Hitting Curveballs: Today's most important business skill

You may be an inspiring leader able to rally and unite dispirited and divided individuals. You could be a brilliant visionary able to invent innovative products and services. Or you might be a compelling communicator able to charm investors and captivate customers. Possessing any one of these talents would make you a business all-star in the past. But today, it will only mark you as a phenom: someone with potential. To become a business hall of famer – a proven long term winner – you need to show that you know how to hit a curveball: how to confront and regularly overcome the unexpected.

Hitting curveballs has become the indispensable skill for long term business survival, not just success, in the current economic environment. If you want to make the majors and have a future either in a corporate structure, as an entrepreneur, or as an independent professional, you need to be able to deal with unanticipated events and scenarios. The unexpected has always occurred, and business leaders have always had to deal with it. However, things really are different today because of four distinct but interconnected trends.

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About the Author

Scott R. Singer has spent the past 20 years advising companies on how to adapt to change, to embrace technological advances, and to put the best strategy in place to deal with the next big thing – essentially, teaching them how to hit curveballs. A noted media industry expert, investment banker, and strategy consultant, Scott serves as Managing Director and Head of Media & Entertainment at The Bank Street Group, a boutique investment banking firm focused on providing sophisticated advice regarding mergers & acquisitions; fairness opinions; private debt, equity, and venture capital raising; as well as bankruptcies, restructurings, and turnarounds to telecommunications, media, technology, aerospace & defense, and healthcare companies. Scott is regularly called on by Bloomberg, CNBC, FOX Business, Reuters and numerous publications such as, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, CNNMoney.com, Crain’s New York Business, and Forbes.com in addition to many other industry publications as a media expert to address various domestic and global topics. To read Scott’s complete biography, click here.