How to innovate for new growth, explore your company’s “white space” and get a jump on the competition.
Companies today struggle to maintain dominant positions in markets that are changing faster than ever. What is the right response when doing the same thing — just faster and leaner than before — doesn’t get you much return? When focusing on your core threatens to make you irrelevant sooner? When the marketplace is changing so fast that predicting its twists and turns seems impossible?
Adam Hartung has helped companies find marketplace opportunities for more than 20 years. His insights have sparked innovation and growth in companies as diverse as Pizza Hut and DuPont, Coopers & Lybrand and Computer Sciences Corporation. Adam has been a business executive, an entrepreneur, a consultant, a speaker and an author. His book, Create Marketplace Disruption: How to Stay Ahead of the Competition, was published in 2008 by the Financial Times Press to wide acclaim.
Adam is a popular, much-sought-after public speaker. His talks show business audiences how to find the “white space” in their organizations and markets to create new opportunities that can launch businesses, create new products, and seize hidden marketplace opportunities.
Through a rich collection of case studies and stories, Adam keeps his presentation relevant and focused on your industry, your business, your marketplace. He reveals four steps to innovation that have been proven successful over and over again in a wide variety of industries. Your team and your employees will understand what it takes to turn an organization in a new direction and seize the opportunities in a turbulent market in order to launch new growth and innovation.
Speaking Topics
Topics include:
- Beating the competition through marketplace disruption.
- Seizing hidden marketplace opportunities.
- The four steps to innovation management, implementation, growth and success post-2009.
What Audiences Say
As I reflected on
Adam’s comments throughout the course of the conversations, I was struck by how
he immediately challenged our thought processes in many areas such as working
from an assumption of status quo and focusing on now vs what the future might
really bring in by assessing and thinking about marketplace shifts. I thought
the process was challenging, thoughtful and provocative. And most importantly,
provided new ways of thinking that can be applied immediately across many areas.
Robert Lee, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, ASAE
Adam presented his half-day workshop “The Phoenix Principle: Success Across
the Lifecycle” to the TEC group of CEOs that I chair. He expertly wove his own
real-world experiences with business facts and examples to convey a
thought-provoking message. The interactive session included multiple
opportunities for small group work, and Adam challenged us to identify the
trends impacting our businesses. We left the workshop focused on the future and
exhilarated by the possibilities of identifying new markets and innovating.
Trisha Huizenga, Chair of TEC 23 and 54, Faciliatate LLC
Adam both entertained and educated out conference attendees. His presentation was thought provoking and timely. He was a great addition to our conference.
Spencer Hoole, Co-chair, Summit Directors and Officers Conference 2012
Adam Hartung was one of the best speakers we have ever retained. He was a dynamic and engaging presenter and left our attendees thinking and talking about eliminating their lock-in’s and generating the white space needed to innovate. His insight was thought provoking and delivered in a way that resonated with the audience. Our meeting is targeted at C-level executives which can be a tough crowd. Adam did not disappoint!
Rene Soltis Shepherd, Senior Director Meetings and Education, The Vision Council
We invited Adam to be the keynote speaker at a recent event where we were hosting a select group of our most important customers. It was important that we impressed our customers and Adam delivered in a big way. His message was
thought provoking, entertaining, well research, clear and delivered in an energetic and engaging way. He has a real talent for distilling his message into simple and memorable take aways. Our audience was very attentive and the feedback we got after Adam’s presentation convinced us that we accomplished what we set out to do.
Greg Kadens, American Hotel Register Company
Adam spoke at a recent Cars.com strategic leadership meeting, with a focus less on inspirational rhetoric and more on a hard-headed dose of reality about what’s hard about innovation and what’s at stake. His insights encouraged us to look beyond today’s market structure and made an immediate impact on our leadership dialog and the need to allocate resources to “white-space” product development.
CEO, Cars.com
Adam’s talk was an eye opener for me. While I knew that my business would change drastically in the next few years, this was a wake up call that we needed to get in front of market demand. Defending the past was not going to help us survive. Since Adam’s talk, we have keyed in on what our customers value and have allocated time and money to pursue disruptive products and services. While I don’t know if we will be the next Apple, I am getting reactions from clients such as, “Wow! That sounds easy, like it would serve us better and cost less!” Thanks for the wake up call Adam!
Thomas Dodds, President of slashBlue
Adam is a dynamic speaker with his pulse on strategies for a fast evolving global world. His presentation fired up our teams with real world examples and exceeded our expectations. The message to prevent ‘lock-in’ to our strategies and push the envelope in new areas where we can see opportunity was perfect for our leadership conference. Everyone should read his book.
John H. Jacko Jr.
VP and Chief Marketing Officer, Kennametal Inc.
Adam presented practical, actionable viewpoints to our management team. Using a combination of examples and specific to-dos, he explained how we can avoid a lock-in mindset that has resulted in the downfall of many a company! His engaging style made it easy for our team to internalize the concepts.
Sudhakar Ramakrishna,
Corporate VP, Home — Networks Mobility, Motorola, Inc.
Adam, THANK YOU! The compliments just keep on rolling in about your presentation to our Members and guests. YOU WERE TERRIFIC and we really appreciate your time and insights!
Sandy Weissent, University of Chicago CEO roundtable
Your recent presentation to The Association for Corporate Growth CEO group was remarkable. The feedback we got from the leaders who attended was outstanding. Your researched based concepts and real world work experience challenged our members to create new success formulas for their business. I’m confident that the practical ideas you shared will be the foundation of new innovation and profitable growth for years to come. I look forward to having you come back and share more thoughts on how leaders can create significant breakthroughs in performance.
Bill Durkin, Vice Chair, Corporate Network, The Association for Corporate Growth
Just wanted to let you know that the Members and I enjoyed your presentation and found it to be insightful and impactful. We continue to discuss different aspects of your presentation and, in particular, use your “locked-in” concept… especially during these times.
Gregory C. Vrablik, The President’s Forum
Adam Hartung presented to our University of Chicago Booth School of Business’ Consulting Roundtable (CRT). His presentation focused on how to galvanize our companies and clients — insights that are valuable in any economy and urgent in this one. Whether in a tough times or good, Adam’s insights are applicable — companies, and individuals, have to be adaptable. Adam’s presentation demonstrated what makes a company adaptable, able to manage through a downturn or market shift, and enlightened us with the surprising strategies and stories of those companies. Our audience was engaged, asked many questions and the presentation was energizing — so much so that when the session was officially over, 70% of the attendees stayed an extra hour of further discussion.
Rachel Patterson, University of Chicago
It is rare that we have a speaker so engaging and so loaded with key insights that most people miss. We always pack the house when Adam speaks. He locks-in and fully engages the audience providing such relevant data that he has become a regular speaker for MENG (Marketing Executives Networking Group). Our attendees rave about Adams ability to deliver excellent content in a captivating and motivating way. I recommend Adam to anyone who wants a professional, polished speaker, who can read the audience and deliver exceptionally well!
Juli Bohm, MENG Chicago Chapter Chair and Board Member
Adam Hartung, author of “Create Marketplace Disruption”, was my guest speaker at a recent FEI Career Management Group Breakfast. Adam did an excellent job of enlightening the group on the concepts in his book, tying in current business events (eg. the GM Chapter 11 filing) and bringing topic relevance to the Finance executives in attendance. Adam conveyed his material with the authority one would expect from someone who had conducted extensive research but also with a sense of humor and engaging style that sparked many questions from the audience. Adam is the type of speaker who will make business leaders think differently about what they need to focus on and how to lead so they will have successful businesses not only today but in the future.
Ron Zoromski formerly VP of Finance with Siemens Building Technologies, Inc. and current FEI Career Management Group committee member
Adam delivered an outstanding workshop for an Executive group of the Scanlon Leadership Network member companies. Utilizing the results of over 800 case studies, Adam Hartung of Spark Partners helped our executives realize that by asking the right questions and following some new steps they can identify opportunities to grow, regardless of economic conditions. By overcoming internal Lock-ins, one can adapt to become whatever you want, and thus regain growth and future success. We asked Adam to return and present again for the Scanlon Leadership Network this time delivering the keynote address for our 46th annual conference May 11-13, 2009, in Kalamazoo, MI. See www.ScanlonLeader.org for details. Adam will also lead a whole group experiential learning process for all conference attendees. Adam is a popular speaker with a solid message and our members are excited he is returning. I also recommend Adam’s book “Create Marketplace Disruption: How to Stay Ahead of the Competition”.
Wayne Lindholm, President, Scanlon Leadership Network
Adam Hartung was a featured panelist for our event “Stump the Innovator”. Adam was an engaging panelist who demonstrated not only a mastery of innovation, but also great insights on how organizations really need to strategically re-align their operations in order to survive. Adam’s unique style lent itself to a wonderful mix of down to earth practical advice with forward thinking expertise that helped our audience grasp a realistic way in which they could impact their own business transitions.
Nancy Munro, Co-Chair of Programs and Chair Leader for Executive Education Chicago MIT Enterprise Forum
Adam opened the eyes of our MENG members to the importance of businesses consistently re-inventing themselves. His insights are innovative, thought-provoking and challenge old-world thinking. He has given much-lauded presentations to our membership and I strongly recommend him to any organization looking to be a leader in its industry.
Lisa Petrilli, Program Director, Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG)
Adam Hartung spoke to College of DuPage’s Executive Network group about Career Success and really WOWed the audience. He was so energetic and full of information, everyone felt fulfilled. We will definitely have Adam return to speak to our group in the future.
Janeen Paul, Manager, Career Services College of DuPage
Adam Hartung presented a lively and thought-provoking session at the IMC Chicagoland March 13, 2009, meeting. Our members gave Adam rave reviews and commented on the timeliness and relevance of his topic. Overall, we were very pleased to have Adam on our Spring roster and look forward to having him back again.
Christy Erbeck, Marketing and Program Chair, Institute of Management Consultants Chicago
Adam Hartung was one of the best speakers we have had in years. His presentation definitely contributed to the success of our semi-annual membership meeting. We have received nothing but favorable comments from our attendees. Even though it had been a long morning and Adam’s presentation followed lunch – a good time for a nap or golf – no one left the room as Adam spoke. Adam’s entertaining and lively style captivated the audience, while pulling them into his material with real-life cases to which they could all relate. We offered free copies of Adam’s book to our attendees, and everyone stood in line to get their copy and speak briefly to Adam. They obviously found the presentation content valuable. Adam is very knowledgeable about his subject matter, while also being an engaging speaker. He gave our attendees thought-provoking insights to long-term success that could be applied to any market., offering them clear strategic information on how to improve growth. Adam was a pleasure to work with, and we highly recommend his presentation, especially in these tough times.
Robert H. Ecker, Executive Director, Fluid Sealing Association
First, let me recommend you strongly consider Adam Hartung’s presentation. It was very well received and valued by my two audiences – all 5’s out of 5. I believe that Adam’s presentation couldn’t come at a more opportune time. The challenging of some of our strongly held paradigms and “sacred cows” may end up being just the breakthrough some need. You want to get this man, Adam Hartung in front of your groups and engage with them in some fierce conversations.
John N. Younker, PhD, Associates In Continuous Improvement (ACI),
Vistage Chair
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Excellent job at the FSA Spring Meeting in Savannah, Georgia. Many members came up to me and indicated you were one of the best speakers we have had at any of our meetings. Your topic was very timely and helps all of us clarify the direction we are headed as a trade association. I am so pleased we were able to get you in to talk at this event.
William V. Adams, New Business Development, Corporate Marketing, Flowserve Corporation
After seeing Adam speak at a very well-attended ACG meeting, I asked him if he would like to speak at one of our events on the spot. As the incoming President for the 2 year old Chicago Chapter of the Association for Strategic Planning, I wanted to bring in a high-impact speaker to give our members and prospective members a clear sense of the quality of value that we provide as an organization and to draw others to attend. Adam was thoroughly knowledgeable, entertaining, but best of all, very insightful and provocative – I had many people thank us for having him present and I believe it helps our image and growth plans.
Rick Kaufmann, Vice President, Middle Market Commercial Banking, Charter One Bank
Adam Hartung 