Nigel Barlow Speaker Biography
Expert on Practical Innovation and Changing Mindsets
Nigel Barlow has inspired individuals and companies around the world to creatively re-think their lives and businesses. Nigel is an Agent Provocateur, Author, Creative Coach, and Keynote Speaker to many of the world’s leading organizations. He was a founding director of the Tom Peters company in Europe, and currently runs his own company. Until recently he was an Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School, focusing on innovative change.
“Nigel Barlow’s energy and enthusiasm are quite simply astonishing. He manages to capture the attention of an audience and sustain their interest for long periods whilst at the same time getting to the heart of the business issue. Not only is Nigel a gifted speaker, he works bloody hard at what he does too! I can’t recommend him highly enough.” –Stuart McCullough, Director, Lexus GB
Nigel has helped many of the world’s leading organizations on every continent to rethink their lives and businesses. He is adept at working with multi-national groups, and his clients range from Apple to GSK to Microsoft to Nestle.
Area of Expertise
He is one of the world’s most dynamic business speakers, favoring the after-lunch spot as a suitable challenge to wake people up. He also facilitates creative retreats with top teams, helping them to rethink whatever they are stuck on.
Business Books
Nigel is the author of two popular business books, Re-think — How to Think Differently and Batteries Included! Creating Legendary Customer Service. His book, Rethink – How To Think Differently (Capstone) draws on Nigel’s experience, successes, and failures. Whether you’re wanting to rethink your life situation, relationships, personal creativity, or a new business idea, Rethink is designed to provoke your creative self into coming up with the answer you already have inside you.
Nigel’s first book, Batteries Included! – Creating Legendary Customer Service (Random House) focuses on the deeper psychological and creative needs of customers, to transcend mere customer satisfaction and win legendary customer loyalty. Successful service brands like Lexus have adopted his theme of becoming legendary for the experience they give their customers; Nigel helped them to win the coveted J D Power Gold Award in the UK. Tom Peters says of Batteries Included, “Nigel Barlow’s book is simple brilliant! Is there anything left to say about superior customer service? The answer is obviously a resounding ‘yes’. This book proves it!”
Nigel’s newest book, Rock Up Your Presentation Or Pitch (Little Brown) discusses making presentations, talks, and lectures more compelling, interactive, passionate, and memorable using the creativity and performance of great modern music as the inspiration.
Nigel lives in Oxford, England, and Heathrow Departures Lounge – the majority of his business is international
Areas of Expertise: Branding, Customer Focus, Human Resources, Innovation and Creativity
Nigel Barlow Speaking Topics
RETHINK, REBUILD, REBOUND: Virtual keynotes and workshops
We are not through the storm yet, but it’s soon time to raise peoples’ eyes to a new beginning for their business. These highly interactive sessions have the dual benefit of instilling hope and a belief in the future and focusing creative attention on what it takes to rethink and rebuild an enterprise as we emerge from a global crisis. The vehicle is finding the answers to your unique new challenges, addressing the ‘beautiful questions’ that will help you rebound strongly from uncertain times. It’s the 3 R’s of survival and success: RETHINK, REBUILD, REBOUND
Inventing the Future With the Power of Creative Storytelling
Effective storytelling is clearly a means to enhance the power and impact of communications and presentations. But beyond that it can also help teams and organizations visualize the transformation needed to shape a more successful future. Here’s a dynamic way to bring your vision and strategy to life. Key topics include: the power of stories in a data-driven world, the leader’s story: ways to build a culture, inventing the future – how stories beat vision statements, methods for sustaining attitudinal and behavioral change, unleashing your team’s creativity, tips for living your inspiring story, alchemy and wizardry – stories and transformation, realizing that your enterprise is an unfolding story, in which you and your people are the heroes, makes a positive difference to performance. Invent the Future is an inspiring and practical way to realize that you can write your own script – rather than the one you’ve inherited from history.
The Mindset of an Innovator – Building Your Company ‘Garage’
Innovative and disruptive thinking is high on the wish list of most organizations. But what does it really take to break boundaries in thinking, create novel solutions, and transcend business as usual? That’s what this keynote answers. Key topics include: a possibility mindset, beginner’s mind in practice, prototyping and risk-taking, activating your curiosity gene, silo-free thinking and agile teamwork, creating a ‘garage space’ for innovation. This lively, interactive session explores how we all have a mindset – and what to do about it. Given that most people don’t have their best ideas in a traditional office block, we also take a look at organizations that have created their own spaces for innovation, equipping their talent with innovative tools to transform the organization. Be prepared to disrupt yourself!
Millennial Mania - Managing the New Generation
There are over 80 million so-called ‘millennials’ in the USA alone. A generation with different values, expectations and attitudes towards work and technology. So how do we most effectively lead and market to this new cohort?
Future Curious
When the world is transforming and shaking beneath our feet, how do we find the time, space, and motivation to be curious about the new? Curiosity is the basis of creativity, so what are the tools to keep us thinking in fresh, and disruptive ways?
The Mind Of A Disruptor
Why Disruption? Disruption is the outcome, Innovation the process. What it really means to disrupt: definitions and real-life examples. Can you avoid being disrupted? The trap of mindset. Technology as the Enabler. Not all disruptions are digital – apps, algorithms or AI – but these are likely to be at the heart of your transformation. Technology as more than machine: art, craft, skill, and ingenuity. Key Characteristics of a Disruptor: Contrarian. Going against the grain. Subverting the accepted and expected. Curious. Open to what’s really going on. Learning from the frontiers of wisdom. Creative. Making new connections, and bringing your ideas to fruition. Courageous. Risk-taking and boldness. Going beyond the naysayers and yes-butters. Collaborative. Making unusual and useful alliances. Finding complementary souls. Customer Canny. Knowing when to listen and when to ignore the voice of the customer. Compelling. Inspiring others to innovate. Living your vision. Drawing talent to you. Build Your Garage. Creating the environment and focus for practical innovation. Creating ‘Garagistas’ who carry the torch for relentless innovation. Healthy Paranoia. How this new value can be useful in provoking creativity and action to avoid being disrupted. Storytelling Your Future. Describing your disruptive future in story form – an antidote to dull vision statements. Style of Session. Inspiring, practical and tailored to your specific Disruption Challenges, whether these are technological, commercial, or organizational. Treat the ingredients above as a menu that can be shaped to fit your transformation agenda.
Nigel Barlow Books
Rock Your Presentation – A New Guide to Speaking with Passion
Purchase Book
Re-Think: How to Think Differently
Purchase Book
Batteries Included: Creating Legendary Customer Service
Purchase BookNigel Barlow Videos
Nigel Barlow Speaker Testimonials
Awesome! Nigel’s unique blend of engaging content and entertaining style will capture the attention of virtually any audience. Beyond that he delivers on his core rethink message by ensuring the audience can take away practical methods for application thereby paving the way for adding value to any business proposition
- | QVC Television Channel
Brilliant strategic session – exceeded all our expectations.
- | CIGNA Health International
The participants’ response to your presentation and exercises is outstanding. I also felt your passion to the topics.
- | Nordea Finance
I would really like to thank you for your excellent work on Saturday. So far, I’ve received many, many comments on how great the session was. You really exceeded our best expectations.
- | Microsoft
