Rapid and continuous change defines today's business environment. This dynamic environment requires that individuals, teams and organizations be prepared to cope with an unpredictable marketplace and increasing competition.

"Organizations are forced to be kinetic, organic and without boundaries if they are to remain successful," says Dick Shafer, associate dean for corporate relations at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and a researcher in the area of leadership in dynamic organizations. "Change is not incremental or revolutionary – it is continuous. In other words, there is no longer a 'steady state' for organizations operating in a dynamic marketplace."

This new business climate requires leaders who can manage organizations that are in constant flux and can face challenges that require new solutions virtually every day. To ensure that students in the Johnson School at Cornell are such pioneering executives able to meet these new challenges, the school has established the Center for Leadership in Dynamic Organizations, which will host its first Leadership Week, March 26-April 1, on the Cornell campus.

Leadership Week is composed of three major events: an academic symposium, a corporate conference and a graduate-student business conference.

The academic symposium, "Understanding the Dynamic Organization: Examination of a New Business Model," 9 a.m. March 26 through 2:30 p.m. March 27, in the Yale-Princeton Room of the Statler Hotel on campus, will bring together more than a dozen leading organizational theorists and researchers to focus on research that is shedding light on the attributes and practices required for leaders in dynamic organizations. The participants also will reflect on the implications of the changing model of leadership during two days of presentations and panel discussions.

The corporate conference, 8 a.m. March 28 through 4:30 p.m. March 29, will highlight what innovative companies are doing to launch new business models for organizations that can move faster, organize on the fly and adapt over and over again. Corporate leaders, including four CEOs on the leading edge of new leadership practices, will gather to debate with each other and with Cornell faculty and students in the Statler Ballroom about the leadership implications of emerging and transforming business models.

Speakers will share how their "old-line" companies are becoming "agile" to stay competitive. Featured speakers include John Loose, president and CEO of Corning Inc.; Kenneth Lay, chairman of Enron Corp.; and John Alexander, president and founder of The CBORD Group Inc., an entrepreneurial company whose creation was inspired by Alexander's food-service experience at Cornell. The conference format includes live case studies, panels on the impact of technology, managing diversity and creating corporate alliances, as well as a session on leadership lessons learned.

The corporate conference will be capped with the prestigious Durland Memorial Lecture, which honors former Cornell Treasurer Lewis H. Durland, March 29, at 1 p.m. in the Statler Ballroom. This year it features Kenneth I. Chenault, president and CEO of American Express Co. Chenault, the first African-American chief executive of a blue-chip company in the Dow Jones industrial average, will discuss how his company is becoming more agile and the role of leadership in those changes. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The 22nd annual Graduate Business Conference, 8 a.m. March 30 through 11 a.m. April 1 in the Statler Ballroom, will bring together about 100 student leaders from 30 business schools to examine issues of 21st century leadership. Representatives from companies will interact with student leaders to grapple with what leaders must do to create organizations that can thrive in rapidly changing global markets.

For more information on the weeklong series of speakers and discussions, log ontohttp://www.johnson.cornell.edu/leadershipweek/JGSM_Leadership_Center.html or contact Rhonda Velazquez at (607) 254-8828 or rhv2@cornell.edu