Rowan Gibson is “one of the most recognized thought leaders in business innovation” (Forbes). He is a top keynote speaker and management educator in 61 countries across the globe, and has been a “strategic secret weapon” and change catalyst for a long list of Fortune 500 companies. He is the internationally bestselling author of 3 major books, which have been published in 25 languages, and a trusted strategic adviser to both the private and public sector all over the world. In 2015 Rowan received the prestigious “Global Leader of Innovation” award for his significant contribution to the field of innovation strategy.
Rowan is one of the world’s most in-demand public speakers. In just the last five years alone, he has delivered his keynote speeches, public seminars, and multi-day innovation master classes in 61 countries. He has addressed a long list of major organizations, including Accenture, Apple, Barclays, Bayer, British Telecom, Coca-Cola, Credit Suisse, Dow Chemicals, Foxconn, Generali Group, Haier, Heineken, Heinz, Henkel, IBM, Mars, Microsoft, Philips, P&G, Roche, Siemens, Steelcase, Telefonica, Volkswagen and many others. He teaches them how to seize new growth opportunities, create new markets and even transform entire industries by recalibrating their whole organizational system around the paradigm of innovation.
Rowan’s big-picture insights, compelling observations, fresh business thinking and upbeat presentation style have impressed a wide range of audiences all over the world. He mixes insight, inspiration and information in a way that always leaves an audience feeling energized. His keynote speeches, executive sessions, and innovation master classes are always tailor-made to fit each audience, industry sector, and event format. He endeavors, wherever possible, to use business cases and examples that are relevant to the specific audience. Rowan uses very graphic Powerpoint slides - each typically features just one powerful image and a single statement - which makes his presentations extremely dynamic. He is constantly updating his slides with cutting-edge material and up-to-the-minute business news.
Current work
Rowan Gibson is President of Imagination Bridge - the global innovation consulting firm. Over the last two decades, his global clients have included some of the world’s largest and most successful companies.
He is also co-founder of innovationexcellence.com - the world’s most popular innovation website. The portal, which builds on an international group of around 30,000 members from over 175 countries, offers an arsenal of resources from today's innovation thought leaders and practitioners that is aimed at helping every company achieve innovation excellence. The site currently serves up more than 1 million pages every month.
Rowan has lived and worked in various countries over the last twenty years and speaks three languages fluently. Today, he divides his time between the USA, Europe and Asia, focusing on writing, public speaking and consulting activities.
Previous experience
Speaking: In his years on the public speaking circuit, Rowan has shared the stage with well-known celebrities like Neil Armstrong, Ken Blanchard, Deepak Chopra, Bill Clinton, Jim Collins, Newt Gingrich, Guy Kawasaki, John Naisbitt, Chan Kim, Bertrand Piccard, and Alvin Toffler. His speeches and public seminars have often been arranged as follow-ups to other high caliber speakers like Rudi Giuliani, Gary Hamel, Tom Peters, Ram Charan, Stephen Covey, and C.K. Prahalad.
Author: Rowan is also a prolific writer. He is the internationally bestselling author of three major books on business strategy and Innovation: - Rethinking The Future (1996), Innovation to the Core (2008) and The Four Lenses of Innovation (2015) - which have been published to date in 25 languages. His seminal book Innovation to the Core (Harvard Business School Press 2008), explained - for the first time - how to build and sustain a deep, company-wide innovation capability that drives continual growth and strategic renewal. Rowan’s latest book The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking (Wiley 2015) provides today’s companies with a revolutionary methodology for infusing radical business creativity into their organizations.
In addition to his bestselling books, Rowan has authored dozens of business articles, columns and blogs which have been read all around the globe. He has been interviewed frequently on television and radio, as well as online and in the international press. His media appearances include Forbes, CNN, Sky News, BusinessWeek, Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, and BBC World Service. He has also appeared in several business documentaries. The media have labeled him “Mr. Innovation”, “the Innovation Grandmaster”, “the W. Edwards Deming of innovation” and “a guru among the gurus”.
Talking Points
Making Innovation Happen!
Innovation is now recognized globally as the core driver of growth, strategic renewal, and long-term competitiveness. It’s literally your company’s only hope for creating new wealth and sustaining business success. But how do you actually make innovation happen? In this keynote presentation, Rowan Gibson looks inside the mind of the innovator to reveal the four key mental perspectives behind all game-changing ideas: Making Innovation Happen!
1. CHALLENGING ORTHODOXIES - questioning deeply-held beliefs and conventional assumptions inside a company or an industry
2. HARNESSING TRENDS - using the power of discontinuous change to substantially alter the rules of the game and to drive industry disruption
3. LEVERAGING RESOURCES - repurposing and recombining core competencies and strategic assets in order to stretch into new growth opportunities
4. UNDERSTANDING NEEDS - learning to live inside the customer’s skin, identifying unmet needs and designing solutions from the customer backward
Based on his latest book “The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking,” Rowan shows that by deliberately and systematically using these four proven perspectives, literally anyone can unlock their ability to innovate. In a keynote that is tailored to your own strategic issues, Rowan will provide you with a cutting-edge “Power Tool for Creative Thinking” that you and your people can use to systematically generate breakthrough opportunities for profitable growth.
Four Lenses of Innovation™ - Breakout Session
This is where the innovation rhetoric becomes reality. In his breakout sessions with The Four Lenses of Innovation™, Rowan Gibson gives you the opportunity to start working with one of the world’s most powerful tools for systematic idea generation. Usually following his keynotes, Rowan facilitates these exciting sessions using a set of proven techniques to stretch your thinking along new lines and produce a portfolio of new, insight-based opportunities for driving growth and renewal. In an inspiring atmosphere, your people will get a chance to radically rethink your products, services, processes, markets, strategies - and even your business model itself - to create new value for your customers. These practical breakout sessions include Rowan’s special handbook of exercises and are specially tailored to your own strategic issues. They engage all participants in the generation of new strategic insights and growth opportunities for your company, teaching them a methodology they can already start using on Monday morning to address their own business challenges. The breakout sessions can be customized to meet your own requirements and usually require 2 - 3 hours.
Four Lenses of Innovation™ - Breakout Session
Achieving Innovation Excellence
Most organizations understand the innovation imperative, but many still struggle to make it a deep, sustainable capability. Why? In this revolutionary keynote speech, Rowan Gibson describes exactly how to build an enterprise-wide innovation system that will help your company achieve innovation excellence. Gibson’ success formula focuses on four key organizational components: Achieving Innovation Excellence
1. LEADERSHIP AND STRUCTURE - deeply committed leaders and organizational infrastructure aligned around a clear innovation strategy
2. PROCESSES AND TOOLS - systematic processes and supporting tools to enable high-performance idea generation and pipeline management
3. PEOPLE AND SKILLS - disciplined approach to building innovation capabilities and engagement across the organization
4. CULTURE AND VALUES - collaborative, open culture and incentives that reward challenging the status quo
