We want innovation, but a creative culture must come first.
Andrew Grant is an innovation for transformation specialist. He is the director of Tirian and author of The Innovation Race: How to change a culture to change the game along with international bestseller Who Killed Creativity?... And How Can We Get it Back? He is a highly experienced, humorous, and engaging presenter who facilitates leaders & teams to enhance collaboration and innovation using creative solutions.
Andrew Grant has worked with world leaders in innovation to drive cultural change. An accomplished author, he has featured in global media and his educational programs and resources are used by Fortune 500 companies worldwide.
Current Work:
Andrew Grant and his partner Dr Gaia Grant (PhD) (University of Sydney Business School) have spent 30 years travelling the world to look at creativogenic cultures and why is it that some societies & companies seem to have raced ahead with innovation while others appear to have been left behind. As a result, they have developed a CSI-style board game to help teams diagnose their creativity AND validated Innovation Climate Indicator (iCLi) to assess the innovation readiness to manage tension in executive teams embracing change to ensure innovation can be sustainably implemented.
Andrew’s significant success comes from the fact that he cannot only talk intelligently and engagingly about the important elements of creative thinking and innovation, but it is easy to see in everything he does. He is both globally minded and culturally fluent, resulting in always relevant and sensitive sessions to both the local mindset and diverse audiences.
Andrew has been featured in a number of international media including BBC and ABC TV along with commercial TV, Reuters, Harvard Business review, Fast Company and the Wall St Journal.
Outside of their corporate work, Andrew and Gaia have also worked on breakthrough pro bono education projects across Asia, including designing educational material that has been targeted to reach over 25 million people in developing countries worldwide.
As an executive level global culture consultant and facilitator, Andrew has been engaged by market innovation leaders to help create a culture of innovation:
- Google: C-level & country managers, for strategic team development (Asia).
- Nestle (sustainable solutions for emerging markets in Switzerland)
- Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts (preparing the exec team & GMs for the future of the hospitality industry, (Canada, Asia, Middle East)
- Disney (creating compelling ideas for marketing, HK),
- Mercedes Benz (leadership & innovative brand positioning, China)
- Estee Lauder (reimagining regional retail models),
- Salesforce (looking at the future of marketing and the customer journey)
- UAE Prime Minister’s office (to help UAE develop future leaders in innovation / Dubai.)
- Boeing - Leading and Recovering from Crisis (during Covid)
- Many large finance institutions (Future of work, & dealing with changes to regulations).
- Duke University Corporate Education - Educator and facilitator
- YPO - Top-ranked global facilitator recognized resource
In his role as a keynote speaker, Andrew has been in high demand internationally: including
- APEC CEO Summit & APEC University Leaders’ Forum (Vietnam)
- Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO) Global Edge & GLC ROW Conference
- TEDx (HK).
- Four Seasons Hotel International CEO Conference (Canada)
- The World Innovation Conference (France),
- HR Summit & HR Smart Workforce (Singapore)
- A series of headline keynotes at extended international roadshows for:
Fuji Xerox, PwC, J&J, Salesforce, and Citibank. AMP, Singtel / Optus, Daimler, UBS, Colpal IBM, Accenture, Boeing, S&P Global
Talking Points
The Innovation Race: Who wins, who loses and who gets eliminated? Why innovation doesn’t always work.
When it comes to the ‘innovation race’, are you more of a traveler or a tourist? Or are you simply an armchair observer? Most of us marvel at the pace of innovation, but few understand how to engage with the topic. Yet your approach to innovation may be critical for future survival. Although we are all keen to hear current market leaders share their predictions, hoping to pick up the latest trends in innovation and stay ahead of the curve, we are not always shown how to prepare for the innovation race practically. Perhaps it’s time to identify just how innovation ready you and your organisation are, and what you might need to do about it. This session considers what it really means to compete in the innovation race, and what the implications are for those who win, lose and are eliminated. Unique global and historical research from a broad range of cultures and contexts provides a sobering understanding of what it will take to stay in the innovation race for the long run. Practical tools for becoming an effective ‘ambidextrous’ innovation leader, able to draw from and build on the past and see into the future, are then introduced. This is a ‘futurist keynote’ with a difference, providing real strategies that will allow the much talked about ‘Forth Industrial Revolution’ to be a growth opportunity, rather than a dangerously disruptive and potentially eliminating threat.
The Innovation Race: Who wins, who loses and who gets eliminated? Why innovation doesn’t always work.
The Paradox of Leading Sustainable Innovation: Ambidextrous Leadership
Companies like Google may appear to be leading in the ‘innovation race’, but do they have all the solutions and can they be simply copied? Our research has revealed that most companies today only have half the story right, and that a new perspective and model is needed to overcome the challenges. This presentation identifies core sustainable innovation strategies for surviving and thriving in ‘the innovation race’. It reveals that by simply changing perspective, new ideas can be better supported through to implementation. Discover how to lead and manage innovation through successfully navigating the 4 key innovation paradoxes. Practical strategies and the ‘polar positioning’ tool are introduced to show how to navigate these paradoxical tensions successfully. The fast-paced global adventure reveals how different cultures and companies around the world have effectively managed the key Exploration / Preservation innovation paradox, along with the 4 contributing sub-paradoxes.
The Paradox of Leading Sustainable Innovation: Ambidextrous Leadership
The Collaboration Deception: Leading Collaborative Innovation
This is a unique keynote that includes a powerful game-theory style interactive session. In this session the participants become involved in a social experiment and discover firsthand what happens when trust is removed from the equation. Leaders and teams can benefit from this program through learning how to build long lasting trust with fellow team members, vendors, partners and associates. They will understand what to look for in a healthy teams and business relationship, and how to collaborate to avoid those that are in it for themselves.
The Collaboration Deception: Leading Collaborative Innovation
The Innovation Paradox: Are you an innovative leader? Andrew Grant / Dr Gaia Grant (PhD)
We need to be creative to be innovative. But the relentless push to innovate faster is producing a toxic culture that may undermine the whole creative process. In our rush for end results fast, we could ironically be killing the very thing that will lead us to innovation: creativity. Creativity and innovation are not interchangeable words, and it’s important for effective businesses to understand why. In these sessions we explore why we need both, and the paradoxes behind this that can impact our work.The Innovation Paradox: Are you an innovative leader? Andrew Grant / Dr Gaia Grant (PhD)
INNOVATE:
1. The Innovation Race: Becoming Future Ready. Who will win, lose and be eliminated? What does successful & sustainable Innovation look like? Includes: best practices- Countries, Companies, Cultures & Innovation Leaders.
2. Ambidextrous Leadership: Identifying Paradoxical Innovation Orientations in Teams
3. Are you an Innovative Leader? Creating agile leadership teams: Identifying ambidexterity across different occupational profiles. Innovation profiling.
CREATE:
1. Harnessing Creative Intelligence (CQ) - for a Competitive Advantage.
2. Who Killed Creativity? And How to Get it Back? From the Classroom to the Boardroom.
3. The 7 Critical Creative Thinking Strategies for Designing New Innovations, & why Design Thinking often fails.
COLLABORATE
1. The Collaboration Deception: A gamified simulation social experiment, to explore building collaborative teams in a competitive environment.
The Magic of Creative Thinking… And How To Really Think Outside The Box
A fast-paced active session that is packed full of magic tricks, which quickly segues to challenging people about their mindset and mental models, peppered with some interesting information from neuroscience. Through a powerful metaphor, this session shows the strong connection between what magicians and creative thinking have in common: why people are so easily fooled by magic, and so readily blocked from solutions based creative thinking.The Magic of Creative Thinking… And How To Really Think Outside The Box
At the end of this keynote participants will develop the ability to look for solutions outside their standard boundaries and habitual ways of thinking. (Can also be presented with specialist magician mentalist including pre/ post lobby magic)
The Creativity Crisis: Is creative thinking dying just when companies need it the most? And What Can We Do About It?
We need to be creative to be innovative. We have heard of the importance of ‘design thinking’ as a tool to be more effective. But the relentless push to innovate faster is producing a toxic culture that may undermine the whole creative process. In our rush for end results fast, we could ironically be killing the very thing that will lead us to innovation: creativity. An IBM survey of over 1500 CEOs has revealed that creative thinking skills are the greatest attribute needed for leaders in the coming years. And yet research has shown that while IQ has been on the rise, since 1990 creative thinking (CQ) has been rapidly declining. Whilst 98 % of children are ranked as “geniuses” in divergent thinking, by adulthood this number has dropped to a mere 2%. This session takes the participants on a journey from the classroom to the boardroom, helping them understand the current creative thinking crisis. It looks at the implications in the workplace of a number of dramatic statistics, and shows how it is possible to rise above these stats and develop a creative and innovative culture. (Alternative titles: “Who Killed Creativity, and How To Get It Back?” & “Why Design Thinking too often Fails” )
The Creativity Crisis: Is creative thinking dying just when companies need it the most? And What Can We Do About It?
Harnessing Creative Intelligence (CQ) skills for a competitive business advantage
From the classroom to the boardroom -why adults seem to have lost their creative ability right when they need it the most. Recent research has revealed that creative thinking will be the most important leadership attribute in the next 10 years. Yet it has been identified that even though IQ has been on the rise, creative thinking (CQ) has been declining since the 1990s. People with higher CQ are more inquisitive and open to new experiences. Mapping the CQ skills into applicable business attributes and design thinking to show how they are crucial for anyone expecting creative solutions.
Harnessing Creative Intelligence (CQ) skills for a competitive business advantage
Video
Andrew Grant | Keynote Show Reel | Saxton Speakers
Andrew Grant is an innovation for transformation specialist. He is the director of Tirian and author of The Innovation Race: How to change a culture to change the game along with international bestseller Who Killed Creativity?... And How Can We Get it Back? He is a highly experienced, humorous, and engaging presenter who facilitates leaders & teams to enhance collaboration and innovation using creative solutions. Andrew Grant has worked with world leaders in innovation to drive cultural change. An accomplished author, he has featured in global media and his educational programs and resources are used by Fortune 500 companies worldwide.Both the book and the 'roadshow' are captivating. Andrew Grant has star quality and uses it positively. Andrew has worked on leadership and team development around the globe for more than 15 ... keep reading South China Morning Post
Exceeded expectations... your program made our team more comfortable working with these issues, gave the topic more credibility, and it was actionable.
You gave us compelling ideas that are worthwhile for use in our marketing.
A truly magnificent achievement, particularity since the audience was from a multitude of cultures and listened in 5 different languages. This event scored the highest feedback in our 10 year history.
One of the highest ranked seminars of the year for YPO (Young Presidents Organization) scoring an amazing 9.6/10.
A quick note of appreciation for the keynote you delivered in Singapore this week. The time you took to have dinner with myself and several event attendees the night prior offered a great opportunity to connect you to the details of the industry and the points of interest of the audience. You asked some great questions and were able to leverage the information shared into a presentation that really connected the audience and the topic together - thank you! I know that this connection took place based on the feedback I received from people at the event. Innovation, adapting to change, the importance of creativity, and how to introduce it into your daily life, personally and professionally: all of these were themes in the feedback I received. A little bit of humor, some magic and the simplicity of how you presented a pretty substantial topic kept the audience fully engaged and wanting more! As a sponsor, as an event participant, and as a person who cares about innovation and creativity, I thank you!
You engaged our teams to really think through the value of creativity in business and about how to create a space that allows you to access that perspective. it made us really stop and think about how we were going about addressing our client's challenges.
