Kate Vitasek

As the world marches towards reinvention, Vested partnerships aren’t just the best way to achieve business success; they’re the only way to work together to create success for a future we can no longer prepare for or envision.

In this evocative speech, Kate’s Vitasek reveals why a “What’s in it for We” mindset has the power to revolutionize business relationships. Vitasek shares insights into how everyone can go home a winner in a world of “winner takes all” by applying John Nash’s Nobel Prize winning equilibrium theory that cooperation, not competition, guarantees the best results for everyone involved.

Audiences will leave inspired to seek out the business equivalent of a Sherpa to help them climb their own “Mt. Everest” – achieving success with business relationships many thought were impossible.

The 21st century demands businesses innovate, create value, and get sustainable results. Kate Vitasek shares the real stories and real results of how organizations are using a Vested approach to achieve award winning results by redefining how they “win” in their business relationships. Whether is a relationship with suppliers, employees, or a foreign government – Vitasek shows how the Vested concept has helped organizations develop award winning and sustainable results.
Audiences will learn:

•  How giants like P&G and Microsoft are redefining winning – creating award winning results from their business partnerships.
•  The secret sauce for how McDonald’s inspires their supply chain suppliers to invest millions, keeping them on the top of the business rankings, including the DOW Jones, Forbes, Bloomberg with innovations such as the Chicken McNugget, Cryogenic freezing and patents that double production capacity.
•  How the Department of Energy turned a one of the most toxic weapons sites into a wildlife refuge.
•  How a small business with big ideas is helping their clients achieve a 300% productivity increase.

Many outsourcing deals are often structured with fundamental flaws in the business model that prevents transformational results through outsourcing. The University of Tennessee has been researching leading companies that are challenging conventional outsourcing, proving that outsourcing does not a dirty word – but rather a way to help organizations transform their business with highly strategic and Vested supplier relationships.
Author, educator and business consultant Kate Vitasek will share the game changing rules for outsourcing from her research and book Vested Outsourcing: Five Rules that Will Transform Outsourcing. Organizations will leave with insights which include:

•  What is Vested Outsourcing – and why outsourcing does not have to be a dirty word
•  The Five Rules of Vested Outsourcing that will transform how companies outsource

For years, businesses have worked under the assumption that the goal of negotiation is simply to get the deal. Hundreds of books have been written on “getting to yes”, “getting past no,” and “getting more”…the prevalent assumption being “get a signature, and you are done”. Strategies and tactics focus on getting the deal – not making sure the deal provides sustained value in the future.
More and more, business success depends on strategic relationships built for an ever-dynamic and interconnected world that will endure long after “the deal is done.”
Organizations will leave this evocative presentation with insights which include:

•  Understanding why “getting to yes” is no longer enough
•  Challenging how they have traditionally played the “game” of negotiations
•  Learning a proven five step approach to negotiating a relationship – not just the specific deal points

The 21st Century demands businesses rethink their approach to commerce. No – capitalism is not dead. Rather author, educator and business consultant Kate Vitasek will provide what may seem paradoxical – a lighthearted yet evocative overview of some of the best academic research into how companies should be approaching the economics of commerce in the new millennium.
Audiences will walk away intrigued, ready to get back to the office and apply Nobel prize winning thinking, such as:

•  John Nash’s equilibrium theory, proving that businesses can turn 1+1 into 2, 3 or even more by working collaboratively to optimize results and solve tough business problems
•  Solow’s Law, explaining why brains are better than brawn if you are trying to improve your business’s balance sheet
•  Coase’s Law, reminding business how to avoid the ever fatal “Priceberg”
•  Oliver Williamson’s advice on why being nice to suppliers can help reduce costs better than a Pit bull of Procurement