Senior Editor-at-Large, Fortune; Bestselling Author Arming Leaders to Confront Disruptive Change and Win
Experience counts in serious times. For four decades at Fortune, Geoff Colvin has covered the economic, political, technological, and competitive forces disrupting business and how top leaders and companies adapt and transform to win in spite of them. The big takeaway, Geoff says, is that winning companies and leaders summon the courage to act – they stop protecting the past and start inventing the future – and they confront this reality faster than the competition. As business leaders face their biggest challenge ever, Geoff Colvin is the voice of experience who shines a light – revealing a clearer path for an uncertain future. His columns and cover stories for Fortune have earned him millions of loyal fans. Many of them also hear him dispense critical business insights on the CBS Radio Network, where he reaches seven million listeners each week. Geoff’s bestselling books include The Upside of the Downturn, Talent is Overrated, and Humans are Underrated. A keynote speaker with compelling content, Geoff Colvin is also a brilliant panel moderator and interviewer.
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Great Panel Moderator & Interviewer GEOFF COLVIN: Overview Video
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:
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:
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:
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:
Experience counts in serious times. For four decades atFortune, Geoff Colvin has covered the economic, political, technological, and competitive forces disrupting business and how top leaders and companies adapt and transform to win in spite of them. The big takeaway, Geoff says, is that winning companies and leaders summon the courage to act –they stop protecting the past and start inventing the future –and they confront this reality faster than the competition. As business leaders face their biggest challenge ever, Geoff Colvin is the voice of experience who shines a light –revealing a clearer path for an uncertain future. His columns and cover stories for Fortunehave earned him millions of loyal fans. Many of them also hear him dispense critical business insights on the CBS Radio Network, where he reaches seven million listeners each week. Geoff’s bestselling books include The Upside of the Downturn, Talent is Overrated, and Humans are Underrated. A keynote speaker with compelling content, Geoff Colvin is also a brilliant panel moderator and interviewer.
As Fortune‘s senior editor-at-large, Geoff Colvin is now in his fourth decade at Fortune. He is one of business journalism’s sharpest and most respected commentators on leadership, management, globalization, government regulation, corporate governance, competition, the economy, the infotech revolution, human performance, and related issues. In addition to his daily CBS Radio Network segments (he’s done over 15,000 since 1995), Geoff has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, Squawk Box, CBS This Morning, ABC’s World News Tonight, CNN, PBS’s Nightly Business Report, and dozens of other programs. He also served as anchor of Wall $treet Week with Fortuneon PBS.
In addition to speaking, Geoff is also a brilliant panel moderator, emcee, and interviewer whose subjects have included Ben Bernanke, Larry Summers, Janet Yellen, Henry Kissinger, Richard Branson, the Prince of Wales, Bill Gates, Colin Powell, Jack Welch, Alan Greenspan, Ted Turner, Warren Buffett, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and many others.Geoff isa respected author whose groundbreaking international bestseller, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, has been published in a dozen languages. The Upside of the Downturn: Management Strategies for Difficult Timeswas named “Best Management Book of the Year” by Strategy + Businessmagazine.
Geoff’s latest book is Humans are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will. It’s based on the idea in his wildly popular Fortunearticle “In the Future Will There Be Any Work Left for People to Do?” It looks at the trend of advancing technology performing ever more tasks better than people perform them, and the ways humans will create value for their organizations and their careers in the changing economy. The ideas he shares have profound implications for every business and industry.A native of Vermillion, South Dakota, Geoff Colvin is an honors graduate of Harvard with a degree in economics and has an M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Geoff was definitely the highlight of our conference. In reviewing our surveys, he was overwhelmingly ranked as the favorite speaker and one our audience would most like to hear from again.
Head of Conf Planning & Travel, Putnam Investments
Geoff hit it out of the park. We will ask him back.
CEO, American Pacific Mortgage
Geoff did a fantastic job and really set the stage for the remainder of the day and his perspectives were repeated during later sessions.
Group Communications Director, The Coca-Cola Company
