Mike Walsh

Leading Futurist

Categories: AI, Asia, Big Data, Blockchain, Business, Fintech, Future of Work, Futurist, Innovation, Leadership, Marketing, Robotics, Strategy, Technology, Trends

Mike Walsh is the CEO of Tomorrow, a global consultancy on designing business for the 21st century. He advises leaders on how to thrive in this era of disruptive technological change.Rather than focusing on the distant future, Mike takes an anthropological approach – scanning the near horizon for emerging technologies and disruptive shifts in human behavior, and then translating these into pragmatic plans for business transformation. Constantly traveling the world for the best ideas, Mike spends more than 300 days a year on the road interviewing innovators, entrepreneurs and corporate revolutionaries to provide his clients and audiences with a fresh and compelling vision of tomorrow’s opportunities.

Mike has delivered close to a thousand keynote speeches around the world to companies in almost every industry. His customized presentations leave audiences prepared and inspired to transform the way they do business. In 2014, Mike was invited to be a main stage keynote speaker at the Million Dollar Round Table with an audience of more than 8,000 people, one of the most prestigious events on the global speaking circuit.

A prolific writer and commentator, Mike’s views have appeared in a wide range of international publications including BusinessWeek, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. Mike’s clients include many of the global Fortune 500, and as a sought-after keynote speaker he regularly shares the stage with world leaders and business icons alike.

Mike previously founded Jupiter Research in Australia, and has also held senior strategy roles at News Corporation in the Asia Pacific Region. He is currently a board member and strategic investor in the North Alliance, Scandinavia’s leading digital marketing group. Mike’s best-selling book FUTURETAINMENT, published by Phaidon was the winner of the design award by the Art Director’s Club in New York. He has just published his second book, The Dictionary of Dangerous Ideas, which lists the most challenging concepts facing business leaders at the dawn of the 21st century.

The Algorithmic Leader

We live in an age of wonder – cars that drive themselves, platforms that anticipate our needs, and robots capable of everything from advanced manufacturing to complex surgery. Automation, algorithms and AI are transforming not only business, but every facet of daily life. While many fear that robots will take their jobs, the rise of machine intelligence begs a more important question: what is the true potential of human intelligence in the 21st century?

In this inspiring keynote, Mike Walsh, futurist and author will present a vivid portrait of a brave new world orchestrated by machines that think, and how tomorrow’s leaders can upgrade their capabilities to survive and thrive in an age of accelerating technology.

Audiences will walk away with an insight into the companies, technologies and global forces shaping the age of machine intelligence, as well as a set of tailored next actions on how to redesign their organizations, reimagine their roles and reinvent the way they make decisions.

Designing your business for the 21st century

‘Most companies are simply not designed to survive. They become successful on the basis of one big idea or breakthrough product,’ says CEO Mike Walsh of Tomorrow, a global consultancy that helps design 21st century businesses. ‘The companies that will thrive in the near future are the ones not only embracing change but breaking the rules.’

Companies built to survive the future are no accident. They are a result of deliberate business design decisions smart leaders are making today. In his ongoing research on the world’s most innovative companies, Mike has organized these decisions into seven strategic priorities – that he will explore with audiences as a roadmap for their own reinvention.

In this keynote, Walsh will outline the megatrends shaping the future of business and consumer behaviour, and the lessons learned from successful Fortune 500 companies on leveraging disruptive innovation, adopting a data-driven mindset and leading change through digital transformation.

Digital Transformation

Every company in the future, whether it knows it or not, will be a software company. Not only will the entire operating environment become software-defined and virtual, software will shape the way the enterprise defines its very identity.

The pressure for change will only accelerate, as customers and their demands drive the need for continuous disruption and re-invention. For tomorrow’s CIO the challenge is clear: can they balance emerging technologies and the digital transformation agenda with everyday challenges of operational stability and security?

Key issues:

Creating an agenda for digital transformation that no CEO can afford to ignore
Leveraging automation, AI and algorithms to streamline the delivery of enterprise services
Aligning IT and business to deliver continuous innovation for your end customers
How to apply speed, agility and the new lean IT mindset to your technology teams

Human-centric Innovation

If you want to break the rules in a traditional business, you need to rethink the way you think. The best place to start is by adopting an anthropological mindset and exploring how technology impacts us as people. Human-centric innovation happens when we learn from how people actually use our products, regardless of what we intended for them to do.

The world’s most innovative companies apply human-centric thinking in the way they approach everything from product to experience design. You can too.

Key Issues:

Lessons from global markets on customer-led innovation
Design thinking approach and the creation of new products and services
Unleashing people power, from crowdfunding to crowdsourcing
Managing your moonshot team by learning to tolerate failure

Mike is a very engaging speaker and brings to life the future with stories and visuals in a way that is accessible to both people with a strong understanding of the future as well as those who don’t have the same level of understanding. He has a unique ability to open the eyes of the audience in a positive way. Mike tailors his speech to his audience and is excellent in delivery. He is not someone that you need to micro manage because he lives and breathes his field and has a strong focus on helping organisations achieve the outcomes they need.
– Peter Williams, Partner of Deloitte Australia

Very insightful and full of powerful content. I really found your “next actions” a very useful tool for turning ideas into a concrete follow up to drive change.
– David Velazquez, VP Operations China of Mercedes Benz Financial Services

You made a great contribution to the success of our meeting and have given inspiration to move our marketing into a new ballpark. Thanks on behalf of our entire team.
– Jürgen Stackmann, Volkswagen Global Board Member for Sales

A wake-up call for us to prepare for the needs of the next generation. I am glad the board of directors attended this session. Thank you.
– Ai Leen Yeoh, Head of Customer Analytics of RHB Bank

Mike bridged IT legacy practices with the future reality. All too often IT takes the technology centric view and Mike called us to action to engage our customers, not publish to them.
– Matthew Groom, Sr. Director of Luxottica

Loved the presentation and gained a greater understanding of the need for us to move forward quickly to engage our people and our customers. Some amazing “a-ha” moments for me.
– Nikki Franz, Training Manager SA/NT of Commonwealth Bank of Australia

I thought the presentation was spot on. I wish my former industry, newspapers, would have embraced change much sooner … and would have implemented a much different strategy than is presently engaged.
– Bill Joyner, Vice President Corporate Banking of BBVA Compass

Stunning—one of the best and most engaging presentations I have witnessed!
– Shane Hinchliffe, Knowledge Manager of LinkWater

Impressed with the level of research you did to speak to the audience rather than deliver a generic message. Probably the one session that I will share and use because it gives a structure to driving innovation and thinking strategically.
– Elaine Legault, Director, Production Services of Montreal Convention Centre

Great session Mike, I liked your premise of customer-focused innovation and finding out the “one thing” that would make the board spill their coffee.
– Doug Farndale, Cloud Director of Cisco

Mike, you were awesome. You transformed the 5 big trends in IT into something much more useful for how to plan our companies. I’ve heard and read a lot about these trends but never with your focus.
– Fabrizio Alves, CEO of VANTIX Tecnologia, Brasil

Thanks for a very good presentation at the summit! You pinpointed a number of observations relevant for me in my every day work as a leader.
– Knut Ingvar Eriksen, VP Technology/ CTO of Telenor

Amazingly fresh presentation with tons of thought leadership and practical actions to take the next step in evolving our teams.
– Daniel Serraon, Category Insights Manager of Red Bull

The session inspired me a lot. I just started my new leadership role in Sony Mexico one month ago. The idea of replacing e-mail with Facebook is exactly what I want to do. Those insights into the future are a great eye opener to rebuild our mid-range planning.
– Takao Kuroda, President of Sony Mexico

You rocked it!
– Mark Stanley, VP & GM, Latin America of Sony Entertainment/Playstation

I have been responsible for finding many guests speakers over the years at various car brands I have worked for and the reaction to you was the best I have seen anywhere. It was inspirational and most importantly for us totally supported our outlook on what we want to do with Bentley.
– Andrew Roberts, Head of Brand Communications of Bentley Motors Limited

Mike recently was the keynote speaker at our annual customer conference. Not only was he a very accomplished speaker, the content of his presentation was more than fascinating. I particularly enjoyed his research on how different cultures view the use of social media. Very eye opening.
– Robert Carroll, Chief Marketing Officer of SDL

Mike Walsh keeps astonishing digital pioneers time and time again.
– Gary Woolf, VP Business Development and Digital, of BBC Worldwide

Mike Walsh

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