Industry Keynote Lectures

Lecture Topics

• Future and Technology
• Globalization
• E-Commerce
• Outsourcing
• Change Management
• Organizational Strategy
• Marketing, Branding and Customer Service
• Land Use and Regional Development

International investment banker and futurist William Knoke has investigated the next century and unveils the transformations occurring in almost every aspect of business.  “We’re headed for a ‘placeless society’ in which communication and transportation technologies make it possible for everyone to connect with everything everywhere,” Knoke says.  Every aspect of business will be revitalized according to emerging paradigms.

Mr. Knoke, customizes his dynamic presentations for particular industry conferences. 

KEY TOPICS FOR THE NEW ECONOMY:

• Globalization and new industry dynamics.
• Role of mergers and consolidations.
• The fall and rebirth of intermediaries.
• Brand names in the new economy.
• Optimizing corporate reorganization.
• Outsourcing and alliances as strategic requirements.
• Blurred boundary between “customer” and “supplier”.
• Shifting job and career skills.
• Shifts in land use.

Mr. Knoke sees profound changes in how industries will reorganize, market, and how wealth will be created.  Links between newer enterprises pose fresh challenges for entrenched businesses.  Fresh competitors seem to come from nowhere, and entire industries must regroup.  Insights to his thinking can be found in two of his works:

As William Knoke says in his international bestseller, Bold New World: The Essential Road Map to the Twenty-first Century, technology is transforming us to a “placeless society,” where distance no longer matters.  This seminal work, now in ten languages, unveils how people are connecting as never before, creating a revolution in how businesses operate, how government will restructure, and how our lives will change.

These concepts are taken to a higher level in The Hyperconnecting Corporation:  Preparing Business for the 21st Century (pending).  Here, Mr. Knoke unveils how  “connector technologies” are revolutionizing industries and how wealth is created.  The indivisible “atoms” of organization are no longer the corporations, but individuals “hyperconnected” across time and space.  Old boundaries between supplier and customer become blurred throughout the supply chain, as entire industries become rationalized.  Sales and distribution intermediaries must shift into “hyperservices” to maintain their edge.  Smaller entities can recombine overnight in novel ways to pose fresh challenges for the established market giants.  Employees and managers must learn new skills, and apply new paradigms for success.  The Hyperconnecting Corporation is written as a wake up call to industries everywhere that they are about to collide with the future, and what they need to do to thrive.

INTERACTIVE EXERCISES FOR PARTICPANTS:

Mr. Knoke is a master facilitator to encourage group interaction when appropriate.  One tool enjoyed by many groups is Mr. Knoke's Future Wheel Exercise that gets participants interacting, and solving real-world problems at the convention.