Bill Taylor shows business leaders a path to go from now to next in a world filled with nonstop disruption. As a young entrepreneur, Bill co-founded Fast Company, the bold business magazine that redefined the genre and chronicled the tech-fueled revolution that transformed business and work. Highlighting free-thinking leaders and companies that are upending their organizations and industries is Bill’s passion – and he had a front-row seat. After selling the magazine, Bill has continued to inspire a generation of executives and company-builders to think differently about leadership, change, culture, and the new world of work. He’s written three bestselling books filled with examples of new ways to innovate and succeed: Simply Brilliant: How Great Organizations Do Ordinary Things in Extraordinary Ways, Practically Radical, and Mavericks at Work. Bill also writes regularly for the Harvard Business Review. In a business environment where ordinary is not an option, Bill Taylor is a natural storyteller who inspires people to avoid the experience trap and not allow what they know to limit what they can imagine about the future.
FIND YOUR SPEAKER
BOOKS
Mavericks at Work
Business as usual is a bust . . .
In industry after industry, organizations that were once dismissed as upstarts, wildcards—mavericks—are making serious waves and growing fast. From high-profile innovators such as HBO and Google to funky sandwich shop chains, the truly imaginative and unconventional businesses are changing the way things are done—providing new approaches, strategies, and outlooks, as well as better ways to compete, lead, and succeed in the twenty-first century.
The first book to document this change, Mavericks at Work is business “edutainment” for a smart, ambitious readership, profiling some of the most exciting—and often eccentric—CEOs in the United States, while detailing their remarkable strategies for success
Practically Radical
“The most powerful and instructive change manual you’ll ever read. It will persuade and inspire you to change your business, your work, and maybe your life.”
—Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of A Whole New Mind
In Practically Radical, William C. Taylor, the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mavericks at Workoffers a refreshing, rigorous new look at pragmatic ways to shake things up and make positive change in difficult times. Anything but your typical business book, Practically Radical is a must-own for small business owners and CEOs, for managers at all levels, and innovators and entrepreneurs of every stripe.
Simply Brilliant
Far away from Silicon Valley, in familiar, traditional, even unglamorous fields, ordinary people are unleashing extraordinary advances that amaze customers, energize employees, and create huge economic value. Their secret? They understand that the work of inventing the future doesn’t just belong to geeks designing mobile apps and virtual-reality headsets, or to social-media entrepreneurs hoping to launch the next Facebook. Some of today’s most compelling organizations are doing brilliant things in simple settings such as retail banks, office cleaning companies, department stores, small hospitals, and auto dealerships.
William C. Taylor, cofounder of Fast Company and best-selling author of Practically Radical, traveled thousands of miles to visit these hotbeds of simple brilliance and unearth the principles and practices behind their success. He offers fascinating case studies and powerful lessons that you can apply to do ordinary things in extraordinary ways, regardless of your industry or profession. Consider, for instance, how…
·Miami Beach’s dazzling 1111 Lincoln Road reimagined the humble parking garage as a high-profile public space that hosts weddings, yoga classes, and celebrity gatherings.
·USAA, the financial-services giant that provides soldiers and their families with insurance and banking products, inspires frontline employees to deliver legendary service by immersing them in military culture.
·Pal’s Sudden Service, a fast-food chain with a cult following, serves up burgers and fries with such speed and accuracy that companies from other industries pay to learn from its astonishing discipline.
·Lincoln Electric, a manufacturer based in Euclid, Ohio, dominates its ultracompetitive markets with a fierce devotion to quality and productivity. But the key to its prosperity is a share-the-wealth model that gives everybody a sense of security and a piece of the action. It has maintained a strict no-layoff pledge since 1958.
As Taylor writes: “The story of this book, its message for leaders who aim to do something important and build something great, is both simple and subversive: In a time of wrenching disruptions and exhilarating advances, of unrelenting turmoil and unlimited promise, the future is open to everybody. The thrill of breakthrough creativity and breakaway performance . . . can be summoned in all sorts of industries and all walks of life, if leaders can reimagine what’s possible in their fields.” Simply Brilliant shows you how.
Entrepreneur & Innovator; Co-founder, Fast Company; Bestselling Author: Simply Brilliant, Practically Radical, and Mavericks at Work
Bill Taylor
KEYNOTE TOPICS
1. BIG CHANGE FOR FAST TIMES Transforming Your Organization and Challenging Yourself
In this era of hyper-competition and non-stop disruption, size doesn’t matter. It’s a world where the smart take from the strong and the most urgent work for every organization and leader is the work of making meaningful, deep-seated change. When customers have higher expectations than ever, and digital technologies and new business models create more choices than ever, then familiar ways of working and competing become less effective than ever. That means even the most successful companies have to rethink and reimagine every aspect of how they do business and deliver results. One challenge is originality—not to be the best at what others already do, but to be the only one who does what you do. Another challenge is people and culture—in a world transformed by technology, infusing your organization with a deeper sense of humanity. A third challenge is rethinking the logic of risk—recognizing that in an environment of constant disruption, “playing it safe” may be the most dangerous course of all. Armed with challenging ideas and in-depth case studies, Bill Taylor shows how organizations and leaders can unleash long-lasting, positive change in turbulent, fast-moving times.
2. SIMPLY BRILLIANT LEADERSHIP: THE ART OF GOING FROM NOW TO NEXT Don’t Let What You Know Limit What You Can Imagine
As the world is being remade before our eyes, the leaders who make a difference are the ones who can reimagine what’s possible at their organization and in their field, and who can turn bold strategies into relentless execution. And they’re not just CEOs; they’re executives running business units, managers in charge of key departments, engineers or marketers running project teams, entrepreneurs building a company from scratch. Regardless of their formal role or title, high-impact leaders make sure their expertise doesn’t get in the way of innovation. They champion provocative thinking that energizes their colleagues, and create organizations where people get the chance to be at their best every day. Put simply, the best leaders are the most insatiable learners and the most authentic mentors. Bill Taylor offers hands-on thinking gleaned from the extraordinary leaders he’s studied over the last 25 years—leaders who are as competitive as they are human, and as creative as they are consistent.
3. TALENT, CULTURE, AND THE NEW WORLD OF WORK How to Unleash and Sustain Fierce Execution and Nonstop Innovation
Business today is about distinctive competitive strategies, game-changing technologies, and creative social media and marketing. But the most successful organizations, those built on fierce execution and nonstop innovation, work as distinctively as they compete. The first question great organizations can answer is: What separates us from our rivals in the marketplace? But the next question is: What holds us together as colleagues in the workplace? In an era of brash ideas and disruptive business models, organizations that create the most extraordinary value are the ones that generate the most widely shared sense of commitment, connection, and compassion among colleagues. Whether you’re in a fast-moving digital field or a more traditional, slow-to-change industry, your organization can’t be exceptional unless it embraces cutting-edge technologies and also puts a sense of humanity back into the business. Bill’s reveals how some of the world’s most high-performing and creative workplaces engage their people to unleash and sustain a culture of fierce execution and nonstop innovation. The lessons and case studies are a cutting-edge agenda for recruiting, evaluating, organizing, and retaining talent.
4. TECHNOLOGY, PEOPLE, AND THE FUTURE OF COMPETITION The Human Side of IT Leadership
Big Data. Cloud Computing. AI. The business, work, and society. Companies use digital tools to reach more people in more places more quickly than ever. Social media and peer-to-peer communications reshape how brands communicate with customers and how colleagues collaborate with one another. Startups unveil new business models that shift the economics and overturn the logic of long-established industries. While technology is driving dramatic change, what customers, partners, and employees truly value is a deeper and more authentic sense of humanity—organizations that create experiences that are as memorable as they are efficient, leaders who recognize that disruptive technologies are at their most powerful when they are embedded in a culture of collaboration and trust. Bill Taylor draws on cutting-edge insights about technology and timeless truths about culture to show engineers, project leaders, and marketers the inexorable connection between technology and humanity – and why the most effective IT leaders are the most human leaders.
TESTIMONIALS
CLIENTS TESTIMONIALS
Thanks for a wonderful speech. Your energy on stage was phenomenal and people were buzzing all day about your talk, especially your point that it’s not about what keeps you up at night but what gets you up in the morning!
Director of Corporate Strategy & Innovation, Pfizer
You were a hit with the attendees. Of course, I’m not surprised. You have the ability to be informative, funny, motivational and a great story teller. That is a real gift.
Senior Vice President, Sales, Neighborhood Health Plan
Thank you for speaking at the OESA Annual Conference yesterday. Your presentation was the perfect way to end the day! The audience was engaged and taking notes – which was amazing at the end of a long day. We distributed over 300 of your books at the reception!