Dr. Ridderstråle uncompromising, imaginative and decidedly fresh take on contemporary business life makes him one of the world’s most sought after and appreciated speakers

Dr. Jonas Ridderstråle is one of the world’s most influential and respected business thinkers and speakers. Since bursting onto the international scene with the bestseller Funky Business in 2000, Jonas has remained at the forefront of the new generation of management gurus. The 2009 Thinkers 50, the biennial ranking of management thinkers, ranked him at number 23 globally and put him on the top-five list in Europe.

Dr. Ridderstråle is a presenter with a difference who makes a difference. He has spent the last ten years giving people the competence, confidence and courage to think, feel and do things differently. In keynotes and workshops, Jonas conveys his message with passion and energy, adding not only improved skill but also inspiring the will and thrill necessary for change. His forceful blend of academic rigor, imagination, humor and highly dynamic presentation style has inspired audiences from Moscow to Mumbai and San Francisco to Shanghai. Jonas’ diverse client list includes Fortune 500 companies, major government bodies, sports teams as well as trade unions.

Jonas has an MBA and a PhD in international business and was recognized as Sweden’s outstanding young academic of the year. In 2007, he was awarded the prestigious Italian Nobels Colloquia award for “Leadership in Business and Economic Thinking”. Jonas is currently a visiting professor at two internationally acclaimed business schools: Ashridge in the UK and IE Business School in Spain. His research has been published in leading academic journals.

In business, those who can’t often teach.  Dr. Ridderstråle also practices what he so persuasively preaches. He is co-owner and chairman of the Swedish Management Group – Mgruppen - one of Scandinavia’s leading and most successful providers of management training and development. In addition, he acts as a trusted advisor and consultant to a number of multinational corporations.

Jonas’ original claim to fame Funky Business: Talent makes capital dance quickly became an international success, selling more than 300,000 copies. The book was recently ranked at number 16 in a Bloomsbury survey of the best business books of all time. The sequels, Karaoke Capitalism: Management for mankind and Funky Business Forever: How to enjoy capitalism, also became globally celebrated manifestos for how to make it in the new world of commerce. (All three books were co-authored with Kjell A. Nordström.)

In 2008, Wiley published Jonas’ latest bestseller Re-energizing the Corporation: How leaders make change happen (co-written with Mark Wilcox) which explains how to combine the why and how of leading change. Jonas’ books have been translated into more than 30 languages and published in more than 50 countries worldwide.

Dr. Ridderstråle’s ideas and work have attracted huge media coverage throughout the world. He has appeared on CNN’s “Global Office” in an extended interview exploring the ideas behind his books. Elsewhere, he has been featured in Fortune, Fast Company, Time Magazine, Financial Times, The Times, Stern, Newsweek, Paris Match, and many other publications worldwide.

When he is not on the road, Jonas is based in Stockholm, Sweden, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Topics

    ▪    Forces of Funk - What drives change?
    ▪    Life in the Funky Village - Business megatrends
    ▪    The Future Firm - The shape of things to come
    ▪    The Holy Grail of Business - Compete on fitness and sex-appeal
    ▪    Re-energize! - Making Change Happen
    ▪    Leading leadership - Developing a corporate religion
    ▪    The +Factors -New recipes for success

On Leading leadership - Developing a corporate religion

People can be extraordinarily courageous and take tough decisions only when they have something to believe in. The most successful organizations on our planet are all systems of faith. Securing the capacity and capability to produce change therefore requires a “corporate religion”. This overall purpose guarantees a clear direction and co-ordinated action.

Dr. Ridderstråle outlines the key elements that you should find in a great business bible and poses a series of questions with a patented impact on the competitiveness of any organization:

    ▪    Ideological – Your Dream: Do you have a dream, or just five year plans?
    ▪    Mythical – Your Stories: Do you have a CSO – a Chief Storytelling Officer?
    ▪    Ritual – Your Ceremonies: Do you hold ceremonies for triumphs and tragedies?
    ▪    Ethical – Your Values: Do you tolerate mistakes and failure?
    ▪    Emotional – Your Experience: Do you have personalized EVPs – Employee Value Propositions?
    ▪    Material – Your Things: Do you have a place enabling talent to play at work?
    ▪    Organizational – Your Structures: Do you have arrangements ensuring collective intelligence?

On Forces of Funk: What drives change?

Only by truly understanding why the socio-economic lanscape is changing so rapidly can you respond to the new challanges in a constructive way. The best leaders have always been business sociologists. They understand that by analyzing the context, you can see opportunities while those who not do so only spot threats.

Dr. Ridderstråle has written and thought extensively about the seismic impact of changes in;

    ▪    Technologies
    ▪    Institutions
    ▪    Values

In his speeches, Jonas talks about the how we can benefit from advances in IT and telecommunications – as an individual or a leader of a corporation. Dr. Ridderstråle also discusses the implications of institutional deregulation - on capitalism, nations states, political parties, companies, families, etc. Finally, he outlines the shift from a geographically structured world to one dominated by global biographical tribes and how this will influence life inside and outside our organizations.

On his books

Funky Business - Talent makes capital dance

Dr. Ridderstrale launches a manifesto for the new world of business. Forget what has come before; this is the future for organizations and leaders. We are all condemned to freedom. We cannot delegate the understanding of what drives tomorrow's society to politicians and executives. The funky future is here and now it's all up to you. The new world is different. Forget the old world order. Forget what you knew yesterday. The revolutionary reality is that 1.3 kilograms of brain holds the key to all our futures. Competitive advantage comes from being different. Increasingly, difference comes form the way people think rather than what organizations make. Today, the only thing that makes capital dance is talent. In such times we cannot have business as usual--we need funky business. Technology, institutions and values are being subverted and overturned. They are the triad, the inter--linked drivers of change, transforming each other and creating a global village of turbulence, tribes and fusion. We are deregulating life for ourselves and our children. Whether you like it or not, we are all condemned to freedom-- the freedom to choose.

KARAOKE CAPITALISM

Dr. Ridderstrale launches a new manifesto for how to make it in the world of Karaoke Capitalism. The karaoke economy is dominated by individuals with endless choice. The trouble for business is that the karaoke club is also home to institutionalized. Copy-cats abound. Only imagination and innovation place societies, organizations and individuals center-stage. Karaoke Capitalism is a call to arms. With his unorthodox combination of academic rigor, forceful logic and funky free-thinking he re-writes the rules for revolutionaries. This is a true work-out for the wits. He teaches us how to successfully compete on competencies, create capitalism with character, and how to have a great life while also making a living

FUNKY BUSINESS FOREVER

The long awaited update to the international bestseller. Funky Business Forever takes a look back on the later half of the millenniums first decade and provides evolved thinking and commentary in a way that is truly funky and down to business.

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