Michael Raynor

Many leaders find themselves pursuing three objectives simultaneously: innovation, profitability, and growth. At times these goals are mutually reinforcing, and life is good. Often, however, they compete for scarce resources, which can require making difficult tradeoffs. Worst of all, they can seem mutually exclusive—and what do you do then?

The good news is that we know a great deal about how to successfully navigate these challenges. The accumulated wisdom of the pantheon of management luminaries—Drucker, Porter, Christensen, and others—together with the careful, detailed work of thousands of unsung researchers has laid bare the fundamental causal mechanisms that drive the outcomes we desire. Modern management is not witchcraft, and lies much closer to science than art.

The bad news is that achieving our goals often requires us to face difficult, unwelcome truths. Strategy means making choices. Innovation implies uncertainty. There are limits to growth. These truths, and their implications, are frequently intuitive once stated and irrefutable on the facts, yet most organizations will do anything to deny them—desperate at least to be told that there’s an easy way out. As the saying goes, everyone has the will the win, but few have the will to train to win.

Dr. Michael E. Raynor can help your team and your organization accept insights they are reluctant to acknowledge and embrace actions that can no longer be avoided. His 25 years-plus consulting experience builds on a legacy of research, which includes collaboration with Clayton Christensen (The Innovator’s Dilemma).

His publications include four best-selling and critically acclaimed books, academic articles, and hundreds of management articles and monographs. He has presented to audiences of thousands around the world and led management workshops for groups ranging from a small team of senior leaders to hundreds of front-line managers.

Michael has a doctorate from the Harvard Business School, an MBA from the Ivey Business School in London, Canada, and an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Harvard University.

The economics of the lecture business create perverse incentives. It’s easier to change an audience than it is to change a speech, so most speakers work to “customize” their work to your current needs. But the emphasis shouldn’t be on their work, with your challenges as a garnish. Michael puts the problem you need to solve in the spotlight, generating insight and pointing toward a solution by drawing on his experience, scholarship and creativity to integrate timeless verities with timely eurekas.