Deborah Perry Piscione

Deborah Perry Piscione is a bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, and one of the foremost experts on Silicon Valley innovation culture. Her book The Risk Factor: Why Every Organization Needs Big Bets, Bold Characters, and the Occasional Spectacular Failure became a must-read for leaders seeking to build cultures of innovation and calculated risk-taking.

Decoding Silicon Valley’s Innovation DNA

Piscione spent years immersing herself in Silicon Valley culture after relocating from Washington, D.C., where she had worked in politics and media. She authored Secrets of Silicon Valley: What Everyone Else Can Learn from the Innovation Capital of the World, which decoded the unique cultural and business practices that make the region the world’s innovation engine. She has founded multiple companies and serves as a venture investor and advisor to technology startups.

Helping Organizations Think Like Silicon Valley

Piscione brings the insider perspective of a serial entrepreneur combined with the analytical skills of a bestselling business author to every engagement. She has been featured in Forbes, Inc., and major business media. Her keynotes teach leaders how to build cultures of innovation and risk-taking, embrace failure as a competitive advantage, attract and retain entrepreneurial talent, and apply Silicon Valley’s proven practices to accelerate growth and transformation in any organization.

Changing Mindsets:  Getting Great Things Done in the Age of Innovation

We all understand how hard it is to change mindsets.  Since human behavior can be unpredictable, we set policies and procedures to limit behavior and focus our energies on managing productivity and investing in technological solutions…leading to cultures that over-reward production and under-reward creativity, risk-taking, problem-solving, and a general passion for innovation and growth.

In this breakthrough presentation Deborah Perry Piscione shows that every organization can develop new mindsets,  organizational structures, and product development/ problem-solving processes that will maximize opportunities in the future.  Using examples from the most admired organizations and from her research into world-class business practices, Piscione shows how to create a culture where risk-taking is rewarded, Mavericks are encouraged, collaboration is nurtured, and leadership unlocks the potential of it’s workers.  This is a truly inspiring and pragmatic presentation on harnessing the energy in every organization.

The Secrets of Silicon Valley: Lessons from the Innovation Capital of the World

Why do governments around the globe keep sending delegations to Silicon Valley to try to discover its secrets? What is it that Silicon Valley can teach the rest of the world about creating value from ideas, build new forms of business and create disruptive innovation? The secret is in the synergy that creates an entrepreneurial ecosystem.

In this keynote, speaker Deborah Perry Piscione explains how different parts of the ecosystem come together as an interconnected web, such as the collaborative dynamics between private and public sectors, the interplay between higher education and the business community and the commercialization of know-how. Piscione takes a close look at the spirit of entrepreneurialism, examining the six characteristics that all Silicon Valley entrepreneurs radiate — passion, authenticity, love of ideas, an appetite for risk, trustworthiness, and resilience. You will find this an extremely enlightening and inspiring keynote.