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Greggory Garrett to teach business and engineering students how to compete in the connected world

Bloomfield Twp., Mich. — Sept. 1, 2015 — Greggory Garrett, founder and CEO of CGS Advisors, a boutique strategy and innovation firm that assists corporate leaders in being brave and readying clients for the connected world, will once again teach the course “Competing in a Connected World” at Oakland University (OU) during the Fall 2015 semester.

In partnership between OU’s School of Business Administration and Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE), “Competing in a Connected World” is an advanced course that teaches students how to find new ways to gain a competitive edge in the global marketplace. Specifically, the course examines a variety of strategic topics, including:

• The basic architecture of the connected world
• Building blocks to succeed in an ever-changing business environment
• Different approaches to transform organizational leadership and governance to address challenges of the connected world
• Strategies and implementation models to manage value chains in a connected environment

“The world continues to find ways to increase connectivity daily; this presents numerous opportunities as well as challenges for the business community,” Garrett said. “I look forward to continuing the connected conversation and learning with Oakland University. These are the leaders of tomorrow who are not only be directly impacted by the connected world, but will also help drive it.”

According to Louay Chamra, Dean of Engineering at Oakland University, “Competing in a Connected World” was first offered to students in 2013 and has been growing in popularity since.

“We first offered ‘Competing in a Connected World’ to engineering students during the Fall 2013 semester,” Chamra said. “At OU, our main focus is our students and ensuring they’re ready to face the real world upon graduation; this results in bringing real life scenarios onto campus. Through natural progression, it only made sense to offer ‘Competing in a Connected World’ to OU business students as well. We are thrilled to have Gregg back on campus as he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to better educate our students.”

As the founder and CEO of CGS Advisors, Garrett pushes the limits of corporate cultures by developing and implementing unique strategies that capitalize on technology oriented disruptions to industries and markets. Prior to founding CGS Advisors, Garrett was the Chief Strategy Officer for IT & Innovation at Volkswagen Group of America where he developed and led the corporation’s strategy for how to apply IT; developed and managed innovation programs focused on “the connected world”; and managed a set of support functions including market research, business planning and a corporate venture capital program. Garrett holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from Michigan State University’s Broad School for Executive Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Systems Engineering from Oakland University.

“Competing in the Connected World” is open to any engineer as a professional development course, as well as OU engineering and business students. The course will be offered from 6 – 9 p.m. on Wednesday evenings from September through December 2015. For more information or to enroll, contact Maureen Callaghan at (248) 370-2989 or mpcallag@oakland.edu. The course is cross-listed under ISE 595 ST: Competing in a Connected World for engineering students and MIS 680 ST: Competing in a Connected World for business students.

About CGS Advisors

Corporate Growth Strategy (CGS) Advisors was founded in 2008 with the focus to help leaders be brave by cutting through the noise and defining unique paths to growth. CGS understands today’s market environment is being heavily influenced by the growing “Connected World” and helps clients understand this change, plan and implement a strategy to take advantage of it, and derive an innovation capability to transmit the vision and plan across the organization. Learn more at www.CGSAdvisors.com.