Author and marketing expert Philip Kotler offers advice for anticipating change, avoiding mistakes and staying close to customers.

By Anne Stuart

Q: In your new book, Chaotics: The Business of Managing and Marketing in The Age of Turbulence, you say that the signs of turbulence are everywhere. Is that disruption due to more than just the current economic downturn?

A: Even if we didn’t have a recession, we would be experiencing an increased level of turbulence. The recession just intensified those levels. Two forces are driving the changes: globalization and technological advancement. With globalization, companies are being encouraged to buy wherever in the world they get the lowest cost and sell wherever they get the highest price. Disturbances in one part of the world affect activities in other parts of the …