Corporate strategists have long sought to have a stronger impact on business direction and to make strategy more adaptive to an increasingly dynamic marketplace. At IBM, the Global Market Trends process has provided strategists with a means to achieve both objectives. Global Market Trends, or GMT, is an ongoing analysis of major economic and market trends, competitive issues and emerging technologies that promise to have an impact on IBM's business. Corporate strategists annually publish Global Market Trends in the Networked Era, a 100-page study that creates a common backdrop for strategy development at the corporate and business-unit levels. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.