Michelle E. Messina

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that business as usual is no longer possible. Sales contracts and events were cancelled, employees furloughed, and iconic companies shut down for good. Social-distancing and work from home created new types of employee anxiety and zoom fatigue, not to
mention a lot of sourdough bread-baking.

Some companies immediately adapted their business to the new market realities. Within weeks, even days, of the lockdown, the pandemic pivots were underway scrutinizing everything from cost of goods, product performance, channels, value message, to the customer engagement models. Each aspect of how they are configured, what they offered, and the customer experience was subject to review and revision. Some of these companies are now more profitable than ever, thanks to their pandemic pivots.

With unprecedented uncertainty ahead in 2021, what is the economic outlook for global businesses? It may be difficult to envision a return to pre-pandemic business, so how do companies maintain stronger connection to their market? Can they move beyond quantitative value and deliver more qualitative value, sometimes called goodwill, to their customer base?

This interesting talk is refreshing and packed with practical insights, frameworks, and helpful information.

Silicon Valley has a certain mystique and a reputation as the place to build a technology company into a global leader. Over the past 50 years, the region’s entrepreneurs have refined the art of company building into a science. There are more than 120 different languages spoken in Silicon Valley and 51%
of the population was born in another country. How does this international diversity factor into innovation and building better products and companies? Are there unspoken or invisible guidelines that keep Silicon Valley on track? How do attitudes to risk, failure, and ambiguity affect innovation?

This engaging presentation helps you better understand and appreciate the uniqueness of Silicon Valley. You will understand the rules that can, and should be broken, the value of iterating until you find success, or run out of time and money, and fail.

Today’s corporations are experiencing continual disruptions from the global pandemic, climate crisis, and changing customer demographics. Innovation is essential because business as usual is now a thing of the past. Some believe innovation lies in new products or that innovation fails due to a lack of
creative ideas, but these are misconceptions. A lack of discipline and the corporate culture may further limit internal momentum and undermine innovation outcomes. Despite the challenges, there are ways to unlock innovation and discipline methodologies.

This presentation focuses on the internal, furthest-from-the-customer innovations, covers the company offerings and finally, focuses on the innovation opportunities that the customers will experience including service, channels, brand, and engagement.

This informative and interesting talk will help you reimagine corporate strategy and tactics so the business can effectively embrace the changes brought on by disruption.

Today, there are 1 billion obese people on Earth and, simultaneously, 1 billion malnourished people. More than 4 billion people lack secure access to clean water.  Today’s agricultural producers and experts must address crop productivity improvements, while compensating for the effects of global climate disruption, diminishing resources such as topsoil and water, and changing consumption patterns. Consumers in Europe and North America are more health-conscious stimulating increased demand for fresh, local, and organic plant-based foods, while in other areas of the world, agriculturally intensive meat and dairy products are dominating the market.

Each day, 3-4 times a day, you choose the impact your diet has on the earth. Will you eat more greens and fruits, more plant-based proteins and bugs, or continue eating animals raised and killed for food? Are you aware that cockroaches and sea stars are being raised to provide new protein sources in animal feed?

This talk addresses the 4 most important issues of water, crop productivity, supply chain and logistics, and food loss, security and waste, where we can have a daily impact on the planet and minimize our carbon footprint.  Michelle will showcase innovative new technologies, food sources, and small initiatives making a big difference around the world.

Investor-worthy presentations encompass 5 elements that will increase the chances of a securing a second (or third) meeting with the investor.  Join us November 1, 2017, for a fast-paced webinar that shares the 5 Silicon Valley secrets for a great pitch:  Story, content, context, form and Q&A’s.  We cover telling a compelling story, using text, script and images appropriately, providing context that enriches your story, enhancing your personal presentation style, and effectively managing the Q&A session.  These 5 elements will help you become a great presenter rather than simply a good presenter

Expanding into new markets takes time, planning and advance research.  The US tech market is large, complex, and full of great opportunities and customers. However, navigating this ever-changing market can be challenging and full of unexpected surprises.  Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be. During this webinar, you can expect engaging discussion in the following topics:

• Understanding your audience so you connect more effectively
• Focusing your presentation with relevant content
• What investors want to see and hear in your presentation
• Building your network and finding the right people
• Planning and resourcing your US market entry
• Actual examples of what works and what doesn’t

After working with entrepreneurs in more than 60 countries, and 2 years researching and writing a book for entrepreneurs, Michelle shares her best advice and guidance about how CEO’s and entrepreneurs can better position themselves for sustainable regional or global growth.

Expanding and growing a company is full of challenges, ambiguity, and difficulties.  There are at least a dozen pitfalls a company can experience including product, team, market, sales, finance, business model, investors, and customers.  Michelle reviews these pitfalls and talks about how to recognize and avoid them.

When preparing for the global market, startups have some unique advantages over big companies. They change and adapt very quickly to the realities of the new market.  However, they are usually short-staffed and lack sufficient financial resources to scale quickly. Michelle will share 5 points that will help startups compete more effectively against large companies and win!

Being an intrapreneur inside a corporation means you need effective communication skills to pitch your idea and win the corporate resources and support required to be successful. This talk helps intrapreneurs organize the requisite information around their idea or concept, and effectively present it a Corporate Review Panel.  We will discuss the importance of making a strong case for the value your concept will deliver to the corporation.  Value may come in different forms.  Will your concept help the company attract more customers, sell more of their existing products, improve customer service and support, better engage with the market, drive more revenue, or solve an internal challenge that currently costs time, money and hassle? This talk also covers the use of different styles of slides to communicate more effectively, your personal presentation style, and the value of providing content that is both interesting and compelling. So please join us!