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Coming up next:
Here are some of Rowan’s upcoming
speaking engagements for 2008:
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Barcelona,
Spain
May, 2008
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Damman, Saudi Arabia
May, 2008
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Helsinki, Finland
June, 2008
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European Top Management Summit, Noordwijk
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Imtech is one of the fastest growing companies in The Netherlands. A European technical services provider in the fields of electrical engineering, ICT and mechanical engineering, the company has an annual revenue of over 3.3 billion Euro. I had the honor this year of speaking at Imtech’s first European Top Management Summit, which brought together 120 of the company’s leaders at the Palace Hotel in Noordwijk, a popular seaside resort in the Netherlands. The event gave me a chance to share some insights on innovation with a very entrepreneurial group of top managers who are eager to find new ways to drive even more growth at the top line. My thanks to Pieter Koenders, Director of Corporate Communications, for his invitation to speak to the company, as well as Astrid Marré and Margit Gideonse for putting this engagement together at very short notice. |
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Innovative Banking Forum,Stockholm
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In the wake of the global credit crunch, with the financial services industry in very bad shape and the whole notion of “financial innovation” under question, it was with some caution that I approached my keynote speech at the Innovative Banking Forum in Stockholm. Thankfully, I needn’t have worried. Financial services firms in the Nordic region are still very upbeat on innovation (as the title of the conference suggests!) and the audience embraced my presentation with a lot of enthusiasm. Sponsored by MORS Software and hosted by Swedbank, the event attracted participants from several countries in the region. Following my speech, which concluded the afternoon program, I was delighted to sign 50 copies of my new book “Innovation to the Core”. A word of thanks to Mika Mustakallio, CEO of MORS Software, for inviting me to speak at this event, and to my ever-energetic agent, Susanna Salminen, for recommending me once again. |
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 50
copies
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Public BusinessSeminar, Lisbon
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This March, I was honored to speak at the first of a high-profile series of public business seminars hosted by PRIMAVERA Academy, the executive education arm of PRIMAVERA – Portugal’s leading enterprise software company. The afternoon event, which was advertised on TV for several weeks, was held at Lisbon’s impressive “Centro de Congressos” and attracted over 400 paying participants along with the Portuguese Press. My two sessions on “Making Innovation Happen” ran for a total of almost 3 hours, after which I was happy to sign copies of “Innovation to the Core”. A highlight of this trip was my stay at Pestana Palace, which has to be the most beautiful hotel in Lisbon (see www.hotelpestanapalace.com ). My thanks to José Dionisio, president of PRIMAVERA, for inviting me to speak at this spectacular event, and to Marketing Director Idalina Sousa for managing everything so smoothly – as well as Yvonne Baldaia for setting up the engagement. |
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60
copies
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Bayer Global Conference, Barcelona
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Every now and again,
I get to speak to a group of people that is genuinely improving
quality of life for those who are battling with
serious illness. Such was the case with my speaking appearance
at the Bayer Global Conference for Hematology/Cardiology,
hosted in beautiful Barcelona, Spain.
Bayer Healthcare is of course one of the world’s
leading pharmaceutical companies, most famous perhaps
for Aspirin – arguably
the most commercially successful drug ever. My keynote
speech, entitled “Innovation to the Core”,
kicked off the final day of the three-day conference,
and was followed by a book signing for the 130 delegates
from global strategic marketing, regional marketing and
regional sales. It was an honor to help these
delegates – many of whom were originally from Schering,
the pharma company Bayer acquired in 2006 – to
understand how to innovate across the entire business
model. My sincere thanks to Sreejit Mohan, Director
of Public Policy and Communications, based in Berkeley,
California, for inviting me to speak to this excellent
group. |
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130
copies
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Henkel “Innovation Day”, Düsseldorf
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Living not far from Düsseldorf in
Germany, this event was something of a “home-game” for
me. The folks at Henkel – the international
household products company – invited me to come and
deliver a keynote speech at their global “Innovation
Day 2008” event, which was hosted not far
from the firm’s Düsseldorf headquarters. Best
known for brands like Persil detergent, Schwarzkopf haircare
products, Duckt industrial tape and Sellotape household
tape, Henkel has a presence in 125 countries on five
continents. The Innovation Day event – which
was focused on the company’s cosmetics division – is
a forum to which Henkel invites particpants from its various
geographies. I was honored to speak to the audience on building
a companywide capability for innovation, based on my new
book “Innovation to the core” (co-authored
with Peter Skarzynski). Special thanks to Annette
Gerling of CSA Dusseldorf for recommending me to
Henkel and for managing this engagement. |
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Provincial Learning Conference,
Port Alfred, S.A.
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Innovating in business is difficult enough. Innovating
in the public sector is fraught with far more
daunting challenges – not least of which is the
quagmire of bureaucracy. This is true in any country
of the world – but in South Africa the
challenges are compounded by the seeming intractability
of the problems the government is trying to solve (read: poverty,
unemployment, AIDS, and so forth). That’s
why I was honoured to speak to public sector leaders
of the Eastern Cape province in a two-day learning
conference held near picturesque Port Alfred.
My speeches and interactive workshops were designed to
teach these leaders how to innovate around the
delivery of public services. Attended by Dr.
Sibongile Muthwa, Director General of the Eastern
Cape, as well as Singa Ngqwala, the Attorney
General, the event unleashed a lot of innovative thinking,
which was extremely refreshing and encouraging to see.
My thanks go to Shirlee Vasi, Senior Manager
of the Innovation & Knowledge Management Unit, for
making my contribution central to the program (and for
making me feel so welcome), as well as Elise Davis,
IKM Secretary, for overcoming all the afore-mentioned bureaucracy
to get this groundbreaking event together. |
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Two-Day Innovation Masterclass, Botswana
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A real highlight of my Spring 08 speaking
tour in Africa was a two-day Innovation Masterclass
for the giant Debswana Diamond company in Botswana.
A joint venture between the Botswana government and the
South African diamond company De Beers,
Debswana accounts for an incredible 50% of the
entire Botswana economy! I was invited to come
and speak for two days to 300 people at the Jwaneng
diamond mine – the richest diamond mine in the world.
Attended by Blackie Marole, Managing Director
of Debswana, Balisi Bonyongo, General
Manager of Jwaneng mine, and company leaders from a wide
diversity of functions, the conference was the largest
of its kind in the history of the company. It was also featured
quite extensively in the media, with several newspapers
carrying the story and a 5-minute slot on BTV (Botswana
TV). I’d like to express my thanks to Mark
Mabhudhu, Business Process Manager of Business
Integration and Transformation, and Thatayaone
Molefhi Senior Business Analyst – Process
and Innovation, for masterminding this unforgettable event
(and special thanks to Thatayaone for the game
drive on Saturday morning!). |
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300
copies
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Exclusive Business Breakfast, Johannesburg
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While in Joburg this Spring, I was honored to speak at
an exclusive business breakfast hosted by the Netherlands
Chamber of Commerce in South Africa. This intimate
event was attended by 10 corporate leaders from companies like
Heineken, ABN-AMRO bank (recently acquired by Royal Bank
of Scotland), and KLM, and as well as Geeskeline Wolters, Holland’s
deputy Ambassador in SA. It gave me the opportunity
to deliver a 90 minute speech on “Winning in
the Innovation Economy”, and to sign some
advance copies of my new book “Innovation to
the Core” (co-authored with Peter Skarzynski).
I was expecting most of the guests to run back to their offices
after the speech (and with their busy agendas I wouldn’t
have blamed them), but everyone stayed for a lively
Q&A discussion which I found extremely stimulating.
Thanks again to Anne Doeser and Mark
Reyneker of the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce
in South Africa for hosting this event, and to Rene Beer
of SSI for providing the venue (and breakfast!). |
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10
copies
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One-Day Innovation Masterclass,
Volkswagen, Johannesburg
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It was good to be back with Volkswagen
South Africa, this time to conduct a one-day
Innovation Masterclass for 90 people from the
company’s Marketing and Sales division. Hosted at
the Emperors Palace and Conference Center in
Johannesburg, the event gave participants a rare chance
to create time and space in their agendas for rethinking
and innovation. I’m always gratified to
see what happens when people get teamed up with colleagues
they don’t usually work with, and start stretching
their thinking along new lines. The folks at VWSA
were no disappointment. Our breakout sessions together
produced some remarkably powerful insights and growth opportunities
around which VW is now going to launch a portfolio
of strategy experiments. I’ll be following
these experiments closely to see where they take the company
in future. In the meantime, my thanks to Mike Glendinning,
Director of Marketing and Sales, VWSA, for initiating this
event, as well as Stuart Lee of Famous Faces,
my agent on the ground. |
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90
copies
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Three-Day Innovation Masterclass,
Port Elizabeth, SA
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The first event on my Spring
08 speaking tour of South Africa and Botswana was
a three-day Innovation Masterclass for Sovereign
Food Investments, one of the world’s most
advanced poultry farming companies. Based in Uitenhage,
near Port Elizabeth (SA), Sovereign processes
an incredible 500,000 chickens a week (!) – which
are sold frozen under the popular brand names Country
Range and Rocklands. The company’s
visionary CEO, Mike Davis, is a true believer
in the power of radical new thinking for driving growth
and strategic renewal. His mission with this 50-person
event was to lay the foundation for building a
deep, sustainable innovation capability that involves
every single person across the firm. My masterclass, entitled “Making
Innovation Happen” – which included
practical breakout sessions for generating new insights
and ideas – was designed to help Mike achieve this
goal. A big THANKYOU to Dawn Gouws of
Sovereign (along with Susan Lascelles) for managing the
whole event with grace and finesse, right down to the last
detail. |
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50
copies
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IBM Forum, Mumbai, India
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The IBM Forum is an annual
event hosted in a string of countries around the world. I
was honored to be the keynote speaker at this year’s
two-day Forum in Mumbai, India, which brought
together leaders from some of the subcontinent’s most
successful companies (including Tata, which
has been in the news recently with the launch of Nano,
the world’s most inexpensive car). In total, I delivered
two speeches at the event (one for CEOs, and one for CIOs
and business unit leaders). Both were entitled “Winning
in the Innovation Economy”. In addition, I
had the great pleasure of signing 300 books.
The atmosphere in “Incredible India” is
of course buzzing with optimism, and it’s a
market where IBM now has roughly one fifth of its global
workforce, which says a lot about where the center
of gravity in the computer industry has been rapidly shifting.
The event, which took place at the Hyatt Regency
Mumbai, was organized extremely professionally by
the folks at GPJ Experience Marketing. My
thanks also to Helen Sahib in London for
putting this engagement together. |
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| Highlights 2007 |
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Location |
Event |
Client |
Date |
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Helsinki |
Fortum Leadership Summit |
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Jan 2008 |
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Western Cape,
S.A. |
Volkswagen “Leadership Challenge” |
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Nov 2007 |
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Moscow |
CFO “Change Champions” event |
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Nov 2007 |
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Johannesburg |
One-day Innovation Masterclass |
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Nov 2007 |
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London |
Philips “Simplicity” event |
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Oct 2007 |
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Istanbul |
Business Forum at CeBIT Eurasia |
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Oct 2007 |
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Athens |
Hay Group
“Thought Leadership Forum” |
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Sep 2007 |
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Lithuania |
Baltic Management Conference |
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Sep 2007 |
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Austria |
OMV Business Forum, Alpbach |
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Sep 2007 |
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Oslo |
Innovation Kick-off Event |
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Aug 2007 |
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Berlin |
Roche HR Knowledge Exchange |
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June 2007 |
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Scotland |
Global Insights Conference,
Gleneagles |
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June 2007 |
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Helsinki |
Three back-to-back speeches |
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May 2007 |
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Estonia |
Business Seminar, Tallinn |
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May 2007 |
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Portugal |
Sonae Innovation Conference |
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May 2007 |
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San Diego |
Healthcare Leadership Forum |
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May 2007 |
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Berlin |
Carlson Wagonlit Customer Event |
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Apr 2007 |
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Austria |
Insurance Industry Forum |
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March 2007 |
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Athens |
Microsoft Networking Summit |
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March 2007 |
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Helsinki |
UPM Executive Session |
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March 2007 |
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Johannesburg |
One-day Innovation Masterclass |
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Feb 2007 |
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Johannesburg |
Executive “Business Breakfast” |
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Feb 2007 |
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Düsseldorf |
Cognis Innovation Awards |
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Jan 2007 |
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| Highlights 2006 |
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Location |
Event |
Client |
Date |
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Düsseldorf |
MGI Metro Group Convention |
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Nov 2006 |
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Munich |
Generali Group “Innovation Lab” |
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Oct 2006 |
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Lake Garda, Italy |
“The Innovation Exchange” |
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Sep 2006 |
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London |
Concours Senior Executive Summit |
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Sep 2006 |
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Eindhoven |
“A Day of Inspiration” |
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Sep 2006 |
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Norway |
Innotown |
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May 2006 |
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Madrid |
Teradata Conference |
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May 2006 |
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Las Vegas |
HRSA Global Summit |
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March 2006 |
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Prague |
Inspiring Ahold |
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March 2006 |
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New York |
Rexam redux |
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Jan 2006 |
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Switzerland |
Technology Forum |
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Nov 2005 |
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To archivepage 2007 |
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To archivepage 2006 |
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