John Wood, former Microsoft executive, author and founder of Room to Read has new keynote topics he would like to share with everyone:
- Purpose: The New Competitive Advantage
This presentation traces its roots from the humble beginnings of Room to Read. John Wood talks about how corporate social responsibility is more than just a buzzword or a publicity stunt, but instead represents the new competitive advantage — a way to re-engage both customers and employees, and improve the bottom line. He posits that a sense of purpose in the workplndaace is no longer optional but is a must to stay on top of the competition in the areas of employee recruitment, employee motivation and retention, customers and government or regulators.
- 10 Lessons Learned On the Way to Educating Ten Million Children
John Wood believes that bold goals attract bold people so he set out to build a global team even as he was a newly unemployed former Microsoft executive without an organization behind him, or a single day of fundraising experience. In this presentation, John shares the lessons he learned on leadership while building a global team of over 1,000 employees and 15,000 volunteers. This captivating talks motivates the audience to take action and apply the lessons to their own lives. Some of the topics covered include getting outside your comfort zone, creative thinking to stand out in the competitive market, power of cause-related marketin, gender diversity as competitive edge, power of gratitud, setting moon-shot goals, making cost cutting a fun team sport and social media as competitive weapon.
- Getting Outside Your Comfort Zone
Originally commissioned by Microsoft as the closing keynote for one of their annual sales conferences, this speech outlines key issues for company executives such as the dynamic and constantly-evolving technology industry, ever-changing customer demand, competitive pressures and workforce with habits from a different era. This keynote speech has since been modified and presented to several big companices like Google, Starbucks and Wal-Mart.
- Leadership, Reimagined
The University of Sydney originally commissioned this speech for their Executive MBA lecture series. It was later modified for the London Business School’s annual “London Talk”, a required evening lecture for 600 first-year MBAs. The goal of the talk is to lay out both the challenges and opportunities in a rapidly-changing world in which leaders are being forced to think and act differently from previous generations. In this keynote, John Wood challenges the audience, regardless of their level or job title, to re-imagine what leadership could look like if we dare to dream and think differently.
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John Wood is the founder of multi-awarded organization Room to Read..
At 35, John left an executive track at Microsoft and discovered a passion for helping children and promoting literacy. His award-winning memoir, “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World” was described by Publishers’ Weekly as “an infectiously inspiring read, Amazon named it “one of the Top Ten Business Narratives of 2006” and Hudson Booksellers voted it to their “Top Ten Nonfiction” list. The book has since been translated into 23 languages and is popular with entrepreneurs, philanthropists and educators. John’s latest book is called “Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy” has been endorsed by Bill Clinton, Melinda Gates and Sheryl Sandberg.
John Wood’s illustrious resume includes the following details:
- MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management (Northwestern University)
- a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in finance (University of Colorado)
- honorary doctorates (McGill University, Westminster College, Wofford College and University of San Francisco)
- three years on the Advisory Board of the Clinton Global Initiative
- lecturer at Harvard Business School, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Policy
- former Board member of the College Advising Corps, Net Impact and the One Acre Fund
- on the Advisory Boards of Global Citizen Year, Possible Health, and the “Getting to Carnegie” competition
- five-time winner of Fast Company Magazine’s Social Capitalist Award
- one of Goldman Sachs’ 25 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs
- named an Asian Hero by Time Magazine
- one of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum
- Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute
- first-ever recipient of the Microsoft Alumnus of the Year medal
- awarded by Queen Silvia of Sweden with theWorld’s Children’s Prize
- Asia Society’s “Service to Society” awardee
- given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Tribeca Film Festival
Contact us if you would like John Wood to inspire at your next conference.