For the past two decades, Charlene Li has been helping people see the future. She’s an expert on digital transformation, leadership, customer experience and the future of work and the author of six books, including the New York Times bestseller Open Leadership and the co-author of the critically-acclaimed book Groundswell.
Her latest book is the bestseller The Disruption Mindset. She’s also an entrepreneur, the Founder and Senior Fellow at Altimeter, a disruptive analyst firm that was acquired in 2015 by Prophet. Charlene was named one of the Top 50 Leadership Innovators by Inc, and one of the most creative people in business by Fast Company. She serves on the regional board of YPO, a global network of 28,000 CEOs. Charlene graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received her MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives in San Francisco.
SPEAKING TOPICS:
WINNING WITH GENERATIVE AI
Whether you’re ready or not, it is time to explore the transformative world of generative AI. Because the adoption of AI is so varied, Charlene meets audiences where they are—but takes them to where they need to be. From providing foundational knowledge to exploring the balance between mitigating risk and maximizing opportunities, she equips leaders with advanced strategies they can apply today and well into the future.
In this speech, Charlene will tailor her talking points to the audience's needs. For a large conference, she may focus on crafting a future-ready strategy, whereas she may tailor an in-company executive session to create a unified vision and roadmap to enhance organizational excellence. For generative AI leaders, she may pinpoint the intricacies of formulating and executing a comprehensive strategy that provides a compelling vision for AI that aligns with long-term goals.
Audiences will learn to:
- Ground the generative AI strategy in the company’s purpose, values, and business strategy
- Identify the top ways generative AI can strengthen and defend your competitive advantage
- Understand the workforce, leadership, and culture implications of generative AI adoption
- Create a robust generative AI strategy amid a fast-changing and uncertain technology landscape
DISRUPTIVE TRANSFORMATION
“Disrupt or die” has been the rallying cry for decades, but what does it actually mean to be disruptive, to make it the center of your strategy? Many established companies set a goal to develop “disruptive” innovations, believing innovation will disrupt their market and drive growth. But that’s not how it works: Disruption doesn’t create growth. Growth creates disruption.
In this speech, Charlene acknowledges that transformations are never easy, and the unrelenting pace of technological change makes it doubly difficult. But there’s hope and a way forward—starting with reframing your strategy, leadership, and culture so that disruptive growth is at the top of your agenda.
Audiences will learn to:
- Define what disruption is—and isn’t—and how it can drive disruptive growth
- Identify and prioritize the right disruptive growth moves and align the organization around them
- Understand how leaders must show up differently when pursuing a disruption strategy
- Instill disruption into a status-quo culture
THE FUTURE OF WORK
New technologies pop up daily that allow us to connect and communicate with employees in real time. Yet organizations are wired for a bygone era when there was the luxury of time and proximity. Most organizations measure employee engagement in yearly surveys—hardly the way to truly engage employees in the digital era.
In this speech, Charlene makes the case to develop a new mindset, one that’s centered on creating a long-term relationship with employees that melds holistically with creating great experiences for customers. From creating belonging among hybrid workers to the adoption of generative AI, we'll dig deep into how technology is changing the nature of work and our relationship with employees.
Audiences will learn to:
- Understand how employee expectations in the workplace are being influenced by their personal use of technology , especially generative AI
- Prepare for the long-term implications for employee engagement
- Identify the experiences that employees value the most
- Create rich collaboration experiences that support a different way of work
LEADERSHIP IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Digital technologies have revolutionized relationships, and leadership is no exception. To be truly engaged, effective leaders must harness and master the power of digital communications and branding, especially with the challenges of leading a distributed team.
In this speech, Charlene explains that the key is understanding how your personal leadership style can be extended and scaled through digital techniques to achieve your most important goals. You’ll learn the art and science of how to listen, share, and engage with employees and customers in the digital era. We’ll also discuss common objections and concerns of leaders and how to address them.
Audiences will learn to:
- Master a new way of developing relationships, which begins by stepping out of traditional hierarchies
- Listen at scale, share to shape, and engage to transform
- Shift to a digital mindset
- Apply the right digital tools to meet strategic goals
LEADING WITH WISDOM
What does it mean to be wise? Wisdom is not just a matter of intelligence, knowledge, or character. Smart people make foolish decisions all the time. But what if we could improve our decision-making even a little bit and make consistently wiser choices? Imagine the exponential impact if we could intentionally support the people in our organizations to be wiser, regardless of their experience levels.
In this speech, Charlene takes audiences on a journey of discovery toward experiencing the true power of wisdom. With the right tools and guidance, you, too, can learn to make the right decisions and create a life and organization filled with meaning, purpose, and happiness.
Audiences will learn to:
- Define wisdom in the context of leading an organization
- Develop wisdom in themselves and others
- Create a wise organization capable of consistently making great decisions
