Speaking and Workshops
“Wow! Our team loved John’s Big Bet Leadership presentation. The message was spot on for our digital journey. We are ordering more books now.” — Keith Nelson. Chief of Staff. Alcon
Are you prepared for the future? The future of competition, the future your customers demand, the future work culture to succeed? Drawing from his experience as a leader at Amazon and over twenty years of experience in advising leaders on change, strategy and culture, John Rossman can collaborate with you in many different styles and approaches.
Your keynote was incredibly insightful and effective; I found myself referencing a lot of it while working with their teams. The overall structure— the juxtaposition of principles and how they are put into practice—is great. And the depth of practical knowledge was greater than in most other speakers’ talks. As a speaker, you’re high energy and wholly credible, so I thought it was fantastic.
John went out of his way to work with us on tailoring the discussion to the particular needs of our client. After the keynote, John collaborated with a set of small teams in reviewing and applying the concepts in their business. This went extremely well and the energy was fantastic.
The keynote was engaging, interesting, and incredibly relevant to our team. Over 300 people opted to attend and stuck around till the end. Both Chat and Q&A submissions were nice and lively. The leaders received text messages, emails, etc. thanking us and complimenting the session.
We had excellent feedback about your presentation for the remainder of the week. We’ll continue to promote your services – and we may have you back again next year. There’s more than enough material for another presentation. Thanks again for being so responsive to the needs of our audience.
In planning our product organization kickoff, we looked for a speaker who could both inspire and offer practical insights on execution. We were lucky to have John Rossman present to the team. John introduced us to the key leadership principles he observed during his time at Amazon, which are also described in his excellent (and accessible) book, The Amazon Way.
John worked with us to take the principles from his book and make them relevant to our company. His presentation included first-hand accounts on everything from obsessive customer focus to how to organize and measure our teams. His presentation left me re-committed to building a high-performance culture, and left my team with valuable tools to get us there. I highly recommend John for speaking opportunities at your company!
Speaking topics
Lessons Learned from Amazon- The Importance of Nimbleness, and how a Pandemic Highlighted What All Leaders Should Think About
“Crises have a way of accelerating the inevitable” starts the Wall Street Journal article entitled “The Future Comes Early for Grocers”. But the insight and applicability that “crises have a way of accelerating the inevitable” are true across the board. The pandemic exposed which companies and leaders are nimble, flexible, and able to adjust in the short-term and likely grow over the long term as a result, and which companies are rigid – rigid business models, rigid processes, rigid organizations. No company demonstrates this type of nimbleness better than Amazon.
In short order, Amazon has been able to make decisions, make adjustments, flex with the needs of the market, and will likely find new businesses and opportunities out of this crisis, more than any short-term negative business impact might be. But this doesn’t happen by accident. It’s because they are built this way – built for decisiveness; built for nimbleness; built to adjust and scale.
How do we as business leaders adapt to the short term and plan for the long term – by Thinking Like Amazon and building a culture and operating systems designed for moments like this? By leveraging ideas from his best-selling book “Think Like Amazon”, Rossman will propose several aspects of your industry that will likely change and leave audiences with strategies, tools, and questions to help create this future.
Think Like Amazon™ about Strategy and Corporate Culture
Amazon is a fierce competitor, a systematic innovator, and creating a dramatic change in many industries. How does Amazon think about and create the playbook of strategy, operational excellence, and innovation? What can you learn from them and apply them into your business? In John Rossman’s signature leadership keynote, he will reveal and unpack the secrets of Amazon’s unparalleled growth and how the company’s culture has driven innovation and growth. From Think Like Amazon: 50 ½ Ideas to Become a Digital Leader, audiences are leaning forward, taking notes and inspired with strategies and tools to innovate and lead.
Working Backwards -- The Amazon Way
What is working backward and why is it some important at Amazon? The process of working backward colors everything that Amazon does and includes important principles like customer obsession think big, and “learn and be curious”. It has techniques like writing a future press release, narratives, and FAQs. It demonstrates how Amazon is consistently able to successfully scale and operate at a high level. Best Selling Author and Former Amazon Executive will discuss the principles and practices that have made Amazon’s Way of doing business so successful. He will also show how your organization can apply the same thinking to achieve great success and market share as he has modeled at other organizations like the Gates Foundation, T-Mobile, and Nordstrom.
Think Like Amazon™ about The Future of Your Industry
What is the future of your industry? It is a question that leaders must ask themselves often. But what are the right questions to ask, what metrics should be used, how is our industry going to be disrupted? All of these questions will be answered by former Amazon Executive John Rossman. John launched and scaled their third-party platform which today accounts for over 50% of Amazon’s business. By leveraging many of the ideas from Think Like Amazon, Rossman will propose several aspects of your industry that will likely change and leave audiences with strategies, tools, and questions to help create this future.
Think Like Amazon™ about Innovation
Leaders at Amazon expect and require innovation and invention from their teams. They are externally aware and look for new ideas everywhere. Amazon has a thrilling power to innovate that few other companies have matched. But how does Amazon continue to innovate and outperform the competition? Through a systematic approach and a deep understanding of what it means to be digital, Amazon has created a culture and system that continues to outperform everyone else. Former Amazon executive turned digital strategy consultant John Rossman will leverage ideas from his book “Think Like Amazon” to show how all companies and organizations are capable of innovating at the same level as Amazon.
Leadership and Strategies for Post-Pandemic Business Leaders – The Amazon Way
How do we adjust and change our playbook for a post-pandemic era? The future has accelerated – how do leaders and strategies need to change along with it? Leveraging the Amazon leadership principles, hear from former Amazon executive and business strategist John Rossman the tangible principles and techniques behind the principles to compete in the post-pandemic era.
The Amazon Way™ on IOT
From John Rossman’s book The Amazon Way™: 10 Lessons Every Leader Should Learn from Amazon’s IoT Strategy, the former Amazon executive unpacks how connected devices will transform industries and businesses, and what leaders should do to take advantage. Rossman will look at how connected devices will revolutionize how business is done and change the marketplace. This speech will give leaders from all types of businesses a blueprint on how to leverage connected devices for the future of their business.
Connect with us for your speaking request
John offers both virtual and in-person presentations. All keynote engagements are managed by the
Executive Speakers Bureau
