Printable Biography of Josh Linkner

SPEAKING TOPICS:

Disciplined Dreaming: A Five Step System for Business Creativity

Competitive advantage in the marketplace used to be defended with complex supply chains, high cost of entry, and technological advances. Now, your business can be supplanted overnight by someone with a broadband connection and an idea. How are you re-tooling your organization for creativity? In this interactive talk, Josh shows participants how to jump-start their creativity for business advantage. Attendees will learn specific techniques to protect themselves from the competition, create new products, and expand market share.

Building a Creative Culture

Building a culture that fosters creativity and innovation is mission critical in today’s ultra-competitive environment. In this high-energy and interactive keynote, you will learn how to tap your people’s hidden brainpower. Help your team get unstuck by breaking free from myths and barriers to unleash their true creative potential. Learn to establish an ongoing system to nurture and harvest your team’s best ideas.

Is Innovation the Cure for the Economic Downturn?

Most innovations fail because they are not truly innovative – they make an existing product slightly smaller, faster, or less expensive. Real innovations turn industries and marketplaces upside down – like the cell phone or the iPod. Can your company innovate it’s way to success even during difficult economic times? In this talk, Josh offers a road map for organizations to get to successful, game-changing innovations. Takeaways include how to trap the competition, how to increase your rate of innovation, and how to invent new products that cannot easily be copied in the marketplace.

Leadership in the Age of Creativity

Leaders today need to be able to understand the needs and dreams of a wildly diverse employee population, each with its own particular ways of working, deriving motivation from very different parts of the work experience. On top of that, the marketplace can shift at bewildering speed as a college kid in a dorm room can invent a new business that renders yours irrelevant in a matter of a few months. How do you guide an organization into such an uncertain future with such a varied crew? Josh’s talk explores the new rules of the road and shows leaders how to build a culture that enables maximum creative potential.

The Music of Business

Jazz musicians and business leaders are increasingly sharing more common ground. Both require spontaneous creativity and improvisation. Both require careful synchronization in group dynamics, while responding on the fly to changing market conditions. Both are real-time art forms that require high-quality performances under the bright lights of an audience. Adapted from the principles of jazz legends to the business world, you’ll learn how to use a specific framework and set of rules to maximize create output. Using the metaphor of a jazz combo, Josh helps audiences improve their creativity, risk tolerance, and adaptability in this highly engaging and unique presentation.

BUSINESS TAKEAWAYS:

Through his experience as an entrepreneur, author, and jazz musician, Josh offers audiences the following in terms of business value:

• Learn specific tools and frameworks to generate new ideas and new approaches to problem solving
• Learn best practices as to how to build a culture that fosters creativity and innovation
• Learn how to harness and focus the hidden creativity of your team
• Avoid costly mistakes of flawed ideas selection and measurement
• Learn how to adapt more quickly and proactively to changes in the marketplace
• Get unstuck – break free from myths and barriers to unleash creativity

TESTIMONIALS:

“Josh Linkner, CEO of ePrize, is a tremendous business leader who has established a successful and sustainable company, as well as a culture that nurtures employees to help them maximize their potential.”
-Hon. Jennifer M. Granholm Governor, State of Michigan

“Thank you for today. It was inspirational, unrestricting, and energetic. It was one of the best days I’ve had out of the office. Your energy is contagious and my creative thinking was uninhibited.”
-David Riemer, Sr. Marketing Manager, Kmart

“Josh Linkner’s keynote presentation was truly inspiring and one of the main highlights of our conference.”
-Tel K. Ganesan, President, TiE Con

“Josh’s energy, enthusiasm and love for what he does really shines through. He also puts the right balance of simple, concise messages with humor. Yet at the same time you know he is serious by the examples of what he does with his own business. The presentation and content were both a ‘10’.”
-Lisa K Miller, VP Events, MEDC

 “The message about creativity and innovation was excellent. It was clear, well researched, engaging and kept the attention of the audience. Your use of stories, facts and humor made the time fly by. I had several people come up to me afterword and thank me for having you come in and speak to the group. They were energized and excited to put the principles in play.”
-Bill Emerson, CEO, Quicken Loans

“When Josh Linkner was presenting to our group you can just feel his talent and passion. The energy of the diverse audience was completely engaged as Josh clearly and thoughtfully delivered his message about creativity and innovation. Josh’s presentation was easily one of the best I have ever heard.”
-Danny Ferry, General Manager, Cleveland Cavaliers

“Josh’s presentation was one that made you watch, listen and learn and is a clear example of when you connect with people – they can gain insight and knowledge that will help open doors to new opportunities.”
-Nathan Forbes, Managing Partner, The Forbes Company

“I’ve attended so many speeches throughout the years, and found Josh’s presentation to be one of the best – if not the best – I’ve ever seen! Josh conveyed a serious message in a lighthearted and entertaining manner, with plenty of practical, useful information. His polished delivery and use of visuals, including laugh-out-loud video clips, gave the audience so much more than just “a talking head.” Great stuff!”
-Jonathan Liebman, Chairman/CEO, Specs Howard School of Media Arts, Inc.

“Josh Linkner’s message – that creativity is the most important organizational competency in the 21st century – compels and informs at the same time. With an engaging mix of data, anecdotes, and field-tested techniques, Josh outlines the innovation landscape and then reveals proven techniques for building and sustaining a creative culture.”
-Samuel Gerace, Chief Executive Officer, Veritix