Survival as an organizational goal

Tojin Thomas Eapen is the founder of the Center for Creative Foresight, Kochi, India. He, PhD, is the founder of the Center for Creative Foresight. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Europe ESF Center of The Conference Board and is a member of the advisory board at StratRocket and Innomantra. His research and consulting interests include idea management, bioinspired design, and sustainable innovation. In the past, Dr. Eapen taught at the Trulaske College of Business at the University of Missouri and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. He has advised over 40 organizations, including Google, Samsung, ABB, KBR, Robert Bosch, NetApp, Qualcomm, Bureau Veritas, SKF and Newell Brands. Dr. Eapen has shared his applied insights through platforms such as Harvard Business Review and California Management Review and has contributed to conferences like the Global Peter Drucker Forum and various research outlets. Dr. Eapen holds a PhD in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MBA from the Indian School of Business and a degree in Electrical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Calicut. His book, Bioinspired Strategic Design (2024), published by Productivity Press (Taylor & Francis, LLC.), explores how human organizations can draw inspiration from living organisms to craft sustainable and innovative systems.

Daniel J. Finkenstadt is the principal at Wolf Stake Consulting LLC, Hillsborough, North Carolina, USA. Daniel J. Finkenstadt, PhD, is a professional military officer and previously an Assistant Professor in the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Department of Defense Management offering courses in Enterprise Sourcing. Dr. Finkenstadt is the principal at Wolf Stake Consulting LLC and earned his PhD from the Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2020). He has over 20 years of defense contracting experience in operational (base level), systems center, headquarters, joint, overseas and classified environments. He is also a graduate of NPS (M.B.A., 2011). His research interests are business-to-government markets, professional services (knowledge-based services), generative artificial intelligence, gamification of education and contingency and scenario planning. He was the founder and Principal Investigator for the new Simulation and Ideation Lab for Applied Science (SILAS) at NPS. He has published multiple articles in the Harvard Business Review, including the recent Jul/Aug 2023 cover article along with Dr. Eapen. He has published various works in the National Contract Management Association Contract Management Magazine, Defense Acquisition Review Journal, Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, the Milbank Quarterly and California Management Review. He co-authored the Springer Nature book, “Supply Chain Immunity” with Dr. Rob Handfield in 2023. This book covers supply chain lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.