Giant Killer Keynotes
What you’ll get hiring Stephen Denny to keynote your next event:
Cutting edge marketing insight based on 4 years of global quantitative primary research, learnings from 70+ interviews with some of the world's most effective leaders - from the townships of South Africa to Silicon Valley - plus the experience gained from 30+ years running and consulting with marketing departments at Giant Killer brands.
Let's Talk.Why bring Stephen Denny in to keynote your next conference?
Have you ever said any of the following (out loud or just to yourself):
- “We’re Number 2 in our market… and we hate it.”
- “Our competitor just out-spends us… how do we compete against them?”
- “There’s got to be a smarter way.”
The good news is you’re not alone.
Others have gone down this path before – and they’ve been successful. Want to hear how?
Storytelling, vivid evidence, and hard data.
The last thing you need at a high stakes conference is a “talking head” – someone with lots of theories but no experience actually implementing them.
Stephen Denny spent over 30 years as a senior marketing executive and consultant at Global 500’s, Fortune 500’s and other publicly traded companies – as well as a few in the start-up range. When you’re a veteran of getting things done under live fire in the corporate world, you understand the realities of life that your audience lives every day. This is critical and without this experience in hand, it's hard to have credibility with a smart audience like yours. Denny has lived, worked and breathed this environment long enough to speak from deep personal experience when it comes to consumer influence, channel leverage, cultural change and a host of other pressing and timely needs.
Keynotes based on original research - and published books.
In his book, Killing Giants: 10 Strategies to Topple the Goliath In Your Industry (Portfolio, 2011), Denny interviewed over 70 of the world’s most effective business leaders – as well as gamblers, hostage negotiators, screenwriters and others – and distilled their insights into 10 big ideas that smart business people can apply today, immediately, to improve their businesses, careers and lives.
There is no "one size fits all" approach - because nothing replaces research.
Combining a storyteller’s passion with over 25 years of experience as a senior marketing executive and consultant, Denny's keynotes do more than just entertain. Every keynote starts with deep pre-event interviews - a full discovery process - that uncover your biggest challenges, which are then matched to timely, insightful case studies, providing an on-target conference keynote designed to provoke insight and action.
Keynote Topics
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1. THE KILLING GIANTS FRAMEWORK: 3 AREAS OF EXCELLENCE THAT DEFINE HOW DAVIDS TOPPLE GOLIATHS
Categories: Strategy, Management, Marketing, Strategic Transformation
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Patterns emerge from the interviews and stories I’ve written about in Killing Giants: 10 Strategies to Topple the Goliath in Your Industry. The leaders of these brands that have successfully out-maneuvered the giants they face see things differently than the rest of their peers. They have learned how to view the battlefield from vantage points that others have missed, which allows them to see things that most everyone else fails to notice. Some of these learnings cut against the grain of “common knowledge.” Others seem obvious, but their nuances reveal a startling shift into new territory. All of them can be applied to your business. The compiled teachings of over eighty of the world’s top business thinkers – as well as experts from decidedly other walks of life, from professional gamblers and hostage negotiators to Hollywood screenwriters and pro athletes – can inspire and galvanize any business leader. These business leaders and their combined wisdom come from a diverse set of industries, from technology to consumer packaged goods to professional services, and from every continent on the globe. What audience members will take away:
- Understand how to Seize the Narrative and hijack the conversation in the marketplace to a place where giant killers know they can beat the giants they face.
- Learn how to Change the Rules of the Game and proactively take advantage of shifts in the structures, interactions and perceptions of our market – before the giants do.
- Master the art of Translating Ideas into Action by applying the lessons gathered from leaders who have successfully implemented “speed cultures” in their organizations to not just make decisions faster – but better, too.
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2. LEADERSHIP LESSONS OF TRUE GIANT KILLERS: HOW VISION, INSIGHT AND CULTURE DEFINE MODERN DAY “DAVIDS”
Categories: Leadership, Executive Development, Transformation, Strategy, Management
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Being a modern day “David” isn’t always about being brash, outlandish, edgy or provocative – it’s about creating winnable fights against larger competitors who, on paper, should be able to crush you… but for some reason, either can’t seem to beat you in the market or, often, has no interest in fighting you at all. Leading a Giant Killer organization requires a unique ability to articulate a vision far bigger and more inclusive than the narrow confines of your category. It requires the ability to see opportunities and spot trends that are often hidden in plain sight. And it requires the discipline to plan proactively to take advantage of every sudden market shift and competitive move that happens. We don’t have the people, the budgets or even the time we had a few short years ago. What we do have is ingenuity and the drive to do what appears to be impossible: to topple the Goliath in your industry. Drawing on over 80 interviews with some of the world’s most effective business leaders – as well as experts from decidedly other walks of life, from professional gamblers and hostage negotiators to Hollywood screenwriters and pro athletes – we will discuss both the theory and the practice of how leadership can transform a company or an entire industry. What audience members will take away:
- How to create a vision bigger than your category that allows you to take a leadership role in your industry – even when you’re not the biggest player.
- How to see what others miss, spotting opportunities proactively – on purpose – using best in class thinking tools.
- Forging a culture that rewards speed, flexibility and ruthless execution so that nothing your market or your competitors do is wasted.
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3. GIANT KILLER DISRUPTION: CREATING SUSTAINABLE, REPEATABLE SUCCESS – EVEN WHEN FACING GOLIATH
Categories: Innovation, Strategy, Management, Marketing, Strategic Transformation
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Disruption isn’t just creativity. It isn’t being “entrepreneurial.” It’s about creating a sustainable process that works within your internal system, that speaks your internal culture’s language and delivers on your organization’s strategic priorities that consistently produces products and services that your market rewards you for. Disruption is a hallmark of those companies we call, “Giant Killers” – those companies that seemingly do the impossible task of toppling the giants they face in the market, all without the resources or the budgets that their giants take for granted. Giant Killer disruption goes on a deep dive into shifting the structures of industries on purpose, allowing leadership to move the conversation in the marketplace to a place they know they can win – and where the giant will fear to fight. We will discuss how successful Giant Killers have changed the rules of the game and created new and innovative solutions to age-old problems – and how we can do this on purpose. And lastly, we’ll discuss in depth not just why speed-based cultures are good – but specifically how you can begin to instill one in your organization or your team today, before you even leave the room. What audience members will take away:
- How Questioning the Givens rigorously changes how product development, marketing, and even human resources looks at their roles.
- How Changing the Rules of the Game by re-writing the rules of your industry help you seize the narrative and hijack the conversation in your marketplace.
- How creating a Speed-Based culture not only will allow you to make decisions faster – it will allow you to make decisions better.
Sample Keynotes
“Stephen Denny genuinely understands the power of small, nimble, consumer focused companies. He recently spoke at our North American Sales Conference, inspiring a strong sense of belief that Vibram would not only transform it’s business, but help re-shape our industry.”
"Stephen was great at adapting the principles of Killing Giants to our industry, specifically marketing services. His presentation spoke to the hearts and minds of owner/operators of independent advertising agencies as they face the many challenges of competing against larger agencies for larger clients. I highly recommend Stephen as a speaker and as a thought leader in business management and operations."
“Killing Giants is very relevant to any company in any industry. Either we compete against the giant every day or we are the giant and need to understand how to avoid common pitfalls. Stephen‘s storytelling style makes for a very interesting and compelling talk, which is exactly what any group expects from their keynote speaker. Stephen did the research on the group, the industry we are in, and the current issues we face, to make the content even more relevant and hard hitting. We would be delighted to invite him back in future conferences.”