Biography of Howard Hyden

Howard Hyden is not your typical speaker! He is an astute and very successful businessman who brings over 25 years of in-the-trenches experience, leadership, and reality-based ideas from some of the nation's leading companies. Howard is an extremely high-energy, engaging, and results-driven speaker. His expertise is steering businesses through his pioneering concept of Customer Focus. He encourages his audiences to “play the game at the awesome level” by bringing more value to customers.

Howard served as a senior marketing executive for a Fortune 100 company for four years. In this capacity he directed research and development of strategies for transforming the entire organizational culture into a Customer-Focused one. He did this by conducting interviews at some of the nation’s most prestigious business schools—Stanford, Harvard, Duke, and Kellogg—as well as at several major corporations. As a result, he combined both the discipline of marketing and organizational development into a unique, integrated approach. He designed innovative tools to assist organizations integrate Customer Focus into the infrastructure of their organizations. Howard has experience in marketing to industrial, government, and consumer markets.

Howard is nationally recognized as THE leading authority in helping companies become Customer Focused. As a corporate executive, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, author, and president of The Center for Customer Focus, he assists organizations to begin making profound transformations. He has inspired change at companies worldwide including Del Webb, 3M, Wells Fargo, and Dunn & Bradstreet.

Howard has spoken at numerous conferences, association meetings, and trade events including the prestigious Inc. Magazine’s annual conference on “Growing Your Business”. He has presented in various capacities including keynote speaker, breakout session presenter, and workshop facilitator. As a keynote speaker, he has shared the platform with Stephen Covey, Tom Peters, Peter Ueberoth, and others. Howard is a featured author in a book entitled Conversations On Success. He is currently working on a new book entitled Add Value or Stay Home.

Howard is an honor MBA graduate from Pepperdine University and majored in electrical engineering as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois.

Most Requested Topics:

Standing in the Customer's Moccasins™: "Customer focus is NOT merely customer service! Look at the business through the customer's eyes.... how do they see what we're providing?" Most companies tell customers what to do or what they should want in the product or service, but Howard believes that this is backwards! To thrive in the market, organizations must change to an Outside-In™ perspective- stand in their customers moccasins- to see clearly. This is what true customer focus is all about.

The Uncommon Denominator™- Your Employees!: In today's marketplace, product parity abounds! Don't fall prey to competitors on price.... the solution lies with your employees. Howard Hyden knows from experience where the solution lies- with your employees! In this exciting and powerful presentation, Howard shares the secret of why employees are The Uncommon Denominator™, and how you can tap into your employee resource, the most effective weapon you have in the marketing wars.

Innovate or Evaporate™: One thing is sure in the coming decade - change. If your organization doesn't continue to offer improved value to the customer, it will dry up and blow away. The choice is yours: innovate or evaporate. In this thought-provoking presentation, Howard Hyden demonstrates that an organization's response to change - its willingness and ability to think beyond conventional parameters - is critical to its survival.

Leadership for the Next Millennium™: In his consulting activities with many companies, Howard Hyden has found that the implicit assumption by management is that employee behavior needs to change. However, Howard knows that for employee behavior to change, management behavior must first change. Why? Because the bedrock of an organization's culture lies in its leadership- without which espoused philosophies amount to mere lip service and unfulfilled promises, resulting in unrealized corporate visions. Howard Hyden believes that to fulfill the vision, managers need to become leaders with a Socratic approach. Didactic leaders simply tell employees what to do, assuming that management has all the knowledge and all the answers.

The Virtual Learning Organization™: In this authoritative and energetic session, Howard explains how a corporate entity can be a learning organization, constantly seeking stimuli from 'virtual' sources (those outside the organization). He identifies the virtual sources that can and should be tapped into to obtain new ideas, as well as specific techniques on implementing those new ideas.

Add Value or Stay Home: Customer Service Is Not a Competitive Advantage—Customer Focus Is! Is your business “Inside-Out” (product-driven) or “Outside-In™” (customer-driven)? To survive and thrive in the 21st Century, organizations must adopt an “Outside-In™”, Customer-Focused perspective—to look at their business through their customers’ eyes. Howard’s “Outside-In™” perspective will dramatically change how you look at your business. Appreciate what it means to be “Outside-In™”—customer driven, instead of Inside-Out—product driven. Explore Customer Focus—viewing your business from your customers’ perspective in order to “play the game at the awesome level”. Find innovative ways to “Add Value” and differentiate yourself from the competition so you won’t have to compete on price, quality, or “customer service.” Discover profit-boosting tools you can use immediately!

Riding the Waves of Change: Howard believes that change can be a problem or change can be an opportunity. Those who embrace change will be tomorrow’s winners. Those who don’t won’t be around to worry about it any longer. Howard encourages organizations not to fear change, but to use it to their advantage. He offers that the rate of change in your company must not only be equal to, but greater than, the rate of change in your marketplace. Howard presents his insightful concept of “Learning Velocity™”, a way to drive your company’s change and gain a competitive advantage based on what is changing in your customers’ world. To play the game at the awesome level, Howard’s hypothesis is “Your ‘Learning Velocity™’ must be greater than your competitor’s.” Howard will share the tools that allow an organization to increase their Learning Velocity™. These tools include: the Customer Visit Matrix, New Accounts, Howard’s Three Questions, Competitor’s Customers, and Post-Mortems.