Rahaf Harfoush

She excels at making trends and research easy to understand and uses case studies, stories and anecdotes to deliver presentations that are entertaining, informative and funny. Rahaf also has extensive experience in moderating panels and MC’ing events.

Rahaf speaks about talent from several angles.

In her New York Times best-selling book, “The Decoded Company: Know Your Talent Better Than You Know Your Customers,” Rahaf explored how big data and predictive analytics can be used proactively to improve recruitment, learning and development, and organizational culture. Using examples from companies like Google, UPS, and Bank of America (to name a few) she explains how “Evidence-Based Leadership” means that data has become an important leadership priority.

In her most recent book, “Hustle and Float” Rahaf shifts her focus to the societal implications of our contemporary work culture and explores the pressures being faced by knowledge workers as market conditions demand an increasingly innovative and agile workforce. She examines the history of our notions or productivity and creativity (how we worship these contradictory ideologies), and reveals how our beliefs about work can get in the way of our performance. She focuses on the tips needed to create innovation-centric cultures, and looks at organizations who are experimenting with unconventional ways to get the best our of their workers without sacrificing their health or happiness.

Finally, as a Digital Anthropologist and the executive director for the Red Thread Institute of Digital Culture, Rahaf explores how technology and being constantly connected is impacting our ability to consume and process information, and what this means for workforces. Consider that 63% of employees in a recent Manpower survey indicated they regularly “don’t read everything completely”. Rahaf looks at the strategies needed to fine-tune our digital behaviour in order to ensure that the platforms we use are serving us, instead of draining our attention and energy. She explores concepts like the implications of filter bubbles, our evolving relationship with information consumption, the dangers of algorithms and more. This is a thought-provoking analysis of the way we engage with the information around us.

• Can help organizations translate innovation trends into strategic opportunities.
• Teaches “Innovation & Emerging Business Models” at Sciences Po’s MBA program in Paris.
• Co-author of “The Decoded Company: What if we understood our talent better than we understand our customers?” It was listed on both the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists.
• Member of Barack Obama’s digital media team during the 2008 presidential elections and saw first hand how social networking revolutionized political campaign strategy.
• Named in the Hay 30, is listed in the top 30 young thinkers who will shape the world in the next 30 years.
• Selected out of 1300 people to be one of 100 to represent Canada and France at the G20 think tank summit to present her ideas to policymakers and government leaders.