Geoff Colvin

Keynote speaker Geoff Colvin is an award-winning thinker, author, broadcaster, and speaker on today’s most significant trends in business. As FORTUNE’s Senior Editor-at-Large, he has become one of America’s sharpest and most respected commentators on leadership, globalization, wealth creation, the infotech revolution, and related issues. As anchor of Wall Street Week with FORTUNE on PBS, he spoke each week to the largest audience reached by any business television program in America.

Colvin’s groundbreaking bestseller Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers From Everybody Else received the Harold A. Longman Award for Best Business Book of the Year and has been published in a dozen languages. Charlie Rose says it is “spectacular” and “fascinating.” Daniel H. Pink calls it “profoundly important.” Donald Trump calls it “enlightening” and “inspiring.” Colvin’s book The Upside of the Downturn: Ten Management Strategies to Prevail in the Recession and Thrive in the Aftermath was named the best management book of the year by Strategy + Business magazine.

Directorship magazine has named Colvin one of the 100 most influential figures in corporate governance.

As a speaker, Geoff Colvin has engaged hundreds of audiences on six continents. He is also a skilled on-stage interviewer whose subjects have included Jack Welch, Henry Kissinger, Richard Branson, the Prince of Wales, Bill Gates, Alan Greenspan, Steve Case, Ted Turner, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and many others. He is the regular lead moderator of the Fortune Global Forum, and he serves as moderator for the International Business Leaders Forum in London.

Speaker Geoff Colvin is one of America’s preeminent business broadcasters. He is heard daily on the CBS Radio Network, where he has made over 10,000 broadcasts and reaches seven million listeners each week. He has appeared on Today, The O’Reilly Factor, Good Morning America, Squawk Box, CBS This Morning, ABC’s World News, CNN, PBS’s Nightly Business Report, and dozens of other programs.

A native of Vermillion, South Dakota, Colvin is an honors graduate of Harvard with a degree in economics and has an M.B.A. from New York University.

No New Normal: Leading In Continuous Change

The pandemic accelerated just about every trend you can think of. Nonstop change has now become the norm, and the world isn’t going back. While there is no “new normal,” the good news is we aren’t doomed to play defense. Geoff Colvin shows audiences how to embrace a world of continuous disruption while building powerful competitive advantages. This uplifting talk shows step-by-step how we can all respond faster to change and even get ahead of it as individuals, teams, and enterprises. Geoff provides actionable takeaways to help leaders face change smarter:

• What the best leaders and companies are doing right now to create the future
• Why confronting reality faster is the key to seizing new opportunities
• Biggest pandemic lessons for business
• Scenario planning: surviving bad times begins with better decisions in good times
• 3 best ways to lead during crisis and disruption
• Creativity and innovation – how to unleash it individually and organizationally

The New Economic Order – Risks And Opportunities

Global turmoil has roiled an already fragile economic order in ways that are still unfolding. At Fortune, Geoff tells the economic story in terms that focus on the risks and opportunities. Business people already know the numbers – what they might miss is the big picture; the forces driving the trends causing disruptive change in their world and, most importantly, what to do about it. In this presentation, the economy isn’t a bunch of statistics; it’s a story that Geoff tells engagingly, humorously, and memorably with valuable takeaways because, as he says, “Even in tough times, somebody’s going to win, why not you?” Geoff covers:

• Why, even in times like this, it’s vital to remain optimistic
• The latest data and trends curated for the audience/industry he’s addressing
• A plain-spoken explanation of what’s going on now – on Main Street, Wall Street, in Washington, and globally.
• How successful companies are winning in this economy

How To Create A Business Model Built For The Future

Brace yourself: In 2022, 94% of CEOs said their company’s business model will have to change in the next three years! More important: The majority of them also feel they aren’t making progress fast enough. Business model innovation has become a must-have competence for all companies. That’s a problem for those that are unprepared but a huge opportunity for the rest. Geoff Colvin identifies the inescapable forces that are rendering reliable old business models obsolete and shows how companies of any size in any industry can – and must – rise to the challenge. Geoff reveals:

• Inspiring examples of companies transforming their business model and winning
• Key trends driving the need for business model change
• How to just do it: Stop protecting yesterday and start creating the future
• The secrets to becoming a business model innovator
• How to adapt to a friction-free economy and create outsized opportunities
• Why human capital is the most valuable kind and how to make the most of it

Learning From The World’s Greatest Leaders

Through his work at Fortune, Geoff Colvin has seen top business leaders up close. Over the years, he’s gotten to know many of those leaders well. Watching them and talking with them has revealed eye-opening insights into how they cope with change, wrestle with transforming their companies, and face the economic, competitive, technological, and political forces buffeting their businesses. Geoff unpacks their stories in this talk uniquely crafted for each audience, showing relevant lessons learned from leaders and companies we all know. The talk can focus on several themes:

• The crucial process of making tough decisions
• Finding and keeping great employees
• Navigating regulatory uncertainty
• Adopting new technology
• Managing in a crisis
• Leading cultural change

Panel Moderator, Discussion Leader, Emcee/Host

Geoff Colvin’s unique gift is his ability to brilliantly moderate panels, lead onstage interviews, and host/emcee. He’s played these roles for more than three decades at Fortune conferences worldwide. Top companies and associations regularly utilize Geoff because he gets the most out of participants; he asks the right questions, listens intently to what’s being said on stage, and responds to that. He also connects ideas and insights across sessions, transforming a multi-part program into a satisfying, unified whole. He always keeps the discussion relevant and the energy high.