Sydney Finkelstein

Dartmouth Professor of Management, Leadership and Strategy Expert, Best Selling Business Author

  • Sydney Finkelstein Keynote Speaker Fee Fee range is for U.S. events, depending on location and organization type

    $30,001 - $40,000

  • Languages Spoken

    English

  • Travels From

    New Hampshire, USA

  • Sydney Finkelstein Keynote Speaker Fee Fee range is for U.S. events, depending on location and organization type

    $30,001 - $40,000

  • Languages Spoken

    English

  • Travels From

    New Hampshire, USA

Suggested Keynote Speaker Programs

Why Smart Executives Fail – and What to do About It

One of the most remarkable findings from Why Smart Executives Fail is that the underlying reasons for failure in many business breakdowns. In this speech, Sydney identifies four destructive syndromes, and outlines a series of steps companies can take to avoid them...

One of the most remarkable findings from Why Smart Executives Fail is that the underlying reasons for failure in many business breakdowns. In this speech, Sydney identifies four destructive syndromes, and outlines a series of steps companies can take to avoid them.

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Irrational Strategies and How to Fix Them

Irrational strategies exist when key decision makers know exactly what is happening in their industries, among competitors, or in customer circles, yet they fail to respond. Instead, they often continue with the strategies of the past, or adopt even more inappropriate policies...

Irrational strategies exist when key decision makers know exactly what is happening in their industries, among competitors, or in customer circles, yet they fail to respond. Instead, they often continue with the strategies of the past, or adopt even more inappropriate policies to address the challenges they faced. What are the different types of organization mindset failures that serve as guideposts for disaster? How can executives ensure that they don’t fall into the same traps? This speech brings together a wealth of research evidence, and literally dozens of real-world examples, to demonstrate how irrational strategies emerge and how to fix them.

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The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful People

Is it possible to pinpoint just what makes smart, previously successful people, go wrong? The answer is yes! Again and again, whether CEOs, senior executives, or mid-level managers, the same bad habits keep appearing in failing companies. In this speech, Sydney demonstrates ...

Is it possible to pinpoint just what makes smart, previously successful people, go wrong? The answer is yes! Again and again, whether CEOs, senior executives, or mid-level managers, the same bad habits keep appearing in failing companies. In this speech, Sydney demonstrates how such apparently beneficial habits are actually destructive when left unchecked, and offers an alternative view of leadership that has applicability up and down the management hierarchy.

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Irrational Strategies and How to Fix Them

Wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow know in advance when something bad was going to happen? Of course we can never know with complete certainty, but in the course of studying more than fifty business failures some of the same activities and attitudes seemed to ...

Wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow know in advance when something bad was going to happen? Of course we can never know with complete certainty, but in the course of studying more than fifty business failures some of the same activities and attitudes seemed to predate business disaster. Sydney summarizes what these markers for failure are, how to observe them even if you are an outsider to a company (something of clear value for investors), and what to do to derail the train before it crashes.

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SUPERBOSSES: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent

Larry Ellison. Lorne Michaels. Ralph Lauren. Robert Noyce. George Lucas. Miles Davis. And a dozen others. Business leaders and creative icons with tremendous track records who all have something else in common: they helped develop the best talent in their industries, who in ...

Larry Ellison. Lorne Michaels. Ralph Lauren. Robert Noyce. George Lucas. Miles Davis. And a dozen others. Business leaders and creative icons with tremendous track records who all have something else in common: they helped develop the best talent in their industries, who in turn helped them become the legendary successes they are today. Based on ten years of research and hundreds of interviews, Superbosses describes what these exceptional leaders did, and how they did it. In his keynote, Sydney will describe the “superboss playbook”, the key management practices that separate the best bosses from the merely good ones, and the pathway to becoming a better leader yourself. LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls it “a leadership guide for the Networked Age”.

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About Keynote Speaker Sydney Finkelstein

About Sydney Finkelstein:

Sydney Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Leadership at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where he teaches courses on Leadership and Strategy.  He is also the Faculty Director of the flagship Tuck Executive Program, and has experience working with executives at a number of other prestigious universities around the world. He holds degrees from Concordia University and the London School of Economics, as well as a Ph.D. from Columbia University in strategic management.

Professor Finkelstein has published 20 books and 80 articles, with several bestsellers, including the #1 bestseller in the U.S. and Japan, Why Smart Executives Fail. Based on a six-year study of 51 companies and 200 interviews of business leaders, the book identifies the fundamental reasons why major mistakes happen, points out the early warning signals that are critical for investors and managers alike, and offers ideas on how organizations can develop a capability of learning from corporate mistakes.  On Fortune Magazine’s list of Best Business Books, the Wall Street Journal called it “a marvel – a jargon-free business book based on serious research that offers genuine insights with clarity and sometimes even wit … It should be required reading not just for executives but for investors as well.”  It has also been featured in media around the world and has been translated into 12 languages.

His latest book, to be published in the winter of 2016, is SUPERBOSSES: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent. Once again he has undertaken extensive research over a ten year period of some of the most intriguing business leaders in the world who all have one thing in common – they helped develop the best talent in their industry sectors, who in turn helped them become the legendary successes they are today. What they did, and how they did it, is shared via fascinating profiles and seven management practices that separate the best bosses from the merely good ones. LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls it “a leadership guide for the Networked Age”.

Professor Finkelstein is a Fellow of the Academy of Management, and has had three books nominated for the Academy of Management’s Terry Book Award, the most prestigious such honor in the field.  His other awards include Finalist for the Academy of Management Executive Best Paper Award (2004), the McKinsey & Company Strategic Management Society Best Conference Paper Prize Honorable Mention (2002), the Best Paper Award from the Academy of Management Executive for his article “Leveraging Intellect” (1997), two Citations of Excellence from ANBAR, the world’s leading guide to management journal literature (1997 & 1998), the Cenafoni Prize for research in Entrepreneurial Strategy (1991), and finalist for the A.T. Kearney award for the best research in strategic management (1988).

Professor Finkelstein is a recognized thought leader on leadership, strategy, and corporate governance, and is listed on the “Thinkers 50,” the most prestigious ranking of management thinkers in the world. He is well known for his keynote speeches and television appearances, and is a regular columnist for the BBC. He has worked as a consultant and speaker for major companies around the world, including Aetna, American Express, Bank of Montreal, Barclays, BlackRock, Boeing, Cerberus, Chevron, Comcast, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, Eaton, Freddie Mac, GE, General Dynamics, Glaxo, Heinz, Hitachi, ING, ITT, J&J, JP Morgan Chase, Mayo Clinic, Korn-Ferry, McGraw-Hill, McKinsey, Merrill Lynch, Monsanto, Morgan Stanley, Novartis, PwC, Raytheon, Roche, Rollins, Russell Reynolds, UBS, and United Technologies.

Testimonials

Everyone was very impressed by Sydney’s presentation, it was a big hit and he was great to work with!

DLA Piper

 

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