Author Speakers to Keynote your Convention or Conference

Our Iceberg is Melting

Speaking Topics: Change Management, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Management, Professor/Teacher, Strategy

Our Iceberg is Melting is described as "a simple fable with profound lessons for working and living in an ever changing world." Dr. Kotter draws parallels to a colony of penguins threatened by a decrease in living space and the ever-diminishing market space with which any organization contends. He identifies and clarifies key elements in the change process, thawing out an entire array of change management tools for the reader’s use. For usable content and readability, Dr. Kotter’s latest goes much deeper than just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

James Gilmore

Authenticity

Speaking Topics: Advertising, Branding, Customer Loyalty, Marketing, Retail

Contrived. Disingenuous. Phony. Inauthentic. Do your customers use any of these words to describe what you sell or how you sell it? If so, welcome to the club.

In Authenticity, James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II argue that, to trounce rivals, companies must grasp, manage, and excel at rendering authenticity. Through examples from a wide array of industries as well as government, non-profit, education, and religious sectors, the authors show how to manage customers perception of authenticity by:

· Recognizing how businesses fake it
· Appealing to the five different genres of authenticity
· Charting how to be true to self and what you say you are
· Crafting and implementing business strategies for rendering authenticity

Jeffrey Gitomer

The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way

Speaking Topics: Customer Service, Sales Management, Sales Motivation, Sales Training

Jeffrey Gitomer's The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way digs deep into the 9.5 elements that make getting your way happen. By breaking down the elements, the reader will begin to understand, take action, become proficient, and then master the ability to persuade. Because persuasion most often takes place in business, he draws special emphasis to the reader's ability to write and sell persuasively. He brings the Benjamin Franklin quote "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" to the Gitomer level of "You only fail when you decide to quit," and the book ends challenging the reader how to think about excellence and eloquence. From there, it will be up to the reader to take advantage of the blueprint Gitomer provides and harness the power of persuasion.

Jonas Ridderstrale

Re-energizing the Corporation: How Leaders Make Change Happen

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Change Management, Creativity, E-business, E-commerce, Entrepreneurship, Futurist, Globalization, Human Resources, Innovation, International Business, Leadership, Management, Strategy, Technology

Some business books ask why. Others tell you how. Uniquely and powerfully, Re-Energizing The Corporation explains why you must lead change and how to do it.

Jonas Ridderstråle, co-author of the international bestseller Funky Business and one of the world's most influential business gurus, provides a vibrant and energizing take on the world of today and tomorrow.

Re-Energizing The Corporation is built on the groundbreaking 3e leadership model, which makes sense of the three Es of Envisioning, Engaging and Executing. By understanding and following the model, you will be able to create compelling pictures of the future of your organization; build a following of individuals committed to getting the vision into reality; and maximize team performance to deliver on your dream.

Re-energizing the Corporation aims to shake organizations out of their all too common torpor. It will help those leaders who know they need to change to become the surprise-shockers of their industries by re-energizing themselves and their teams.

Joseph Pine

Authenticity

Speaking Topics: Customer Loyalty, Customer Service, Growth, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Strategy

Contrived. Disingenuous. Phony. Inauthentic. Do your customers use any of these words to describe what you sell or how you sell it? If so, welcome to the club.

In Authenticity, B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore and argue that, to trounce rivals, companies must grasp, manage, and excel at rendering authenticity. Through examples from a wide array of industries as well as government, non-profit, education, and religious sectors, the authors show how to manage customers perception of authenticity by:

· Recognizing how businesses fake it
· Appealing to the five different genres of authenticity
· Charting how to be true to self and what you say you are
· Crafting and implementing business strategies for rendering authenticity

Marcus Buckingham

Go Put Your Strengths to Work

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Human Resources, Leadership, Management

Go Put Your Strengths To Work shows you how to take action. It teaches you a simple six-step discipline to make the most of your strengths and neutralize your weaknesses, and how you can stick to this discipline despite the pressures of a company, a boss, or even a spouse pulling you off your strengths path. Beginning with the million-copy bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham jump-started the strengths movement that is now sweeping the work world, from business to government to education. Now that the movement is in full swing, Buckingham's new book answers the ultimate question: How can you actually apply your strengths for maximum success at work?

Ram Charan

The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation

Speaking Topics: Change Management, Corporate Governance, Economy, Growth, Leadership, Management, Strategy, Innovation

How you can increase and sustain organic revenue and profit growth whether you're running an entire company or in your first management job.

Over the past seven years, Procter & Gamble has tripled profits; significantly improved organic revenue growth, cash flow, and operating margins; and averaged earnings per share growth of 12 percent. How? A. G. Lafley and his leadership team have integrated innovation into everything P&G does and created new customers and new markets.
Through eye-opening stories, he and Ram Charan shows how some companies become game-changers.

We live in a world of unprecedented change, increasing global competitiveness, and the very real threat of commoditization. Innovation in this world is the best way to win-arguably the only way to really win. Innovation is not a separate, discrete activity but the job of everyone in a leadership position and the integral, central driving force for any business that wants to grow organically and succeed on a sustained basis.

Ram Charan

Know How

Speaking Topics: Change Management, Corporate Governance, Economy, Growth, Management, Leadership

Know How is the breakthrough book that links the skills of people who know what they are doing with the personal and psychological traits of the successful leader. All too often we mistake the appearance of leadership for the real deal. Without a doubt, intelligence, vision, and the ability to communicate are important. But something big is missing: the know-how of running a business—the capacity to take it in the right direction, do the right things, make the right decisions, deliver results, and leave the people and the business better off than they were before. Ram Charan’s insight into the real content of leadership provides you with the eight fundamental skills needed for success in the twenty-first century.

Russell Simmons

Do You!: 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success

Speaking Topics: Branding, Celebrity, Diversity, Management, Marketing, Media, Popular Culture, Retail

Since rising out of the New York City streets over 25 years ago, Russell Simmons has helped create such groundbreaking ventures as Def Jam Records, Phat Farm and Def Comedy Jam, in the process becoming known the world over as "The CEO of Hip Hop." Russell Simmons might have helped introduce hip-hop to the world, but he credits his success to his belief in a strong set of principles--or laws--which he shares for the first time in this book. In 12 straightforward steps, Russell Simmons reveals a path towards success that can be followed not only by those looking to duplicate his professional success, but anyone struggling to realize their dreams. Indeed, those solely looking for advice on how to build up their bank accounts at the expense of personal integrity should probably look elsewhere. That's because these laws stem from the belief that all success, be it professional or personal, comes from a connection with your higher self. Using examples from his own experiences and observations, Russell Simmons demonstrates how tapping into that connection will allow you to get your mind right, find the motivation to start instead of stall, surround yourself with the right people, appreciate the power of hard work and understand the power of karma. But most importantly, this book will demonstrate how it's impossible to receive any sort of lasting success from the world without giving something of lasting value to the world first. That's a practice that is reflected in Russell Simmons's own work as a mentor and philanthropist and one that he promotes as being fundamental to empowerment and success on every level. Blending business insight, universal spiritual truths and an inspired sense of purpose Do You! crosses the lines of age, race and background with wisdom that will lift you up and motivate you to pursue your vision.

Susan Ershler

Together on Top of the World

Speaking Topics: Adventure, Goal Setting, Inspiration, Motivation, Mountaineer, Peak Performance, Sales Motivation

On May 16, 2002, Phil and Susan Ershler became the first couple in history to scale the fabled Seven Summits of Mt. Everest. Susan was not a mountain climber, but a high-powered executive who had never hiked or climbed until she met Phil at the age of 36. Phil, a professional mountain guide, had climbed his whole life with Crohn's disease, a chronic, debilitating illness. Just before their final summit, Phil was diagnosed with colon cancer, and the resulting surgeries and complications were expected to end his career. This is Susan and Phil's story: a tale of love set in the mountains, a story of triumphant highs and devastating lows in quest of a seemingly impossible dream.

Bill Glynn

Left on Red: How to Ignite, Leverage and Build Visionary Organizations

Speaking Topics: CEO, Corporate Culture, E-business, E-commerce, Emerging Technology, Entrepreneurship, Financial Markets, Growth, Internet/Web, Investing, Management, Marketing, Mergers/Acquisitions, Small Business, Strategy, Technology

What does it take to build a company capable of changing the world? Constant innovation, and ideation? An obsessive, almost insane sense of urgency? Business Velocity and IQ? In Left on Red, venture capitalist and recognized innovator Bill Glynn presents an insider's view of the way great businesses are built.

Visionary, game-changing companies like Google and Apple don't just appear out of nowhere. Instead, they are built by maverick leaders and business commandos willing to throw the rules out the window and disrupt the status quo. They don't just "think outside the box"- for them, there is no box at all. With great personal, financial, and social risk, true innovators throughout history have overcome the most complex constraints society can throw at them. Naysayers, deal prevention teams, and the social order, like red lights, are meant to slow or stop progressive movement. Taking a left turn at a red light or driving right through it—like real innovation—is dangerous, a little crazy, and certainly a lonely sport not for the weak-willed. But if you have the guts and smarts to try it, the rewards are well worth it.

Most companies stifle and discourage their most creative employees and leaders. Only today's best companies constantly and perpetually seek out visionary employees, encourage ideation, and use every means necessary to improve their business and products. Those companies know how to build a business environment that promotes innovation and rewards risk-taking. Left on Red shows how they do it, revealing the way today's best business leaders implant innovation and change into the very DNA of their businesses.

C.K. Prahalad

The New Age of Innovation: Driving Cocreated Value Through Global Networks

Speaking Topics: Corporate Social Responsibility, Economy, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Management, Strategy

From the greatest minds in business today comes a groundbreaking new blueprint for executing the next stage of customer-created value. C.K. Prahalad, the world's premier business thinker unveils the critical missing link in connecting strategy to execution--building organizational capabilities that allow companies to achieve and sustain continuous change and innovation.

The New Age of Innovation reveals that the key to creating value and the future growth of every business depends on accessing a global network of resources to co-create unique experiences with customers, one at a time. To achieve this, CEOs, executives, and managers at every level must transform their business processes, technical systems, and supply chain management, implementing key social and technological infrastructure requirements to create an ongoing innovation advantage.

In this landmark work, Prahalad explains how to accomplish this shift--one where IT and the management architecture form the corporation's fundamental foundation.
To successfully compete on the battlefields of 21st-century business, companies must reinvent their processes and culture in order to sustain innovative solutions. The New Age of Innovation is a complete program for achieving this transformation to meet the needs of the end consumer of the future.

Carl Schramm

Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Economy, Entrepreneurship, Innovation

In this easy-to-understand breakdown of modern economics, Carl Schramm dispels the myth that there is only one type of capitalism, documenting four different varieties of capitalism, some “Good” and some “Bad” for growth. The authors identify the conditions that characterize Good Capitalism—the right blend of entrepreneurial and established firms, which can vary among countries—as well as the features of Bad Capitalism. They examine how countries catching up to the United States can move faster toward the economic frontier, while laying out the need for the United States itself to stick to and reinforce the recipe for growth that has enabled it to be the leading economic force in the world. This path breaking book is a must read for anyone who cares about global growth and how to ensure America’s economic future.

Cheryl Cran

The Control Freak Revolution: Make Your Most Maddening Behaviors Work for Your Company and to Your Advantage

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Business Excellence, Change Management, Communication, Leadership, Management, Personal Growth, Women's Issues

Leaders in business are typically criticized as control freaks. The Control Freak Revolution shows you that being a control freak is actually a good thing, and why CEOs look for leaders who can use control to increase employee and team effectiveness. Also included are telling insights and anecdotes from real CEOs and famous leaders such as Donald Trump, Martha Stewart, and Rudy Guiliani, who have used control to their advantage. With The Control Freak Revolution, any leader at any level can learn how to be a positive control freak who creates positive results.

David Bach

Go Green, Live Rich: 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying

Speaking Topics: Empowerment Skills, Finance, Investing, Personal Growth

Let David Bach show you a whole new way to prosper—by going green
Internationally renowned financial expert David Bach has always urged readers to put their financial lives in line with their values. But what if your values are a cleaner and greener earth? Most people think that “going green” is an expensive choice they can’t afford. Bach is here to say that you can have both: a life in line with your green values and a million dollars in the bank.

Go Green, Live Rich outlines fifty ways to make your life, your home, your shopping, and your finances greener—and get rich trying. From driving the right car to making your home energy smart, Bach offers ways to improve the environment while you spend less, save more, earn more, and pay fewer taxes. Best of all, he shows you exactly how to take advantage of the "green wave" in personal finance without the difficult work of evaluating individual stocks. What's more, he will get you thinking about a green business of your own so you can help the world along as it is changing for the better.

David Bach is on a mission to teach the world that you can live a great life by living a green life. With Go Green, Live Rich, you can live in line with your eco-values on the road to financial freedom.

David Weinberger

Everything is Miscellaneous

Speaking Topics: Communication, E-business, Internet/Web Marketing, Technology

In Everything is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger insists that "we have to get rid of the idea that there's a best way of organizing the world." Building on his earlier works' discussions of the Internet-driven shift in power to users and consumers, Weinberger notes that "our homespun ways of maintaining order are going to break—they're already breaking—in the digital world." Today's avalanche of fresh information, Weinberger writes, requires relinquishing control of how we organize pretty much everything; he envisions an ever-changing array of "useful, powerful and beautiful ways to make sense of our world." The book's call to embrace complexity will influence thinking about "the newly miscellanized world."

Dr. Bruce Weinstein

Life Principles

Speaking Topics: Ethics/Values, Leadership, Management, Sales Management

In this inspiring, practical, and highly readable tribute to doing the right thing, nationally recognized ethics expert Dr. Bruce Weinstein explores how every religion expresses the five principles of ethics, and how to apply them to our own lives. Q&A sections present ethical conflicts in real-life situations and offer solutions to common problems. Life Principles also provides guidance for times when values conflict and seem to pull us in opposite directions. Find out your "ethics IQ" by taking the simple test provided—and then increase your score by making the five simple "Life Principles" part of your life.

Dr. Mehmet Oz

You on a Diet

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Fitness, Lifestyles, Nutrition, Wellness

Dr. Mehmet Oz, co-author of You on a Diet. Loaded with biology lessons, tests, tips, and eating plans, the diet book created by Drs. Roizen and Oz delves deeply into body chemistry. This information-packed follow-up to You: The Owner's Manual has a great deal of helpful advice about good eating habits, exercise, and ways of reprogramming the body to follow healthier regimes.

Flip Flippen

The Flip Side

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Diversity, Education, Leadership, Motivation, Psychology

Flip Flippen is the most influential man you've never heard of. This personable Texan is the founder of The Flippen Group, one of the fastest-growing corporate and personal training companies in America. Flip Side offers great advice for everyone, but particularly appealing to those who are taking stock of what they want to do with the rest of their lives. When we learn how to identify our "personal constraints" and take the necessary steps to correct self-limiting behaviors, we will experience a dramatic surge in productivity, achieve things we have only dreamed of, and find greater happiness overall. Flippen has created a simple process to help readers find their greatest constraint (the results may be surprising!) and build a plan to help "flip" that weakness into a newfound strength.

Jack Mitchell

Hug Your People: The Proven Way to Hire, Inspire, and Recognize Your Employees and Achieve Remarkable Results

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Consumer Trends, Customer Loyalty, Customer Service, Marketing, Relationships/Family

In Hug Your Customers, Jack Mitchell showed business readers how to keep their customers happy--and their profits booming. In Hug Your People, he elaborates on his big secret: hiring, motivating and keeping your biggest asset, great employees!

"Giving great personalized customer service has always been the foremost goal in my family, but one thing we never lose sight of is that you can't possibly deliver great service if you don't treat your own associates right." So says Jack Mitchell, CEO of his family's astoundingly successful chain of clothing stores. In Hug Your People, he shares his secrets for creating happy employees.

Hug Your People is filled with real stories about real people. Jack offers his principles on "hugging" your associates--whether they are the sales team, the cleaning staff, the delivery people, the backroom financial wizards, the marketing and advertising departments, or outsourced staff. Hug Your People is just what today's employees and managers need.

Jack Welch

Winning

Speaking Topics: CEO, Leadership, Management, Strategy, Technology, Author/Writer

Jack Welch, author and business man, knows how to win. During his forty-year career at General Electric, he led the company to year-after-year success around the globe, in multiple markets, against brutal competition. His honest, be-the-best style of management became the gold standard in business, with his relentless focus on people, teamwork, and profits.

Janine Turner

Holding Her Head High: 12 Single Mothers Who Championed Their Children and Changed History

Speaking Topics: Balance, Celebrity, Emcees, Inspiration, Motivation, Overcoming Adversity, Women's Issues, Work/Life Balance

Life lessons from single mothers throughout history form the inspiration for single mothers today.

Single moms are not just a product of our modern culture. There have been single mothers throughout history, women who have raised not only their children but also nations with a higher vision for life. Holding Her Head High recounts stories of twelve such women from the third to the twenty-first centuries, women who found ways to twist their fates to represent God's destiny for their lives.

These uniquely powerful, brave women, within the scope of their own world and times, are like the ninety-nine percent of single mothers today who never intended to carry that distinction. They are abandoned, widowed, or divorced, all carrying wounds, yet they also all found ways to exhibit courage, kindness, dignity, and faith to heal themselves by healing others.
Actress Janine Turner, herself a single mother, describes the social implications for women and children from the Roman Empire through the Middle Ages to Pioneer days, including a single mother of slavery. Stories from women like Rachel Lavein Fawcett, abandoned single mother of Alexander Hamilton; Abagail Adams, a wartime widow; Harriet Jacobs, an unwed mother of slavery whose autobiography was published the year the Civil War began; and widowed Belva Lockwood, the first woman to officially run for President, all carrying wounds but all offering insight, wisdom, and encouragement.

Jeffrey Eisenberg

Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, E-business, E-commerce, Marketing

The Eisenberg brothers call the principles behind their marketing consultancy "Persuasion Architecture." Observing that one message no longer fits every audience, they break down broad consumer patterns into groups of consumers, and then create a plan to guide each type to the point of sale. Although 20th-century advertising was based on the Pavlovian model of instilling a desired reaction to stimuli, like the dog that expected dinner whenever a bell rang, the Eisenbergs say that increasing media fragmentation prevents advertisers from creating that sort of conditioned response today. Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? is a modern crash course in cutting through the noise to create real marketing results.

Joel Zeff

Make The Right Choice: Creating a Positive, Innovative and Productive Work Life

Speaking Topics: Breakout/ Workshop, Business, Motivation, Change Management, Communication, Creativity, Emcees, Entertainment, Humor, Innovation, Marketing, Team Building

In Make the Right Choice, Joel Zeff uses his humor and improvisation perspective to teach managers and employees how to make the right choices to be engaged, to be a more effective communicator, have fun, and create a positive and successful environment at work. Through his whimsical outlook, he helps managers and employees understand their responsibility to make the choice to be happy, passionate, creative, and more productive. We all have choices. Some choices are better than others. Joel shows us that we each have the ability to take initiative and make the right choice.

John Wood

Leaving Microsoft to Change the Worldr

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Corporate Social Responsibility, Education, Inspiration, Philanthropy

In 1998, John Wood was a rising executive at Microsoft when he took a vacation that changed his life. What began as a hiking holiday in Nepal became a spiritual journey, and then a mission: to change the world one book and one child at a time by setting up libraries in the developing world. He was soon driven to leave his career with only a loose vision of the change he wanted to bring to the world. John created Room to Read, an organization that has created a network of over 3,900 schools and libraries throughout rural and poor communities in Asia and Africa. Leaving Microsoft to Change the World is a poignant account of the unlikely marriage between Microsoft business practices and the world of non-profits, and the worldwide success it has brought.

Muhammad Yunus

Creating a World Without Poverty: How Social Business Can Transform Our Lives

Speaking Topics: Economy, Finance, Human Rights, International Affairs, Small Business, Visionaries, Women's Issues

The Nobel Peace Prize winner outlines his vision for a new business model that combines the power of free markets with the quest for a more humane world--and tells the inspiring stories of companies that are doing this work today. Traditional capitalism cannot solve problems like inequality and poverty, because it is hampered by a narrow view of human nature in which people are one-dimensional beings concerned only with profit. Welcome to the world of social business, where the creative vision of the entrepreneur is applied to today's most serious problems: feeding the poor, housing the homeless, healing the sick, and protecting the planet. Creating a World Without Poverty tells the stories of the earliest examples of social businesses, including Yunus'own Grameen Bank. It reveals the next phase in a hopeful economic and social revolution that is already under way--and in the worldwide effort to eliminate poverty by unleashing the productive energy of ever human being.

Ori Brafman

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

Speaking Topics: Corporate Social Responsibility, Entrepreneurship, Global Business, Organizational Development, Social Trends, Strategy

A fascinating journey into the hidden psychological influences that derail our decision-making, Sway will change the way you think about the way you think.

Why is it so difficult to sell a plummeting stock or end a doomed relationship? Why do we listen to advice just because it came from someone “important”? Why are we more likely to fall in love when there’s danger involved? In Sway, renowned organizational thinker Ori Brafmanand his brother, psychologist Rom Brafman, answer all these questions and more.

Drawing on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, Sway reveals dynamic forces that influence every aspect of our personal and business lives.

Sway introduces us to the Harvard Business School professor who got his students to pay $204 for a $20 bill, the head of airline safety whose disregard for his years of training led to the transformation of an entire industry, and the football coach who turned conventional strategy on its head to lead his team to victory. We also learn the curse of the NBA draft, discover why interviews are a terrible way to gauge future job performance, and go inside a session with the Supreme Court to see how the world’s most powerful justices avoid the dangers of group dynamics.

In Sway, Ori and Rom Brafman not only uncover rational explanations for a wide variety of irrational behaviors but also point readers toward ways to avoid succumbing to their pull.

Patrick Lencioni

Three Signs of a Miserable Job

Speaking Topics: Change Management, Organizational Skills, Leadership, Team Developement

Patrick Lencioni, renowned business consultant and bestselling author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, is on a critical mission: create widespread job satisfaction in a world full of workplace misery. His latest book, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (And Their Employees), tells the inspiring tale a high-flying, but deeply dissatisfied Chief Executive Officer who ditches the power and perks for career bliss as the manager of a pizzeria! In this unusual and inspiring story, Lencioni convincingly demonstrates how career happiness (or misery) is the direct result of the manager--employee relationship. Patrick Lencioni took the time to tell us about his life-long "obsession" with job misery, shatter some myths about workplace satisfaction and offer some real advice on how to turn that daily grind into daily fulfillment.

Steven Little

The Milkshake Moment: Overcoming Stupid Systems, Pointless Policies and Muddled Management to Realize Real Growth

Speaking Topics: Business Motivation, Communication, Consumer Trends, Customer Loyalty, Growth, Leadership, Small Business

Growth. It's the central focus of every organization, the underlying goal of virtually every business project, product launch, non-profit initiative, or community campaign. To grow, an organization must encourage creativity, flexibility, and the overall capacity for individuals to recognize and respond to opportunity at every level. So why, then, do so many organizations, both big and small, continually find ways to shoot themselves in the foot?
In The Milkshake Moment, growth guru Steven S. Little shows you how to identify and overcome the stifling behaviors built into your organization and lead the way toward substantive change and real growth.
Building on the frustrating true story of his inability to order a simple milkshake, Little explains how well-intended systems meant to increase satisfaction can often produce the opposite effect for both customers and employees. The "Milkshake Moment" is that precise instant in which an organization's individuals realize that they are allowed to do the right thing— to serve the interests of others in order to grow the organization—instead of following arcane internal procedures that actually hinder growth. Little clearly demonstrates that only when we remove our own self-imposed barriers can we begin to seize growth opportunities in any organizational setting.
Packed with fascinating examples of behaviors that drive an organization's growth and those that throw it into reverse, The Milkshake Moment mixes up a refreshing blend of engaging reading and actionable advice on how you can help your organization reach another level.

Warren Greshes

The Best Damn Sales Book Ever

Speaking Topics: Change Management, Customer Service, Goal Setting, Leadership, Motivation, Sales Motivation

The Best Damn Sales Book Ever is about what successful salespeople do to be successful. What makes it unique to other sales books is that it starts at the very beginning of the process with the single biggest differentiator between the successful and unsuccessful salesperson: self-motivation. This book, whose information comes from Greshes’ 35 years of experience in sales along with 20 years experience speaking to sales groups on three continents, will show you how to: increase your sales, increase your income and become more successful in your life, career and business.

Anil Gupta

The Quest for Global Dominance: Transforming Global Presence into Global Competitive Advantage

Speaking Topics: Innovation, Management, Organizational Development, Strategy

The twin forces of ideological change and technology revolution make globalization the single most important issue facing companies today. To stay competitive in the worldwide marketplace, business executives must lead their companies in developing and sustaining the ongoing efforts to globalize their organizations.

Vijay Govindarajan and Anil K. Gupta are two of the most distinguished experts in the field of globalization. In The Quest for Global Dominance they present the lessons from their ten-year research study of more than one hundred global corporations. Drawing from this rich knowledge base-- which includes large-scale surveys, case studies, and in-depth discussions with several hundred executives-- the authors make the compelling case that every industry must be considered a global industry and every business a knowledge business.

Ken Blanchard

The One Minute Entrepreneur: The Secret to Creating and Sustaining a Successful Business

Speaking Topics: CEO, Change Management, Customer Loyalty, Customer Service, Leadership, Management, Team Building, Time Management

In The One Minute Entrepreneur, Ken Blanchard (coauthor of the #1 bestselling business classic The One Minute Manager) tells the inspiring story of one man’s challenges in creating his own business. Through a powerful and engaging narrative, we confront many of the typical problems all entrepreneurs face in starting up their business, from finding new sources of revenue to securing the commitment of their people and the loyalty of their customers. More important, we learn the secrets to becoming a successful entrepreneur, including how to build a firm foundation, how to ensure a steady cash flow, and how to create legendary service. In addition, the book offers invaluable advice, delivered through One Minute Insights, from such entrepreneurs and thinkers as Sheldon Bowles, Peter Drucker, Michael Gerber, and Charlie “Tremendous” Jones.

Today, in the midst of the largest entrepreneurial surge in U.S. history, four out of five small businesses continue to fail. The One Minute Entrepreneur offers businesspeople and would-be entrepreneurs a treasure trove of wisdom on how to think, act, and succeed in creating and sustaining a business, no matter what their industry.

Tim Sanders

Saving the World at Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference

Speaking Topics: Communication, Consumer Trends, Corporate Culture, Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Loyalty, Leadership, Marketing, Motivation, Networking, Sales Motivation

Today, customers, employees, and investors are demanding that companies focus on their social responsibilities—not just their bottom lines. Sixty-five percent of American consumers say they would change to brands associated with a good cause if price and quality are equal; 66 percent of recent college graduates will not work for companies with poor social values. And more than sixty million people are willing to pay a premium for socially and environmentally responsible products. Businesses that do not take this revolution into account are putting their companies at risk.

In the first part of Saving the World at Work, Tim Sanders argues that the revolution is already underway, changing the business landscape as it relates to customer loyalty and the war for talent. In part two, he offers concrete suggestions on how all of us can help our companies buy and live locally, become “greener” in their day-to-day operations, and give back to their communities.

Drawing on extensive interviews with hundreds of employees and CEOs, and illuminated by countless stories of people who are making a difference in the workplace and in the world, Sanders offers practical advice every individual and company can use to make the world a better place now and in the future.

Vijay Govindarajan

The Quest for Global Dominance: Transforming Global Presence into Global Competitive Advantage

Speaking Topics: Economy, Global Business, Globalization, International Business, Organizational Development, Professor/Teacher, Strategy

The twin forces of ideological change and technology revolution make globalization the single most important issue facing companies today. To stay competitive in the worldwide marketplace, business executives must lead their companies in developing and sustaining the ongoing efforts to globalize their organizations.

Jackie Freiberg

Boom! 7 Choices for blowing the doors off business-as-usual

Speaking Topics: Advertising, Author/Writer, Branding, Consumer Trends, Customer Loyalty, Motivation, Sales Motivation, Team Building

In front of you are seven choices waiting to be made. Whether you are the leader or those being lead, these choices will determine the quality of your life and the significance of your contribution to the world in which you work.

In BOOM the Freiberg's have distilled 20 years of collective wisdom into 7 essential choices that cause culture, service, success, and business to BOOM

Kevin Freiberg

Lincoln Hall

Dead Lucky: Life After Death on Mount Everest

Speaking Topics: Inspiration, Motivation, Mountaineer, Overcoming Adversity, Strategy, Team Building

The amazing story of Australian mountain climber Lincoln Hall’s rescue following a night spent near the summit of Mount Everest, where he had been left for dead by the other members of his expedition.

Lincoln Hall likes to say that on the evening of May 25, 2006, he died on Everest. Indeed, he attempted to climb the mountain during a deadly season in which eleven people perished. And Hall, in fact, was pronounced dead, after collapsing from altitude sickness. Two Sherpas spent hours trying to revive him, but, as darkness fell, word came via radio from the exhibition’s leader that the Sherpas should descend the mountain in order to save themselves.

The news of Lincoln Hall's death traveled rapidly from mountaineering websites to news media around the world, and ultimately to his family back in Australia. Early the next morning, however, an American guide, climbing with two clients and a Sherpa, was startled to find Hall, sitting cross-legged on the summit ridge, just staring at them.

As featured in the Emmy-nominated Dateline NBC documentary “Miracle on Mount Everest,” Dead Lucky is Lincoln Hall's account of this miraculous night atop Everest and the days and nights that led up to and followed this fascinating expedition. Hall had been part of Australia’s first attempt to climb to the top of the mountain in 1984, but, he had not done any serious climbing for many years, having set aside his passion in order to support his family. Hall was forced to turn back due to illness in 1984 so his triumph in reaching the summit at the age of fifty is a story unto itself. Not since Into Thin Air has there been such a thrilling Everest story. Dead Lucky is a page-turner from beginning to end.

Dr. Michael Roizen

You on a Diet

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Fitness, Lifestyles, Nutrition, Wellness

Dr. Michael Roizen, co-author of You on a Diet. Loaded with biology lessons, tests, tips, and eating plans, the diet book created by Drs. Roizen and Oz delves deeply into body chemistry. This information-packed follow-up to You: The Owner's Manual has a great deal of helpful advice about good eating habits, exercise, and ways of reprogramming the body to follow healthier regimes.

Karen Sobel Lojeski

Uniting the Virtual Workforce: Transforming Leadership and Innovation in the Globally Integrated Enterprise

Speaking Topics: Change Management, Globalization, Innovation, Leadership, Mergers/Acquisitions, Networking, Organizational Development, Team Building

As our society continues its transition from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age, new challenges are being introduced into the workplace, giving rise to a new pheno-menon, Virtual Distance, comprised of three major axes: physical distance—geographic, time zone, or organizational; operational distance—multitasking, communication problems, and technical difficulties; and affinity distance—cultural differences, interdependence distance, working relationships, and social distance.

Part of Wiley's Microsoft Executive Leadership series, Uniting the Virtual Workforce introduces the concept of Virtual Distance to show businesses the definite costs to doing work in a virtual environment. It then goes a step further and offers proven methods for measuring these costs and guidance on managing them.

Today, almost all organizations are struggling with the impact that virtualization is having on the workplace. Yet, a full comprehension of the costs of virtualization is lacking. Uniting the Virtual Workforce: Transforming Leadership and Innovation in the Globally Integrated Enterprise presents a better understanding of Virtual Distance and the impact it has on people and performance in today's workplace, providing the essential tools necessary for minimizing its impact going forward.

Mark Sanborn

You Don't Need a Title to Be a Leader

Speaking Topics: Business Motivation
Change Management, Customer Service, Leadership, Sales Motivation, Team Building

The latest leadership development tool by Mark Sanborn, You Don’t Need a Title to Be a Leader is essential for any organization. Everyone has the ability to make a difference, and to have an impact on corporate culture regardless of their title. Mark's book powerfully motivates, inspires, and gives the right answers to the question "What am I going to do to make a positive difference?" This book provides thoughtful principles, illustrated with terrific examples, of what great leaders do to be successful, and is a must-read for people at any level within an organization who want to achieve their professional and personal potential.

Andrew Cohen

Follow the Other Hand

Speaking Topics: Advertising, Branding, Creativity, Innovation, Marketing, Sales Motivation

Andrew Cohen lets the reader behind the curtain in this smart business fable, Follow the Other Hand. He explores the fundamentals of strategy and innovation in a novel and refreshing way. Cohen tells the story of a family-owned olive oil importing business as he unravels the mysteries of modern-day business sleight-of-hand. Everyone, from entry-level to CEOs will profit from these Magic Lessons, which demonstrate in a uniquely impressive and memorable way five key actionable behavior changes that will immediately help an organization or enterprise grow. And they are all fun tricks that will not only amaze one's associates, but help everyone think innovatively about their jobs.

Behnam Tabrizi

Rapid Transformation: A 90-day Plan for Fast and Effective Change

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Business Excellence, Change Management, Corporate Culture, Human Resources, Organizational Development, Professor/Teacher, Sales Motivation, Team Building

Profound organizational transformation takes years and, in most cases is unsuccessful, right? Not according to change expert Behnam Tabrizi. In Rapid Transformation: A 90-Day Plan for Fast and Effective Change, Tabrizi shows you how to accomplish successful transformational change in your firm in just 90 days.

Tabrizi's 90-day transformational model comprises three main phases, each lasting 30 days. The model enables you to analyze your company's specific challenge, develop a new course of action, and carry out the plan. Moreover, you apply the model in parallel with the normal workings of your organization so you don't have to put your company on hold for the sake of the change effort.

With its detailed recipe and insightful stories from actual corporate reinventions, this book defies long-held assumptions about change and provides a practical and immediately actionable guide.

Bob Greene

The Best Life Diet

Speaking Topics:Celebrity, Healthcare, Wellness

From the bestselling author Bob Greene, The Best Life Diet is a lifetime plan for losing weight and keeping it off. Bob's plan is easily tailored to an array of tastes, lifestyles, and activity levels, acts as your personal trainer and private nutritionist. Just open the book and let Bob help you get started down the path toward your best possible life. What sets Bob apart from all the other experts who claim to have plans that work is that he admits that weight loss is difficult. By acknowledging that it is not simple laziness but a complicated web of social rituals, cultural expectations, and habits that drives people to gain weight, Greene is able to attack the problem of weight loss realistically and offer not a short-lived, quick-fix formula, but a long-term program that accounts for the challenges and constraints of the real world.

Brooke A. Masters

Spoiling for a Fight

Speaking Topics:National Politics, Economy, Author/Writer

Brooke A. Masters's examination of the New York State attorney general's seven years in office is timely, given Spitzer's prosecutions of powerful financial industries and his candidacy in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Even if Spitzer fails in his bid for the governorship, the book is worthy of study because it clearly explains the complicated, unsavory practices of insurance companies, mutual funds, Wall Street brokerages and the New York Stock Exchange. The author also skillfully places Spitzer in the context of previous reformers within government. She shows, too, how philosophical differences between state and federal regulators over the past 100 years set the stage for the crusading Spitzer.

Bruce Hoffman

Inside Terrorism

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Terrorism/Homeland Security

Bruce Hoffman, the director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, has written a clear summary of some of the major historical trends in international terrorism. He makes careful distinctions between the motivations that drive political (or ethno-nationalist) terrorism and religious terrorism, and he also shows why the rise of religious terrorism, coupled with the increased availability of weapons of mass destruction, may foretell an era of even greater violence. Inside Terrorism is a valuable work and a “must read”, at least for anyone who wants to understand how we can respond to international acts of terror.

Bruce Tulgan

It's Okay to Be the Boss: The Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming the Manager Your Employees Need

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Communication, Demographics, Diversity, Human Resources, Leadership, Management, Generation X, Workforce

Managing people is harder and more high-pressure today than ever before. There's no room for downtime, waste, or inefficiency. And employees have become high maintenance. Not only are they more likely to disagree openly and push back, but they also won't work hard for vague promises of long-term rewards. They look to you—their immediate boss—to help them get what they need and want at work.

If you are like most managers, you take a hands-off approach. You "empower" employees by leaving them alone, unless they really need you. After all, you don't want to "micromanage" them and don't have the time to hold every employee's hand. Of course, problems always come up and often snowball into bigger problems.

In It's Okay to Be the Boss, Bruce Tulgan puts his finger on the biggest problem in corporate America— an undermanagement epidemic —and offers another way. His step-by-step guide to becoming the manager employees need challenges bosses everywhere to spell out expectations, tell employees exactly what to do and how to do it, monitor and measure performance constantly, and correct failure quickly and reward success even more quickly. Now that's how you set employees up for success and help them earn what they need. Tulgan opens our eyes to the undisciplined workplace that is overwhelming managers and frustrating workers and invites bosses everywhere to accept the responsibility of managing people. His message: It's okay to be the boss. Be a great one!

Bryan Eisenberg

C.K. Prahalad

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramids

Speaking Topics:Corporate Social Responsibility, Economy, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Management, Strategy

The Bottom of the Pyramid belongs at the top of the reading list for business people, academics, and experts pursuing the elusive goal of sustainable growth in the developing world. C. K. Prahalad writes with uncommon insight about consumer needs in poor societies and opportunities for the private sector to serve important public purposes while enhancing its own bottom line. If you are looking for fresh thinking about emerging markets, your search is ended.

Catherine Ryan Hyde

Pay It Forward

Speaking Topics Author/Writer, Breakout/Workshop, Coaching/Mentoring, Empowerment Skills, Inspiration, Motivation, Personal Growth, Social Trends, Success Stories, Team Building

An ordinary boy engineers a secular miracle in Catherine Hyde's winning second novel, Pay It Forward, set in small-town 1990s California. Twelve-year-old Trevor McKinney, the son of Arlene, a single mom working two jobs, and Ricky, a deadbeat absentee dad, does not seem well-positioned to revolutionize the world. But when Trevor's social studies teacher, Reuben St. Clair, gives the class an extra-credit assignment, challenging his students to design a plan to change society, Trevor decides to start a goodwill chain. To begin, he helps out three people, telling each of them that instead of paying him back, they must "pay it forward" by helping three others. Her theme that one person can make a difference may be sentimental, but for once, that's a virtue.

Chris Widener

The Angel Inside: Michelangelo's Secrets For Following Your Passion and Finding the Work You Love
Speaking Topics: Balance, Leadership, Motivation, Peak Performance, Team Building

The break-out business parable that’s already sold more than 70,000 copies, The Angel Inside tells the story of a young man searching for meaning in his work and finding it in an unlikely place: the life and art of Michelangelo.
According to legend, when a young boy asked the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo why he was working so hard hitting the block of marble that would eventually become his greatest sculpture, David, the artist replied, “Young man, there is an angel inside this rock, and I am setting him free.” In The Angel Inside, the renowned consultant and career coach Chris Widener uses Michelangelo’s words to explore the hidden potential that exists within us all.

Dave Ulrich

Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value

Speaking Topics: Business Excellence, Change Management, Coaching/Mentoring, Corporate Culture, Human Resources, Leadership, Management, Team Building, Change

Your company’s brands hold intangible value and differentiate your firm from rivals. So does your leadership brand—a shared identity among your organization’s leaders that differentiates what they can do from what your rivals’ leaders can do. —In Leadership Brand, Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood show how branded leadership delivers unique value for firms’ investors, customers, and employees—elevating market value and creating a sharp competitive edge.

The authors present a six-step process for creating leadership brand in your organization. A wealth of tools helps you differentiate your firm’s leaders from those of rivals, craft a unified identity among them, and articulate a unique statement of your brand. Additional chapters and tools show you how to assess and measure your leadership brand, where to invest in the brand, which practices instill the brand, and how to communicate the brand to your many stakeholders.

With its compelling new model and hands-on approach, this book helps you clarify what makes your leaders unique—and use your leadership brand to leave rivals far behind.

Dianna Booher

The Voice of Authority

Speaking Topics: Communication, Customer Service, Leadership, Management, Negotiation, Presentation Skills, Conflict Management, Letter Writing, Life Balance, Productivity, Sales

Dianna Booher has helped thousands of people to develop communication skills. In The Voice of Authority, she now distills years of experience and research into 10 key strategies that will help you elevate your communication to the next level. By examining specific styles that work and don't work, you'll learn how to speak like a leader in every situation. Ten rules including “be clear, be consistent, be thorough, and demonstrate confidence”-give you the language to communicate at your best with colleagues, bosses, and clients.

Gary Hamel

The Future of Management

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Creativity, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Strategy, Creativity/Innovation

What fuels long-term business success? Not operational excellence, technology breakthroughs, or new business models, but management innovation—new ways of mobilizing talent, allocating resources, and formulating strategies. Through history, management innovation has enabled companies to cross new performance thresholds and build enduring advantages.

In The Future of Management, Gary Hamel argues that organizations need management innovation now more than ever. Why? The management paradigm of the last century—centered on control and efficiency—no longer suffices in a world where adaptability and creativity drive business success. To thrive in the future, companies must reinvent management.

Hamel explains how to turn your company into a serial management innovator.

Geoffrey Moore

Dealing with Darwin

Speaking Topics: Innovation, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Technology

Illustrating his arguments with more than one hundred examples and a full-length case study based on his unprecedented access to Cisco Systems, Moore shows businesses how to meet today’s Darwinian challenges, whether they’re producing commodity products or customized services. For companies whose competitive differentiation to the marketplace is still effective, he demonstrates how innovations in execution can help boost productivity, whether a company is competing in a growth market, a mature market, or even a declining market. For companies in danger of succumbing to competitive pressures, he shows how to overcome inertia by engaging the entire corporate community in an unceasing commitment to innovate and evolve. For any business competing in today's eat-or-be-eaten economic jungle, this groundbreaking guide shows not only how to survive, but also thrive.

Ivan Misner

Truth or Delusion?: Busting Networking’s Biggest Myths

Speaking Topics:Marketing, Networking

Many books teach the "who / what / where / why / how" of professional networking. Truth or Delusion separates the reality from the fantasy by presenting Truths and Delusions about networking and then shows why they are either real or fakes. For example: Delusion: The best way to ensure referral success is to treat your referral sources by the "Golden Rule." Treat them the way you would want to be treated. Truth: The best way is to treat your referral sources the way THEY want to be treated. The referral process is more about emotion than facts. Find out how your referral sources want to be treated and how they would like you to treat their referrals.

Jack Uldrich