Mike Saunders

Most digital transformation programmes are still run as technology projects. Boards approve platform spend and IT delivers the rollout, but adoption numbers come in below the business case. The gap between what the technology can do and what customers and employees actually use is where commercial returns disappear.

Mike Saunders is the CEO and founder of Digitlab, helping organisations build digital and marketing strategies that customers and employees actually adopt.

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Why organisations work with Mike Saunders

  • His HumanCentric framework forces transformation teams to test technology decisions against the people who will or will not adopt them, which changes how budgets get allocated.
  • He runs the agency he speaks from. Digitlab has delivered digital work for Vodafone, IBM, Toyota, KPMG and Bidvest, so the room hears practice from a live operator.
  • He brings an emerging-market lens that most digital strategy speakers do not carry, drawn from running an agency in South Africa with delivery into the UK, Europe, US, Australia and Dubai.
  • His Gear Analogy, developed for his TEDx Durban talk, gives leadership teams a working method for picking which ideas deserve real investment and which to drop.
  • He pairs published frameworks with original sector research, including Digitlab’s annual Insight: State of Digital report on where customer behaviour, AI and martech are moving.

Biography highlights

  • CEO and Founder of Digitlab, a digital strategy agency with clients spanning South Africa, the UK, Europe, the US, Australia and Dubai.
  • Author of HumanCentric: Technology Fails Unless It Means Something to Someone, which sets out a four-part model (explore, ideate, intersect, create) for human-centred digital transformation.
  • TEDx Durban speaker on Gearing for Greatness: Your Ideas, Your Impact, introducing the Gear Analogy for idea evaluation and execution.
  • Opening chapter author in Doers & Dreamers, a global business compendium also featuring Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss and Brian Chesky.
  • Founder of the Digitlab Academy in partnership with Vega School of Branding, training over 1,000 marketers a year.
  • Awarded Special Honours at the New Generation Awards for contribution to the digital industry; named among “Top Global Digital Marketing Experts & Influencers” (2019).

Biography

Most digital transformation programmes still get sold to boards as technology projects. The investment lands and the adoption that was supposed to follow does not. The gap is where commercial returns disappear.

This is the gap that Saunders has spent more than fifteen years working in. As CEO of Digitlab, the South African agency he founded, he has run digital programmes for Vodafone, IBM, Toyota, KPMG and Bidvest. He argues that technology fails unless it means something to someone, and that digital is a people conversation that happens to run on technology.

His book HumanCentric: Technology Fails Unless It Means Something to Someone sets out the four-part model he uses with clients: explore, ideate, intersect, create. Each phase forces a transformation team to test technology decisions against the human stakeholders who will or will not adopt them. It functions as a working framework, and it shows up in his keynote work as practical structure for leadership audiences.

His TEDx Durban talk Gearing for Greatness introduced the Gear Analogy, a tool for evaluating which ideas to back and which to drop. He contributed the opening chapter of Doers & Dreamers, the global business book that also features Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss and Brian Chesky. Each year, Digitlab publishes its Insight: State of Digital report mapping where customer behaviour, AI, search and martech are actually moving.

Key speaking topics

  • Human-centred digital transformation
  • Customer experience and digital strategy
  • AI and data-driven marketing
  • Marketing technology and innovation
  • Digital consumer behaviour
  • The Fourth Industrial Revolution in business

Ideal for

  • CMOs and digital marketing leaders running transformation or martech programmes
  • CEOs and CDOs are accountable for digital strategy and adoption outcomes
  • Boards and executive teams setting commercial AI and data direction
  • Marketing, sales and IT leadership teams are trying to align around shared revenue outcomes

Audience outcomes

  • A working framework for testing digital decisions against the real people who will or will not adopt them
  • A method for separating ideas worth backing from ideas worth abandoning, drawn from the Gear Analogy
  • Specific signals on what is shifting in customer behaviour, AI, search and martech, drawn from Digitlab’s annual State of Digital research
  • A view of how marketing, sales and IT teams should align around a single revenue model

Talks

HumanCentric

A keynote that unpacks why digital transformation programmes underperform when they are run as technology projects, and what changes when human stakeholders move to the centre of the strategy.

Key takeaways:

  • The four-part HumanCentric model (explore, ideate, intersect, create) and how to apply it to a transformation programme already under way
  • Why customer and employee adoption, rather than platform capability, is the unit of analysis that matters for boards
  • Patterns from Digitlab’s client work that distinguish digital initiatives that pay back from digital initiatives that do not
Gearing for Greatness: Your Ideas, Your Impact

The TEDx talk on idea selection, built around the Gear Analogy that gives leadership teams a way to evaluate which ideas to commit to and which to release.

Key takeaways:

  • The Gear Analogy as a tool for pressure-testing ideas before they consume budget
  • How to move teams from idea generation into commercial action
  • Why most ideas fail at execution, and how leaders can build the conditions to ship them
Insight: The State of Digital

A research-led keynote drawn from Digitlab’s annual industry survey, mapping where customer behaviour, AI, search and martech are actually moving and what marketing leaders should change in response.

Key takeaways:

  • Where the data shows real shifts in customer behaviour and platform effectiveness
  • How AI is reshaping content, advertising and customer journey orchestration in practice
  • What marketing leaders should change in their operating model over the next twelve months
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Testimonials

I was fortunate to meet Mike close to 9 years ago - he was speaking at an event and educating the audience on the rate of change in the online space, and how to get ahead of the digital curve. I was so impressed (both by his content and delivery style) that I invited Mike to a coffee afterwards to connect and to find out how I can get him in front of my clients. Since those early days when Mike began building DigitLab into the influential business it has become, we have engaged Mike as keynote speaker at several events and he has become a crowd favourite and drawcard. If you are looking to build a business and/or personal brand online, Mike is your go-to guy so don't hesitate to pick up one of his books, attend one of his presentations, or book him directly for any event you are staging.
Trevor Clark
Senior Franchise Partner, Global Trainer, Internationally certified Business and Executive Coach, ActionCOACH
Mike made the effort to understand our industry and when he spoke he made everyone in the audience feel like he was speaking to them directly. His presentation was professional, exciting, amusing and so informative. I would highly recommend Mike to any organization.
Darius Koekemoer
TBN Africa at the ACM Conference
It is with great pleasure that I recommend Mike Saunders to be a keynote speaker at any of your event/s. Mike has spoken at our events, inclusive of our 2018 Annual Convention and Property Exhibition which garners close to 1400 delegates in attendance. The delegates were positively captivated with his vast array of knowledge about his subject matter and he is concise, vibrant and interesting and keep his audiences enthralled. I would recommend him to speak at any of your events without reservation
Jane Padayachee
Marketing & Services Manager, SAPOA
Mike has spoken at a variety of our business conferences in the past. He is a professional keynote speaker, great entrepreneur and digital marketing expert. His content is always relevant and delegates score him high. Thank you Mike, look forward to working with you in future - keep it up.
Chris De Klerk
Cadek Media