"The toughest job for a leader today is finding the strategy within the hype!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Let's talk about what CEOs are thinking about!
What got me thinking about this? One year ago yesterday, I keynoted a pretty exclusive group in New York City - 500 handpicked CEOs from around the world who are members of an invitation-only networking organization. My NDA doesn't allow me to speak or write much about who was actually in the room - but I will note that two well-known Senators were on stage just before me. (I kind of laugh now at their message at the time that they believed the guardrails would hold and that bipartisanship would prevail! Like, LOL!)
I can say that I had companies that ranged from $200million to $4 billion there, and that there was pretty intense interest in the topic I covered of relating future trends to core business strategies. Why did the organization pick me? A few of the folks on the organizing committee had seen me before, and liked the way I specifically lined these trends to reality - and cut through the hype.
And heaven knows there's a lot of hype around us right about, particularly around AI, but also with respect to many other topics - and that's why I am relentlessly focused on providing clarity for this moment. And if you've followed me for a time, you'll know it's a topic I've covered here before - such as the time, with the launch of my AI site, I emphasized that it's reality that matters!
Right now, there seems to be a crushing need for CEOs and senior executives to find that reality. That's one reason why I just changed my LinkedIn banner to reference the fact that I'm the guy that CEOs trust!
Many of my talks don’t just include keynote presentations — I’m often engaged to come into small, intimate leadership meetings to help senior executives understand some of the trends that will shape their world. Over the years, this has included many presentations to small groups of CEOs within a forum for private equity capital.
Notably, by way of example, these organizations below have had me speak to the CEOs of the companies in their investment portfolio. Overall, the combined value of the portfolio companies in the room would be in the hundreds of billions. Sterling Partners, AEA Investors, and Berkshire Partners all sought my insight on aligning fast trends to leadership strategy.
I’ve also done quite a few of these presentations for very-high-net-worth families and firms. It has included such groups as the Wrigley family foundation and companies that manage the Rothschild wealth. And in one of the most fascinating events I’ve participated in, I was invited to Athens to address several hundred representatives of what are known as ‘family offices’ — organizations that manage the wealth of the world’s wealthiest people. While I did not get a complete list of attendees, I do know that some of those in the room represent and manage the wealth of folks such as the Bill & Melinda Gates family office, the Accellor-Mittal families, those of the founders of Google, and many, many others. It was suggested to me that some $10 trillion of wealth was represented in the room.
Then there are the CEO and senior management specific keynotes I do - for the last 15 years, this has been the bread and butter of my business. I've got a whole page devoted to the work I do here - it can be found, of course, at https://ceo.jimcarroll.com!
What’s common to all of these talks? My tagline goes to the heart of it:
I help CEOs and executive leaders achieve their strategic objectives by aligning their organizations to a disruptive, accelerating future. It’s powerful leadership insight based on detailed, specific industry
trends – delivered within a fast-paced keynote with a compelling motivational style!
The portfolio companies and CEO sessions all represent those vast numbers of industries - agriculture, insurance, manufacturing, retail - where leaders are trying to align fast-moving trends to strategy. They all revolved around trends that will define our world, and which will spell opportunity in the future! In these situations, I don’t provide insight on particular stocks to invest in — but do guide the trends that will shape our world on a 5,10, 15, or 25-year basis.
It's pretty clear that right now, with an increasing interest in how quickly our world is changing, senior executives, private equity and wealth managers are looking for insight that helps them to assess where they are going with their own investments and interests; the CEOs in their portfolios are struggling with the same issues; and overall, CEOs everywhere are in the same boat!
And the bottom line is this: Without a strategic purpose, there is no purpose!
And in that context, the essence of leadership today is finding the strategy within the hype.
Never forget that!
Futurist Jim Carroll has always focused on strategy, not hype.