We need only to pick up a magazine or turn on the news to see that there is a furor about obesity. From the halls of public health and corporate boardrooms to tabloid newspapers and women’s magazines people are talking about obesity. A social response is shaping up that is poised to move private behavior into the public domain and broaden the target of intervention from the individual to both the individual and the social, physical, and food environments. Over the next decade, this response to obesity will influence the environments in which we do business and pursue health. In the business world, the response has the potential to disrupt existing markets and to create new ones as consumer preferences and regulations change. So where is all this headed? How might we assess the pace of change? We seek to offer you a way to see the lifecycle of the obesity response. We hope it will help you plot a clear course over the next three to five years that will allow your enterprise to anticipate and prepare for challenges and seize emerging opportunities.

[SR-987]

June 2006

• SR-987_Obesity_Mapping_Lifecycle_Response.pdf