Stephen Shapiro

Bestselling Author and World-Renowned Innovation Expert

Stephen Shapiro
 
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Stephen Shapiro is the best presenter of ideas since Ton Peters.

Michael Johnson, Business Week

Stephen Shapiro cultivates innovation by showing leaders and their teams how to approach, tackle and solve their business challenges. Applying the knowledge he has accrued over decades in the industry, Stephen is able to see what others can’t: opportunities to improve innovation models and the cultures that support them.

The first innovation opportunity Stephen spotted was the opportunity to innovate within his own life. Halfway through his 15-year tenure at Accenture, while leading the company’s business process reengineering practice, he realized he no longer wanted to be responsible for people losing their jobs. So he did exactly the opposite by building Accenture’s thriving 20,000-person process and innovation practice focused on growth and job creation.

In 2001, after publishing his first book, 24/7 Innovation, Stephen left Accenture to become a full-time innovation speaker and advisor to clients around the world. Since then he has published four more books – Goal-Free Living (2006), The Little Book of Big Innovation Ideas (2007), Personality Poker (2010) and Best Practices are Stupid (2011) — and spoken to audiences in 50 different countries.

Today, Stephen continues to focus on transforming the way businesses like 3M, P&G, Marriott, Nike, and Microsoft to improve innovation practices through customized and keynote speeches, advisory engagements and other services. Passionate and captivating, Stephen’s high-energy approach to innovation gets audiences out of their seats and into new ways of thinking about their business challenges.

Stephen currently serves on the Board of Directors of National Speakers Association (NSA) and is the recipient of the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, NSA’s highest earned designation. In 2015 he was inducted into the Speaker Hall of Fame.

Books by Stephen Shapiro

Videos featuring Stephen Shapiro View All

  • What is #GoodBusy?

    Stephen Shapiro

    Starting January of this year I decided to try an experiment. The experiment is a very simple one. I work one hour a day. Now, I don’t always work an hour a day. Sometimes I don’t work at all, but I try to work an hour a day. Sometimes I work a little extra.

     
  • Study Something New

    Stephen Shapiro

    As a small business owner, obviously with anybody, you have to really be constantly learning and I have a very different point of view than some people. One of my beliefs is that expertise is the enemy of innovation.

     
  • Find a Better Box

    Stephen Shapiro

    Every small business wants grow their revenue, but from my perspective that is almost an unattainable goal because it’s too broad and abstract.

     
  • Navigating Through Blindspots

    Stephen Shapiro

    The question of blind spots to me is actually one of the most important business concepts to get into in business and innovation. The problem is our blind spot is the thing we don’t see and we have all different types of blind spots, for example: we will have an expertise blind spot.

     
  • Organizing to Improve Productivity

    Stephen Shapiro

    So the art of productivity is sort of interesting because I get asked into companies and one of the things you hear so often in a company is we need to do more with less and I love that productivity to me that sort of torture.

     
  • Working One Hour Per Day

    Stephen Shapiro

    Where do you draw the line? “It’s easy as an entrepreneur, as a small business owner, to spend 100 hours a week working because, well, there’s always something we could do” Stephen Shapiro, innovation consultant and bestselling author of Personality Poker and Best Practices Ar...

     

Articles by Stephen Shapiro View All

  • Achieve Your Goals by Not Focusing on Them

    Stephen Shapiro

    Several years ago, I worked with a Formula One racing team. Back then, the pit crews consisted of 20 people who serviced these ultrafast race cars. Within a matter of seconds, these skilled technicians would refuel the car, change the tires, and perform required maintenance.

     
  • To Fee or Not To Fee. That is the Question

    Stephen Shapiro

    Should you ever give away your services (or products) for free? This has been an on-going discussion in the speaking community. And recently I found that the same debate is taking place in the magic community.

     
  • Steal Domino's Idea... PLEASE!

    Stephen Shapiro

    3 weeks ago we had all of our belongings boxed and shipped from Boston to Florida. The movers still haven’t arrived and we don’t know where our items are and we don’t know when they will arrive. I find this incomprehensible.

     
  • Pricing and Perception

    Stephen Shapiro

    One week after starting my speaking business a dozen years ago, I met with the owner of a speaker’s bureau in London to discuss representation. In the meeting he expressed serious interest. So much so that a few days later he called me about a potential gig.

     
  • Brainstorming is Stupid

    Stephen Shapiro

    What keeps CEOs up at night? According to a recent Conference Board survey, one of the top challenges facing organizations today is innovation. Despite the popular misconception, innovation is not about new products, processes, services, or business models. It is about adaptability and repeatability.

     
  • Work With People You Don't Like

    Stephen Shapiro

    We have all heard the expression, “opposites attract.” But in fact there is irrefutable scientific evidence that in relationships, opposites repel. Simply put, we prefer to be around others who are similar to us.

     

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