GEOFF COLVIN

• Which critical trends will most impact your business and the economic climate?
• What are the best leaders and organizations doing right now to grow in uncertain/disruptive times and harness the opportunities that are always present, regardless of the business cycle??
• What are the unexpected truths about great performance and how can organizations and individuals use them to ramp up performance?
• What are the critical jobs skills of the future for individuals and organizations in a world where technology destroys more jobs than it creates. Hint: think empathy!

TALENT IS OVERRATED – REAL TRUTHS OF GREAT PERFORMANCE

What if everything you know about raw talent, hard work, and great performance is wrong? Odds are that few if any of the people around you are truly great at what they do—awesomely, amazingly, world-class excellent. But why not? Why don’t they manage businesses like Jack Welch or Andy Grove, or play tennis like Rafael Nadal, or play the violin like Itzhak Perlman? Scientific research on great performance exposes what most of us wrongly believe. Geoff Colvin, author of the groundbreaking national bestseller Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers From Everybody Else, explains the findings and relates them to real life in real organizations. He shows how most organizations value the wrong things – how passion, honesty, and learning are more valuable than hours, IQ, or “native ability.” In an engaging, entertaining way, he demonstrates that world-class performance doesn’t come from mysterious natural gifts but rather from very specific behaviors that every organization can adopt. People and organizations that learn from these principles gain a tremendous advantage, because most are still making costly errors. The same principles used by the greatest performers can be applied by all of us – and must be, if we’re to meet the challenge of rising standards in today’s global economy.

CONFRONTING THE REALITY OF CHANGE

When change comes at us from every direction, it can feel like our only option is to play defense. “Not so,” says Geoff Colvin of Fortune. “The best leaders I’ve reported on have found ways to embrace a world of continuous disruption and build a powerful competitive advantage in the process.” Geoff is optimistic about the future as he unpacks step-by-step how we can all respond faster to change and even get ahead of it as individuals, teams, and enterprises. Geoff provides actionable takeaways to help leaders face change smarter:

• What the best leaders and companies are doing right now to create the future
• Why confronting reality faster is the key to seizing new opportunities
• Biggest pandemic lessons for business
• Scenario planning: surviving bad times begins with better decisions in good times
• 3 best ways to lead during crisis and disruption
• Creativity and innovation – how to unleash it individually and organizationally

RISKS & OPPORTUNITIES IN THIS ECONOMY

Global turmoil has roiled an already fragile economic order in ways that are still unfolding. At Fortune, Geoff tells the economic story in terms that focus on the risks and opportunities. Business people already know the numbers – what they might miss is the big picture; the forces driving the trends causing disruptive change in their world and, most importantly, what to do about it. This presentation isn’t a stream of economic statistics; it’s an optimistic story that Geoff tells engagingly, humorously, and memorably with valuable takeaways because, as he says, “Even in tough times, somebody’s going to win, why not you?”.Geoff covers:

• Why, even in times like this, it’s vital to remain optimistic
• The latest data and trends curated for the audience/industry he’s addressing
• A plain-spoken explanation of what’s going on now – on Main Street, Wall Street, in Washington, and globally.
• How successful companies are winning in this economy

FUTURE-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS MODEL

Four big trends are causing business leaders angst as they confront the idea that their business model needs to change. In this talk, Geoff Colvin looks at how the economic climate, advancements in tech, global and domestic politics, and workers are moving to render many business models obsolete. As a result, business model innovation has become a must-have competence for all companies. That’s a problem for those that are unprepared but a huge opportunity for those who are paying attention and taking this challenge seriously. Geoff reveals:

• Inspiring examples of companies transforming their business model and winning
• Key trends driving the need for business model change
• How to just do it: Stop protecting yesterday and start creating the future
• The secrets to becoming a business model innovator
• How to adapt to a friction-free economy and create outsized opportunities
• Why human capital is the most valuable kind and how to make the most of it
   

LEARNING FROM THE WORLD’S GREATEST LEADERS

Through his work at Fortune, Geoff Colvin has seen top business leaders up close. Over the years, he’s gotten to know many of those leaders well. Watching them and talking with them has revealed eye-opening insights into how they cope with change, wrestle with transforming their companies, and face the economic, competitive, technological, and political forces buffeting their businesses. Geoff unpacks their stories in this talk uniquely crafted for each audience, showing relevant lessons learned from leaders and companies we all know.This talk can focus on several themes:

• The crucial process of making tough decisions
• Finding and keeping great employees
• Navigating regulatory uncertainty
• Adopting new technology
• Managing in a crisis
• Leading cultural change