“Dawson has pulled off the nigh-impossible: improved on what was already a terrific book. Even more than before, this is essential reading for professional service firms.”
David Maister,
author of Managing the Professional Service Firm and The Trusted Advisor

“For many professional firms, there is no bigger challenge than deepening their relationships with key clients. In this arena, Ross Dawson is a master and his book, for those prepared to study and change, can provide off-the-shelf competitive advantage.”
Professor Richard Susskind, OBE,
author of The Future of Law

“Ross Dawson was the first among the world′s business thought leaders to pursue the intersection of knowledge and client relationships in professional services. No matter what your business, if you want to know more about your clients or customers, you′ll find this book useful.”
Thomas H. Davenport,
Professor and Director of Research,
Babson College,
Accenture Fellow,
author of What’s the Big Idea?

“Insightful, practical and beautifully straightforward this should be essential reading for anyone offering professional or creative services.”
Verna Allee,
author of The Future of Knowledge: Increasing Prosperity through Value Networks

Ross Dawson’s presentations provide clear-eyed perspective on the challenges and opportunities of life in a world of rapidly changing technology and economic norms. Dawson is eager to help audiences learn how to turn complex new realities such as the proliferation of social media and the sometimes-radical upheavals in contemporary corporate culture into opportunities to thrive.

Change can sometimes generate concern and drive a focus upon damage-limitation, but Dawson encourages his clients to think expansively about the possibilities change brings. Not only will his audiences learn to cope with contemporary trends, but they’ll also derive unique insight into how to actively create the future of business, embrace the future, tap personal networks to drive business success, and profit from technology trends. Audiences shown how to harness the power of innovation will leave inspired and motivated to make important new decisions about their futures.

In addition to a wide variety of general-audience presentations, Dawson is prepared to share industry-specific insights into the future of the media, financial services, professional services, marketing and public relations, global health, and libraries and museums. His wide range of expertise provides unique benefits for industry leaders looking to provide tailored content about future trends to their employees.

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Creating the Future of Business
Powerful driving forces across business, technology and society are shaping our world. Online and mobile communication, globalization, attitudes to the environmental, generational change, rising customer expectations and many more issues raise vital challenges for companies. However these and other shifts also uncover extraordinary business opportunities. In this compelling keynote Ross Dawson shows what is shaping the future of business in your industry, and the steps you can take to succeed in this exciting world.

Leadership for Radical Times
The shocks and dislocation of the global financial crisis are leading us into a time of radical change on all fronts. The winners in this next phase of the economy will be those who demonstrate leadership to their customers, suppliers, and partners, by showing them how to shift to highly profitable new ways of working based on collaboration, integration, and transparency. Ross Dawson describes the leaders of today and tomorrow, and how they are turning radical change into massive opportunity.

Profiting from Technology Trends
Information technologies are transforming business and creating extraordinary new possibilities, however it is often difficult to keep on top of the key trends. Ross Dawson takes an entertaining and insightful look at the latest in technology and how to apply them to creating business value. He examines how to use social media to build powerful customer relationships and access new markets, apply online technologies to build a more efficient company, and implement tools for tapping global talent. This presentation is suitable for a general business audience such as association members, and can be adapted to different sectors and degrees of audience sophistication.

Embracing the Future
We live in a time of accelerating change, when the fortunes of companies rise and fall faster than ever before, driven by new technologies, global competition and heightened consumer expectations. We can choose how we respond to these dramatic shifts - in seeing the challenges before us, or seizing the enormous opportunities that are arising by embracing the future. In this inspiring and motivational keynote speech Ross Dawson provides clear insights into possibilities and potential of the world today, and the action you can take to create an extremely successful future for yourself and your company.

The Power of Social Media
In just the last five years, social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, blogs and far more have transformed how people communicate with friends, keep up with news, do business, and express their opinions on the companies they buy from. No organization can ignore the fact that their customers are talking about them with the world and large, and making decisions based on what they find on Internet, be it true or false. Many companies are discovering that social media in fact offers an extraordinary opportunity to market, build powerful customer relationships, and attract talented staff. Discover how you can make social media a driving force for your business success.

Competing in the Global Economy
The increasing pace of change in business is creating massive challenges and opportunities. The swift rise of communications technologies, global competition, regulatory pressures, and outsourcing are just some of the forces that must be understood and addressed in any effective business strategy. In this compelling keynote Dawson explains the MegaTrends of the global economy, the implications of a networked world based on talent and innovation, and the challenges and opportunities of generational change. From these he draws the key action steps organizations can take to prosper in a challenging environment.

Tapping Personal Networks to Drive Business Success
Research has repeatedly shown that an individual′s success and work performance are driven by the quality of their personal networks. Today, six degrees of separation are rapidly shrinking. We still meet people and develop many relationships face-to-face, however online social networks are adding many ways to connect with people, build relationships, exchange ideas, and create an extraordinary life. Those who have the skills and character to create value with others will prosper the most. In this compelling and highly interactive keynote address, Dawson will show how you can plug into the living networks to liberate yourself and create more opportunities for yourself and others.

Harnessing the Power of Innovation
In a globalized, commoditized world, the only remaining sustainable advantage is in consistent innovation. Networks, both inside and outside the organization, are the key to successful innovation in products, business processes, and strategy. Staff and their ideas can be connected in new ways to yield powerful outcomes. Even giants such as IBM, Boeing, and Procter & Gamble have realized they cannot be self-sufficient in innovation, making them adopt "open innovation" approaches, reaching outside to an entire world of talent. Open source software concepts provide a valuable foundation for many emerging commercial models. Dawson shows his audience the new frontiers of effective innovation, and offers practical prescriptions on how to innovate faster, better, and more effectively.

Building Exceptional Client Relationships
Today client loyalty seems like a thing of the past, with pricing, tenders, and procurement managers increasingly driving business. In this world, companies need to create clear strategies to build deeper and broader relationships with their clients. Relationship leaders can customize services, implement deliberate programs to develop trust, and ultimately lock-in their clients by consistently creating greater value. Ross Dawson, the world-renowned author of Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships, provides key steps and inspiration to adopt the attitudes and behaviors of true relationship leaders.

Thriving on Information Overload
We are not only swamped with email, messages, meetings, and must-read information, but we are also expected to keep up with the latest industry trends and new technologies, not to mention our Facebook and Twitter profiles. In a world of extraordinary information overload, there are a clear set of habits, approaches and technology tools that can help us to master the tide and keep on top of it all. Those who learn to thrive on overload will be true masters of the information age.

INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC TOPICS

Creating the Future of Media
Media is at the very heart of society and business. Today the media landscape is changing at a dramatic pace, impacting every company and every individual. New digital media is exploding, ranging across online news, mobiles, blogs, personalized advertising, video billboards, e-books, social networks and far more. Yet newspapers, magazines, TV and radio are not about to disappear. Discover the driving forces in the media landscape, and how to profit from the shifts that are transforming the world of media and marketing.

The Future of Financial Services
As we gradually emerge from a massive shock to the financial system, the financial services industry is in transition, driven by regulatory shifts, changing customer attitudes, the rapid development of online services, competition from new sources, and industry consolidation. Those finance professionals that embrace new approaches will thrive as the sector adjusts to a dramatically different post-crisis world. This keynote can be adapted to a variety of financial services sectors, including banking, broking, financial markets, investment banking, wealth management, financial planning, and insurance.

Leadership in Professional Services
Every professional services industry is being driven by powerful forces, including connectivity, commoditization, regulation, and rapidly evolving client attitudes to service providers. Professional services are taking an increasing share of the economic growth, but professionals must embrace new ways of working in order to succeed in the challenging times ahead. The winners will be those that lead their clients into entrenched knowledge-based relationships, build effective internal networks, and embed innovation into their work processes. Personal leadership will be the foundation of success for every professional.

Influence is the Future of Marketing and PR
A global US$1 trillion dollar industry is being transformed. Every form of advertising is having decreasing impact, push marketing is gradually dying, and mainstream media is in long-term decline in its reach and consumer impact. However the marketing industry′s future is bright. Total marketing spend is hardly set to reduce in an increasingly crowded marketplace, but it will be allocated to those activities that truly make a difference. Influence - based on conversations and aggregated opinion - will be at the center of how companies seek to drive sales and customer engagement. Media thought leader Ross Dawson, who founded the Future of Influence Summit, will share the latest trends, insights, and opportunities in the world of influence.

2020: The Future of Work and Organizations
The world of work is changing at an extraordinary pace, with many existing jobs being supplanted by technology, entirely new jobs springing up daily, and cheap communications meaning almost every job other than hairdressing and massage can be outsourced around the planet. The expectations of young people are dramatically different to those of their parents. Many of the most successful organizations today are responding by building highly networked and flexible structures. The opportunity for corporate leaders, strategy executives, and HR managers is to create organizations that will be relevant and highly competitive in the dynamic business world of the years to come.

The Global Health Economy: Today and Tomorrow
Health is taking an ever-larger proportion of the economy, in the US already accounting for 17% of GDP. Aging populations, increased expectations, more advanced - and expensive - treatments, and entrenched health industry structures mean costs will continue to rise. However there is the potential to create far more effective and efficient systems. Personal health records, pro-active health measures, expertise networks, and robotic assistance are just some of the issues that will drive the future of health. Go on an extraordinary futurist′s journey through where the health industry may go, and what actions today could drive a healthier society tomorrow.

How Technology is Transforming Aged Care
Information technologies are transforming aged care. Telemedicine offers new ways to care for the elderly wherever they are. New generation tools such as memory aids improve people′s quality of life. Communication technologies connect loved ones in powerful new ways. eHealth initiatives, soon supported by pervasive high-speed broadband across the nation, will enable better care and better health. World-renowned futurist and author Ross Dawson offers insights into the extraordinary promise of information technology in aged care, and how best to take advantage of the resulting opportunities.

The Future of Libraries and Museums
Libraries and museums often boast a wealth of history and tradition. Yet they must adjust and remain relevant in a world of extraordinary online resources and instant gratification. Entertainment, education, and experience are colliding as physical and virtual worlds are combined. Today these institutions have the opportunity to energize communities with their cultural heritage and future as never before.