Nilofer Merchant

She is one to pay attention to she was named the Number 1 person most likely to influence the future of management.

Background / History

Nilofer has had a meteoric career; from administrator to CEO to board member of a NASDAQ-traded company. She has been called “the Jane Bond of Innovation” for her ability to guide Fortune 500 and start-up companies – has written two best-selling books: The New How 2010 and 11 Rules for Creating Value in the #SocialEra 2012 and has developed her unique concept of “Onlyness” for her 3rd.

Those who work with her praise her ability to think strategically and to lead the way towards innovation by thinking collaboratively. She is at home in the social era and knows how to take others along with her.

Career

Nilofer has had a fabulously diverse career. By the age of 26, she had led a division of Apple Computers and run six political campaigns. She has launched over 100 products in different markets and fought a competitive battle against Microsoft for Symantecs Anti-Virus division and won. She created the web presence for both Time Inc. and CNN.

She teaches innovation at Stanford and Santa Clara Universities – speaks all over the world and helps companies such as Logitech, Symantec, HP, Yahoo & VMWare to develop new product strategies, optimise revenue and enter new markets.

She serves on boards for both public and private companies and writes for the Harvard Business Review.

Awards, Accolades, Achievements & Honours

• Thinkers50 Business Guru – Winner of the Future Thinker award & Digital Thinker nominee
• Has launched more than 100 products, netting $18B in sales
• Her book 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era – was named ‘Best Business Book of 2012’ by Fast Company
• Teaches innovation at Stanford
• Shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award 2017

Speaking Style

• A fresh and powerful voice, eloquent, relevant, now.

An exciting and vibrant speaker Nilofer has

• inspired thousands taking the stage alongside the likes of Malcolm Gladwell and Simon Sinek
• advised the “Most Powerful Women that Fortune brings together” about the bottom-line impact of social
• headlined at global venues, like TED2013, TEDGlobal 2012 and TEDIndia 2009
• keynoted technology conferences like Web 2.0.

Corporations such as General Electric, Skanka and IBM have brought her into their leadership teams to ready themselves for the future. Google invited her as a speaker at their famous Google @Authors program to educate them on thriving in the Social Era.

Her famous TED Talk “Got A Meeting? Take A Walk” in which she posits that “sitting is the new smoking” has been viewed by more than a million people around the globe.