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The Yale 2010 Consumer Insights Conference turned out to be wonderful.This was the first time that I was at a conference that had an equal mix of academics and practitioners and there was an abundance of two way conversations to reduce cycle time between theory and practice.
The theory to practice cycle time works like a chain in business academia, with a pessimistic time line like:
Publish academic paper (3-5 years, learning from practice) —–> Create academic impact and citations ( 3-10 years) ——> Get into the textbook and reach students (3-10 years concurrent with previous) ——-> Students are in positions of influence to change practice( 5-20 years)= 35 years!
In today's changing world businesses need to re-orient 100 times faster say every quarter.
While academia works on the principle of "publish or perish" some fields like medical research are able to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies to bring some theory to practice quicker. Large business consulting firms on the other hand are too locked in with customers and existing methodologies to try and tap business academia for the latest ideas.
Conferences like the Yale 2010 Consumer Insights conference go a long way in reducing the cycle time between theory and practice.