great business speakers

TAKING A STAND Have you noticed how more and more business leaders are becoming outspoken advocates on important topics? And - they’re making business decisions based on their convictions. The company that first got my attention on this was CVS which banned tobacco products from their stores in 2014, the first national retail chain to do so. They couldn’t reconcile being a health-focused company and selling a product proven to compromise their customer’s health. CVS has prospered in the aftermath. Since then, there’s been a trend of stakeholders holding companies accountable – asking them to stand for something more than just profits. These are the times we live in – and navigating that is tricky stuff for any business leader. Just ask Ed Stack, CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods who banned assault-style rifles and raised the age to purchase guns to 21 after finding out his store sold the Parkland High School shooter a shotgun. That gun wasn’t used, but he felt the company needed to do something. They turned $5 million in assault rifles into scrap metal. Actions like that have a profound impact on the corporate culture of an organization as well as how the company is perceived by the public.

NAVIGATING DISRUPTIVE CHANGE As a leader, you and your organization confront the unexpected every single day.  In an environment of constant disruption, the survival skill of our times is the ability to adapt on-the-fly. The foundation of that competency is a culture that is resilient, innovative, and constantly experimenting.  In formulating a response to disruption, leaders must recognize - first and foremost - that all change goes against the rules. Polly LaBarre has devoted her career to uncovering the best examples of leaders and organizations that are succeeding by thinking differently about the forces driving change inside and outside their organizations. Polly is co-author of Mavericks at Work - Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win and also founding writer of Fast Company magazine. As co-founder of Management Lab, the think-and-do tank that provides counsel to top companies all over the globe, Polly tackles real-world obstacles to organizational competitiveness by helping clients create cultures that can adapt to change almost as fast as change itself.  I asked Polly for her best advice for leaders who are navigating today’s unpredictable business environment. Here are highlights. 

GEOFF COLVIN of Fortune has devoted his remarkable career covering the biggest stories in business. In recent years Geoff's focus has been chronicling the disruptive forces shaping the business landscape and how leaders are navigating them. From his work, Geoff says one thing is abundantly clear "the big difference between winners and also-rans in healthcare is that top leaders and companies confront the realities they’re facing faster than the competition."

Hardiness and the Courage To Lead How do great leaders find courage in defining moments, while most people don’t? That's the essence of leadership and the question has intrigued GEOFF COLVIN for years and led him to spearhead Fortune’s effort to create a different kind of top leaders list in 2014. Last week, Fortune announced the sixth annual World’s Greatest Leaders for 2019. As in the past, this year's list has some names you’ll know and many more that you won’t; but they all share a common leadership trait: “Great leaders never know for sure if their plans will work, but they plunge ahead anyway,” says Geoff. “That’s why we recognize sheer audacity, well-intended, even if the results aren’t known and even if the plans aren’t universally applauded.”

BILL TAYLOR, the co-founder of Fast Company magazine, has devoted his career to studying how the best companies and leaders navigate a world filled with disruptive change: new business models, groundbreaking technology, and so much more. In his three books (the most recent, Simply Brilliant: How Great Organizations Do Ordinary Things in Extraordinary Ways), Bill highlights the mavericks who have transformed their organizations and become industry disruptors themselves - in banking, in healthcare, in manufacturing, in transportation, in food service -- even a parking garage! 

Fortune magazine just highlighted LinkedIn’s U.S. Emerging Jobs Report for 2018. LinkedIn measured the fastest growing jobs and skills in the country and is a window on the future of work. It highlights some stunning information like this:           -Top Five Emerging Jobs          -Top Five In-Demand Skills (Biggest Skills Gap)          -Top Five Majors for Professionals in Emerging Jobs          -Top Five Fastest-Growing by Job Title

It was exactly two years ago today that my most recent book made its publishing debut, so Happy Birthday to Simply Brilliant! (Today is also my wife’s birthday, but in the interest of marital harmony and self-preservation I will not be releasing a number.) I thought it might be helpful to use the occasion of this Simply Brilliant birthday to highlight five things I’ve learned and re-learned over the last two years—lessons on strategy, innovation, and leadership that I believe will allow you, your team, and your organization to thrive in a world where ordinary is not an option. So here goes…

THE INDOMITABLE SPIRIT OF NICOLE MALACHOWSKI 

Imagine this: you've just taken command of the near-worst performing ship in the U.S. Navy. Your job is to try and turn things around - something others before you have tried and failed to do. Where do you start?  What's the first thing you'd do? That’s was the intriguing question that was posed to MIKE ABRASHOFF during the Q&A session last month. Mike is the former Navy captain who came to the world’s attention in a Fast Company magazine cover story. The magazine heard that he’d taken command of a poorly-performing performing ship in the Navy and transformed it in just about a year's time into the best ship in the fleet – using the same crew. That’s some organizational transformation and the magazine wanted to know how he did it. 

The World’s Greatest Leaders list for 2018 has just been announced by Fortune. Five years ago, GEOFF COLVIN (a long-time speaker on business for D’Amelio Network) led the first-ever effort to create Fortune’s fresh look at leaders through a different lens. It’s not the usual suspects of well-known business and political leaders, but instead, a list that celebrates the passion, commitment, and ingenuity of a surprisingly broad range of those who are making a difference in the world.