Keynote Presentations

Build a Better Box: Innovating to Differentiate and Stay Ahead of the Competition

Stephen Shapiro, Innovation Evangelist and Author

In their attempts to boost innovation, well-intentioned leaders are inadvertently destroying it. What if “thinking outside the box” actually kills innovation? What if failure is not a necessary component of innovation? It’s time to innovate the way you innovate and build a better box.

Innovation isn’t just about generating occasional new ideas; it’s about staying consistently one step ahead of the competition. It’s also about focusing your energy where it will have the greatest impact, whether that’s improving the employee experience, creating intentional customer experiences, or increasing the value your support organization provides to the business. Discover how to reframe your challenges, harness the insights of specialists and generalists, and find creative solutions everywhere you look.

About the Speaker

Stephen Shapiro cultivates innovation by showing leaders and their teams how to approach, tackle and solve their business challenges. Applying the knowledge he has accrued over decades in the industry, Stephen is able to see what others can’t: opportunities to improve innovation models and the cultures that support them.

The first innovation opportunity Stephen Shapiro spotted was the opportunity to innovate within his own life. Halfway through his 15-year tenure at Accenture, while leading the company’s business process reengineering practice, he realized he no longer wanted to be responsible for people losing their jobs. So he did exactly the opposite by building Accenture’s thriving 20,000-person process and innovation practice focused on growth and job creation.

In 2001, after publishing his first book, 24/7 Innovation, Stephen left Accenture to become a full-time innovation speaker and advisor to clients around the world. Since then he has published four more books and spoken to audiences in 50 different countries. Today, Stephen continues to focus on transforming the way businesses like 3M, P&G, Marriott, Nike, and Microsoft improve innovation practices.

The Culture Equation: Power Your Strategy and Accelerate Performance

Jessica Kriegel, Workplace Culture Expert

Have you been operating in an “accidental culture” rather than an intentionally crafted one? Are you looking to get more out of your team but aren’t sure how? Dr. Jessica Kriegel’s Culture Equation demystifies the “woo” of culture, breaking down the variables of an intentional culture to help leaders realize sustainable engagement and excellence. Leave this keynote with a new perspective on managing and championing cultural transformation (it’s entirely possible and even simple!), steps for cultivating an intentional culture that powers your business strategy and accelerates performance, and both a roadmap and the motivation to become a champion of The Culture Equation

About the Speaker

For more than 15 years, Dr. Jessica Kriegel has been guiding global, national, Fortune 100, and other organizations across finance, technology, real estate, and healthcare industries on how to create intentional cultures that accelerate performance.

After she got her MBA and became a global consultant for a human capital management solutions provider, Jessica consistently saw highly stressed leaders failing to deliver against lofty financial goals. She knew that if these leaders could transform their cultures, performance and profitability would follow. But, because the culture is often viewed as ‘woo’ and intangible, these leaders didn’t know where to begin. So, Jessica set out on a personal mission to quantify culture.

Her doctoral research and consulting engagements with Oracle, Toyota, Lockheed Martin, and the Federal Reserve led to the Culture Equation, a tested model that empowers your people to deliver consistent results. Today, Jessica applies data-driven insights to dismantle the chaos of poor morale, low performance, and missed financial goals. Leaders lean on her to ask questions that their internal resources may be too afraid or unaware to ask and get the results they need.