Renowned Leadership & Business Growth Expert; Co-Founder & Former CEO of Yum! Brands; New York Times Bestselling Author; Host of "How Leaders Lead"
David Novak Biography
David Novak is best known as the co-founder, retired chairman, and CEO of Yum! Brands, Inc., the world's largest restaurant company with more than 45,000 restaurants in over 135 countries and territories. Before his leadership in the restaurant industry, Novak built a career in advertising and consumer marketing. He served as president at KFC and Pizza Hut and held senior management roles at Pepsi-Cola Company, including chief operating officer and executive vice president of marketing and sales. Novak is also credited with the invention of Crystal Pepsi, a clear cola product.
When PepsiCo spun off its restaurant brands, Novak became vice chairman and president of the new company, Yum! Brands, and was later promoted to CEO. During his tenure, Yum! Brands doubled in size to 41,000 restaurants and expanded its global presence, with international profits growing from approximately 20 percent to nearly 70 percent. The company maintained industry leadership in return on invested capital, achieved a compound annual shareholder return of 16 percent, and saw its market capitalization grow to nearly $32 billion from just over $4 billion. Novak attributes much of this success to a people-first leadership philosophy centered on recognition culture, emphasizing genuine, timely recognition as a key leadership tool. He implemented unique recognition programs for employees, such as presenting rubber chickens and cash bonuses at KFC and foam cheese heads at Pizza Hut.
Novak's leadership has been recognized by Chief Executive Magazine as CEO of the Year, by Barron's as one of the world's 30 Best CEOs, by Fortune as one of the Top People in Business, and by Harvard Business Review as one of the 100 Best-Performing CEOs in the World. He received the Horatio Alger Award for his commitment to philanthropy and higher education and became a lifetime member of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. Novak is also the recipient of the UN World Food Program Leadership Award for Yum! Brands' World Hunger Relief effort and the national Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship.
As an author, Novak has written several books on leadership, including the number one New York Times bestseller "Taking People With You," "O Great One!," and "How Leaders Learn." He has donated all proceeds from his books, speaking fees, and his autobiography, "The Education of an Accidental CEO: Lessons Learned from the Trailer Park to the Corner Office," to the United Nations World Food Programme. His leadership program was tested over fifteen years on more than 4,000 managers at Yum! Brands, which employs 1.4 million people across 135 countries.
After retiring from Yum! Brands, Novak founded David Novak Leadership, a leadership development company that offers modern team leadership training through online courses, books, and live workshops. He is also the host of the business podcast "How Leaders Lead with David Novak." In philanthropy, Novak and his wife Wendy donated $21.6 million to the University of Missouri's School of Journalism to establish the Novak Leadership Institute, supporting leadership education for future professionals. His other philanthropic initiatives include Lead4Change and Global Game Changers, with Lead4Change recognized as the largest privately funded leadership service program in middle and high schools.
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David Novak Speaking Topics
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Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen
Why are Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon, Jack Welch, Jeffrey Immelt and so many other top leaders praising David Novak’s upcoming book? Novak, recognized as one of the best-performing CEO’s in the world by Harvard Business Review, runs Yum! Brands—the world's largest restaurant company and parent of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell—with a staggering 1.4 million employees. He learned long ago that you can't lead a great organization of any size—from a tiny startup to a global giant—without getting your people aligned, enthusiastic, and focused relentlessly on the mission. But how do you accomplish that?
As Yum’s chairman and CEO, and as the author of TAKING PEOPLE WITH YOU: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen, Novak has personally trained thousands of managers with his leadership guide—which has been 15 years in the making and tested on more than 4,000 managers—and is an action plan that challenges leaders to rise to higher levels of performance.
Novak knows that managers in the trenches don't need leadership platitudes or business theories. With a focus on corporate culture, customer relations and employee empowerment that enabled him to grow Yum! Brands globally, Novak cuts right to the chase and shares the secrets of the unique leadership program he’s developed in easy-to-follow steps: setting big goals, getting your people on board, blowing past your targets, celebrating together after you shock the skeptics, and doing it again and again until consistent excellence becomes a core element of your culture. Highly engaging and motivated, Novak inspires teams—from front line to front office—while delivering a specific process to help organizations achieve growth.
David Novak Videos
The Power of Taking People With You | David Novak | EDGE|X 2018 ...
David Novak, co-founder and former CEO of Yum! Brands, shares about the power of recognition in leadership at EDGE Mentoring's third ...
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Our experienced booking agents have successfully helped clients around the world secure speakers like David Novak for speaking engagements, personal appearances, product endorsements, or corporate entertainment since 2002. Click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page to check availability for David Novak, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to discuss your upcoming event. One of our experienced agents will be happy to help you get speaking fee information and check availability for David Novak or any other speaker of your choice. -
What are the speaker fees for David Novak
Speaking fees for David Novak, or any other speakers and celebrities, are determined based on a number of factors and may change without notice. The estimated fees to book David Novak are $100,000 - $200,000 for live events and $50,000 - $100,000 for virtual events. For the most current speaking fee to hire David Novak, click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to speak directly with an experienced booking agent. -
What topics does David Novak speak about?
David Novak is a keynote speaker and industry expert whose speaking topics include Business, Business Authors, Business Coaching, Business Leadership, Communication, Corporate Strategy, Disruptive Thinking, Executive Leadership, Hospitality, Human Resources, Innovation, Leadership, Marketing, Storytelling, Strategic Leadership, Teamwork & Teambuilding, Thought Leadership -
Where does David Novak travel from?
David Novak generally travels from Louisville, KY, USA, but can be booked for private corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. For more details, please contact an AAE Booking agent. -
Who is David Novak’s agent?
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David Novak is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen. The estimated speaking fee range to book David Novak for your event is $100,000 - $200,000. David Novak generally travels from Louisville, KY, USA and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Sara Blakely, Marc Randolph, Patrick Lencioni, Peter Diamandis and Daymond John. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling David Novak for an upcoming live or virtual event.
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