine and specialised in AIDS. Back in Europe, Raviglione joined WHO in 1991 as a Junior Professional Officer, and spent a few years working on TB and AIDS, TB epidemiology in Europe, and anti-TB drug resistance surveillance and response. In the mid-1990s, he set up both the WHO global drug resistance surveillance project and the WHO global TB surveillance and monitoring systems. Among his major achievements are the contributions to the development of the WHO's DOTS Strategy in 1995, and the direction of the development of both the Stop TB Strategy in 2006 and the End TB Strategy in 2014. During his years at WHO he worked with, and visited, more than 50 countries supporting their TB care, prevention, control and research activities. His research work has resulted in over 350 scientific articles and chapters on the topics of infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS, TB, and global health, including the TB chapters in the last eight editions of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. He is editor of the 3rd and 4th edition of "Tuberculosis - A comprehensive international approach", a multi-author book, and associate editor of other books on public health, infectious diseases and tuberculosis. He directed the team that developed the book “Systematic screening for active tuberculosis – Principles and recommendations”, awarded by the British Medical Association as "Highly Commended Book" for Public Health in 2014. He is among the top 10 most cited authors in the TB field. His h-index is 107 and 87 (Scinapse) and his work has been cited over 55000 times. He is also among the top 25 Italian epidemiological scientists and the top 100 Italian scientists in general. As an expert in TB, he has worked as a teacher or visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University, University of Geneva, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, and University of Pavia. He has been visiting professor at the University of Brescia and has recently lectured at major universities including Harvard, McGill and Sydney. He participates in a variety of board of directors, scientific and advisory committees, including those of the TB Alliance, Doctors with Africa CUAMM, BE Health Association, International Health Commission of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart - Cabrini Ministries ,Fondazione 3Bi. and the McGill Global Health Programs International Advisory Board. In 2017-2018 he was member of the Lancet Commission on TB. During 2015-2017 he conceived and co-organised, with WHO and the Russian Federation Ministry of Health, the first Global WHO Ministerial Conference on TB in the Sustainable Development Era, held in Moscow on 16-17 November 2017, and his team worked towards ensuring that TB is raised in the international political agenda through the United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on TB that was held in 2018.
Mintel Group Ltd is a global, privately owned market research firm based in London, UK. The corporation also maintains offices in Chicago, Mumbai, Belfast, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Dusseldorf, Bangkok, and Seoul. Mintel databases, analysis, and forecasts are accessible to subscribing clients, those who purchase standalone reports, and to students in participating university libraries.
Nirmalya Kumar is Professor of Marketing of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at Singapore Management University. He has served on the Boards of ACC Limited, Ambuja Cements, Bata India, BP Ergo, Defaqto, Tata Capital, Tata Chemicals, Tata Industries, Tata Limited (UK), Tata Unistore, Ultratech, and Zensar Technologies. He received the 2021 Mahajan Award for Lifetime Contributions to Marketing Strategy by the Marketing Strategy SIG of the American Marketing Association (AMA).
Monitor Deloitte is the multinational strategy consulting practice of Deloitte Consulting. Monitor Deloitte specializes in providing strategy consultation services to the senior management of major organizations and governments. It helps its clients address a variety of management areas, including: Organic Growth, Strategic Transformation, Innovation and Ventures, Business Design and Configuration, Strategic Sensing and Insight Services.
Strategy+Business is a business magazine focusing on management issues and corporate strategy. Headquartered in New York, it is published by certain member firms of the PricewaterhouseCoopers network. Prior to the separation of Booz & Company from Booz Allen Hamilton in 2008, strategy+business was published by Booz Allen Hamilton, which launched the magazine, then titled Strategy & Business, in 1995. Full issues of strategy+business appear in print and digital edition form on a quarterly basis, and other original material is published daily on its website.
Amy Lynn Webb is an American futurist, author and founder and CEO of the Future Today Institute. She is an adjunct assistant professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, a nonresident senior fellow at Atlantic Council, and was a 2014–15 Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
The Space Innovation and Growth Team was a joint initiative among the United Kingdom government, academia and the country's space industry. Its goal was to define a 20-year vision and strategy for the future growth of the UK space industry, which was published in February 2010 as the Space Innovation and Growth Strategy (IGS).
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to futures studies:
Lawton R. Burns is an American business theorist, Professor of Management and the Chairperson of the Health Care Management Department of The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania, and a Faculty Co-director for the Roy and Diana Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management.
Richard Watson is an English author, lecturer and futurist known for his 2007 book Future Files: a Brief History of The Next 50 Years and for his infographics, especially his Trends & Technology Timeline 2010-2050 and the Timeline of Emerging Science and Technology 2015-2030.
W. Chan Kim is a South Korean business theorist. He is a Professor of Strategy and Management at INSEAD, and co-director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute in Fontainebleau, France. He is known as co-author of the 2005 book Blue Ocean Strategy.
Daniel Burrus is an American technology futurist, business adviser, author, and public speaker in the areas of business strategy, global trends, and disruptive innovation. He has written on the topics of business transformation and technology-driven trends, with his book Flash Forsight becoming a New York Times Bestseller in 2011.
Andy Hines is an American futurist, head of graduate studies in Foresight at the University of Houston, and author of several books on strategic foresight. Hines is a professional futurist, co-creator of the framework foresight method, Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Foresight at the University of Houston, Principal of foresight consulting firm Hinesight, and former organizational futurist at Kellogg Company and Dow Chemical. He has written extensively on futures studies, strategic foresight, foresight research methods, the role of organizational futurists, and the consumer landscape.
