Z+Partners closely works with a network of luminaries - affiliated thinkers, makers and doers working on the frontiers of knowledge, social change and creativity.

Z+Partners issues a quarterly newsletter - FirstWord, a paid service, that focuses on a single, crucial topic that is shaping the future of business and society. These critical topics may include new approaches to innovation, changes in the buying public's attitude toward the environment, the implications of China's ascension as global economic and military power or how rapidly changing demographics will transforms markets across the globe.

The FirstWord service starts off at a whopping $2,995, and comes in an elegantly designed kit that is a treasure trove of groundbreaking ideas, provocative content. In the FirstWord kit you receive a high-level briefing from Andrew Zolli, the founder of Z+Partners, which is written in succinct, elucidating English and focuses on actionable insights; 5 - 10 interviews with the world's best and most original thinkers on the topic at hand, these are insiders and specialists working on the front line; direct contact information from these leaders (and the explicit permission to reach and contact these luminaries), so you can add them to your network; copies of the 2 - 3 best books on the subject at hand selected by Z+Partners, plus DVDs and/or other media relevant to the this quarters topic; a CD-ROM with a custom PowerPoint presentation for disseminating the information within your organization, digital copies of all the elements in the kit and weblinks to online resources relevant to the topic.

Every quarterly installment of FirstWord is intended to provide accessible depth - from a high-level visual overview down to the nitty-gritty; the result of hundreds of hours of research distilled into a package feels as like a gift as well as a cogent briefing.

Lastly, all subscribers to FirstWord are invited to join a private conference call in which many of the profiled thinkers will answer questions and make themselves available for personal interaction.

FirstWord is a pricey vehicle into the world of innovation, but does knowledge really have a price when it could mean the difference between surviving the next decade or global paradigm shattering event?