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BigPredictions |
To ring in the New Year, BigSpeak rounded up a selection of our top speakers to weigh in with their predictions for 2015. With experts from a variety of fields including everything from geopolitical strategy to emotional intelligence, our top speakers showed a diverse range of perspectives. Below, read their insightful answers to the question:
“What will 2015 be remembered for in 100 years?”
Peter Zeihan
Geopolitical Strategist, Author of Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence and the Coming Global Disorder
"In 2115 people will look back through a century of chaos and see 2015 as the last year of the old era. It's the year that everyone saw the developing world for the fad that it was. It's the year that Europe and China proved to be unsustainable. And the year that Americans -- despite their government -- actually started believing in their country again. Then they'll start thinking about what that change meant for the century to follow....but that's a prediction for another time." |
Lisa Kay Solomon
Innovation Strategist, Leadership Coach, Best-Selling Author of Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations that Accelerate Change
“My prediction is that we will see a new position created in the government: Chief Design Officer, who will work directly with CTO (Megan Smith) to redesign major government agencies desperate for an overhaul (like the VA). The CDO's role will be to design better government experiences for citizens, using techniques of empathy, rapid prototyping and streamlined UX (user experience). This follows the well documented successful design and technology overhaul of Obamacare, driven by Silicon Valley tech and design ninjas.” |
To read what other futurists and thought leaders are saying, read our article: Big 2015 Predictions
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BigBen |
It is only January, and it has already been a big year for BigSpeak exclusive speaker Ben Casnocha—he is featured on the January/February issue of HR Magazine. Below is an excerpt from the article feature.
Ben Casnocha believes that today’s workforce more closely resembles entrepreneurs than the “lifers” of yesteryear—and that, to recruit and manage them, you need a whole new talent framework. He collaborated with LinkedIn chairman Reid Hoffman and entrepreneur Chris Yeh to write The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age (Harvard Business Review Press, July), which explores talent mobility trends.
Casnocha, who is based in San Francisco, regularly delivers speeches on business topics—including at SHRM’s 2013 Strategy Conference—and has written for NPR’s “Marketplace,” Newsweek and the U.S. State Department. He’s authored two other business books and maintains a blog. He was previously Hoffman’s chief of staff at LinkedIn.
Read the full article: "HR Trendsetter: Ben Casnocha, Co-Author, The Alliance: Managing Talent In the Networked Age"
BigSpeaker Ben Casnocha
Best Selling Author and Tech Entrepreneur
"As a speaker, Ben is engaging, insightful, and thought-provoking. He is down-to-earth in style and uplifting in his message."
—Chuck Alvery, CEO, Western Nevada Economic Development Association
Ben Casnocha is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and executive in Silicon Valley. He is coauthor with LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman of the recent New York Times bestseller The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age, which has become one of the most sought-after management frameworks on how to recruit, manage, and retain entrepreneurial employees. He is also co-author with Reid of The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career, the bestselling guide to the new world of work.
Learn more about having Ben Casnocha speak about human resources, talent management, and entrepreneurship at your next event.
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BigMergers |
Global deal-making in 2014 was at an all-time high, passing $3 trillion (up 50 percent from 2013). 2015 is projected to have even more M & A activity, with global firms targeting American companies (potentially 65% of activity). To learn more, read this great article on mergers: Mega-Mergers Popular Again on Wall Street
With mergers and acquisitions, there is immense upheaval and organizational change for all staff. This is why it is increasingly beneficial to bring in change management and corporate culture specialist to address the key transformations companies undergo during these times. Lisa Kay Solomon
and Mike Abrashoff are thought leaders in the area of change management, corporate culture and they specialize in working with organizations during these critical times to ensure effective transitions.
BigSpeaker Lisa Kay Solomon
Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author, Professor of Innovation, Strategist to the Fortune 1000
"Lisa is like the Oprah of Innovation. Through her unique classes, Lisa helps innovators achieve their highest potential, while also celebrating their own unique capabilities and contributions."
—Ching-Yee Hu, Founder and CEO, Poetic Foods
An innovation strategist and leadership coach, Lisa Kay Solomon helps leaders develop the ability to build more expansive and creative futures through design-led tools, skills and behaviors. Lisa has worked with executives from organizations such as ING, Toyota Financial Services, Andreesen Horowitz, Singularity University, Stanford University, Herman Miller Inc., Public Broadcasting System (PBS), and Kauffman Program from Venture Capitalists, among others.
Learn more about having
Lisa Kay Solomon work with your organization on strategy, innovation, and corporate culture.
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BigSpeaker Mike Abrashoff
Former US Naval Commander, Leadership and Performance Expert, Best Selling Author
Mike Abrashoff is the founder of a consulting firm which works with and supports leaders as they address leadership, talent and business challenges within their organization. The firm challenges leaders at all levels to re-imagine their leadership thinking and create new ways to elevate individual, team and organizational performance. Mike Abrashoff recounted the leadership lessons he learned from his turnaround of the USS Benfold in It’s Your Ship, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller.
Learn more about having Mike Abrashoff work with your organization on leadership, change management, and executive development.
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BigDiplomacy |
As Obama makes history over Cuba, will the Castros be the real winners?
By Ann
Louise Bardach
To the astonishment of even the most seasoned and wired-in of Cuba hands, the half century-long cold (and hot) war between the US and Cuba is over. In what will rank alongside Nixon’s opening to China and Reagan’s embrace of Gorbachev, Obama has achieved the diplomatic coup and historic legacy that so insistently eluded his 10 White House predecessors. But the towering question is: what finally drove the Cubans to the bargaining table? Was it political courage, as was certainly the case for Obama? Or was it simply a matter of survival?
Since the untimely death of Fidel Castro’s disciple, Hugo Chávez, the Cubans have been nervously eying Caracas. How much longer – months or weeks? – would Cuba be able to receive its daily subsidy of 100,000 barrels of free Venezuelan crude? Quite simply, the collapsing price of oil, coupled with Nicolás Maduro’s shaky grip on the Venezuelan presidency (not to mention the falling Russian rouble) provided the writing on the wall. Either Cuba had to find a new patron – and one as pliant and generous as the Soviet Union and Venezuela have been – or it would be forced to join the cursed, capitalist free-market economy.
Read the full article: As Obama makes history over Cuba, will the Castros be the real winners?
BigSpeaker Ann Louise Bardach
Journalist, Author, Foreign Correspondent and Cuban Affairs Expert
Ann Louise Bardach is a critically-acclaimed author, speaker and award-winning reporter with a broad array of expertise. She is widely considered the go-to reporter on all things Cuba and Miami. She is also regarded as the leading journalistic authority on Vivekananda, the first missionary from the East to the West who popularized yoga and Vedanta in the U.S. and Europe in the late 1890s. Her articles on Swami Vivekananda, the "Patriot Saint" of India, in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal's magazine garnered international attention and acclaim, leading to both a book and film deal.
Learn more about having Ann Louise Bardach speak about leadership, change management, and executive development at your next event.
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