“Stop using the same planning techniques for new businesses that you use for existing ones,” says Rita Gunther McGrath, associate professor at Columbia Business School. “Instead, plan to learn rather than planning to be right.” She speaks on “Grow Your Company Safely in Uncertain Times” at a lunch on Thursday, October 7, at 11:30 a.m. at the Princeton Marriott. Reserve in advance at 609-924-1776 or http://www.princetonchamber.org.

Full disclosure: I know and like Rita McGrath and have done business with her. She lives in West Windsor and was sufficiently prescient to appreciate U.S. 1 Newspaper’s business database and used it for her research. She’s a charming, lively speaker with smart things to say, and she’s asked to say them to the likes of Microsoft’s CEO Summit, General Electric, Nokia, Novartis, etc. She wowed a Princeton Chamber audience several years ago at the Nassau Club.

Her latest book: Discovery Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity. Click here for her interview in U.S. 1 Newspaper.

One of her useful mantras: Fail fast and fail cheap. “To learn, you’ll need to fail – but if you fail fast, and fail cheaply, you can gain a significant edge over more timid competitors.

Afterword: For an account of McGrath’s very successful talk to the chamber, click here.