Pierre du Plessis
Pierre du Plessis empowers leaders to embrace chaos, rethink strategy, and build businesses that matter, trusted by BMW, Tencent, and global innovators.
Why book Pierre du Plessis for your next event
- Pierre du Plessis has delivered powerful, transformative keynotes for world-leading organizations such as BMW, Tencent, KFC, FNB, and Yum!. His proven track record with top multinationals demonstrates not only his authority in strategy and leadership, but also his ability to resonate with diverse industries and inspire change at the highest level of business.
- Having spoken on four prestigious TEDx stages, Pierre has established himself as an influential global voice on leadership, chaos, and strategy. His ability to combine academic research, ancient wisdom, and modern trends makes his keynotes both intellectually compelling and practically relevant, leaving audiences equipped to rethink the way they approach disruption.
- Pierre is the celebrated author of four books, including Train Naked, a guide to building meaningful lives and businesses. His writings earned him the highly respected Desmond Tutu Gerrit Brand Prize for Literature. This recognition cements his credibility not just as a strategist, but as a thinker who brings depth, humanity, and actionable insights to every keynote he delivers.
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Mastering Chaos: Turning Uncertainty into Strategic Advantage
Internationally renowned keynote speaker, strategist, and award-winning author, Pierre du Plessis equips leaders to embrace uncertainty, master chaos, and drive innovation. Trusted by BMW, Tencent, and KFC, he blends strategy, wisdom, and storytelling to inspire bold decisions and build businesses that matter in today’s complex world.
Keynote Speaker Pierre du Plessis is internationally recognized for his ability to transform how leaders and organizations navigate strategy, leadership, and chaos in today’s fast-changing business world. With more than two decades of experience, he has partnered with leading global brands including BMW, Tencent, KFC, and Yum!, equipping executives and teams with the tools to embrace uncertainty and turn disruption into opportunity.
Pierre is the founder of Be Brave, a strategy consultancy that helps multinationals and scaleups design businesses that matter. His keynotes are a powerful blend of cutting-edge trends, trusted frameworks, academic research, and even ancient wisdom, all delivered with humor, storytelling, and actionable insights. This unique approach ensures that every audience leaves with practical tools to build resilience, spark innovation, and make courageous decisions.
As an award-winning author and four-time TEDx speaker, Pierre has earned recognition not only for his deep expertise in strategy but also for his ability to connect complex ideas to real-world leadership challenges. His signature keynote, In Praise of Shadows, challenges conventional thinking about chaos and equips organizations to thrive in complexity.
If your organization is seeking inspiration that goes beyond motivation and delivers lasting strategic impact, Book Pierre du Plessis for your event and give your leaders the mindset and frameworks to build the future with confidence.
Keynotes
Keynote by Pierre du Plessis:
You’re weird. I like it
A talk about creating a differentiating strategy
This talk exposes the current culture of endless copying and sameness, in business, tech, and society. It reveals that the only way to stand out and succeed today is to embrace what makes you unique. Instead of racing to be the first or the best, which is rare or vague, differentiation is the only path to win. With tons of storytelling and humour, Pierre shares practical ways to uncover your authentic difference, encourages bravery in the face of conformity, and calls for a return to genuine creativity and humanity in an automated, copycat world because true strategy begins where imitation ends.
Keynote by Pierre du Plessis:
Teams to Tribes
A session about teams
In "Teams to Tribes," we delve into the dynamics of human connection, belonging and collaboration. Recognizing humans' innate tendency to organize into tribes, we explore the importance of fostering healthy teams in today's age of loneliness. Amidst the backdrop of the 21st century, labeled "The Lonely Century," this keynote sheds light on the detrimental effects of loneliness on both individual lives and organizational cultures. By emphasizing intentionality in building great teams, this presentation equips leaders with strategies to cultivate strong, resilient teams that build things that matter.
Keynote by Pierre du Plessis:
Money is ‘just’ a Story
A talk about our subjective stories of money
UNCOVER THE NARRATIVES DRIVING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MONEY.
As natural storytellers, humans craft narratives about money from an early age, shaping our perception of its abundance or scarcity and influencing our financial decisions. Pierre explores the profound impact of these narratives on both personal and business realms, drawing on interdisciplinary research to uncover the intricate connection between money and storytelling, empowering teams to better understand and serve both themselves and their clients.
Keynote by Pierre du Plessis:
In Praise of Shadows
A Talk about the importance of mystery and uncertainty
How uncertainty fuels creativity and innovation.
Discover the hidden treasures that lie within the shadows of uncertainty, chaos, and mystery. This thought- provoking and motivational keynote challenges our over reliance on data and explores how true innovation and creativity emerge from the depths of uncertainty. Drawing inspiration from Japanese aesthetics (and the wisdom of Oscar Wilde) to the work on liminal spaces by Victor Turner, this talk celebrates the sacred mess of the unknown as the birthplace of innovation.
Keynote by Pierre:
Chaos is a gift
A Talk about liminal space and the benefits of chaotic times
HOW GREAT UPHEAVAL CAN BE YOUR BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY.
It’s no secret that chaos is near certainty in almost every aspect of our lives and even more so in business. Everything from changing weather patterns to Artificial Intelligence is disrupting our day-to-day. Mere living, and not to mention doing business, now takes a level of awareness and ability to handle ambiguity and complexity that has never been required before. Change is the only constant. The irony is, that it is only in times of chaos, in times of great upheaval, great disruption, that true change is possible. And it is only in the liminal spaces, the twilight zones, the cracks that positive change can happen. It is only during these times that true innovation and growth happens. “Never let a disaster go to waste”, Obama’s advisor told him during his ’08 campaign, “a disaster allows us to do things that couldn’t be done before.” After this talk your audience will leave with a new paradigm for not only surviving chaos, but thriving in it.
Keynote by Pierre du Plessis:
AI & I
A talk about what it, now, means to be human in the age of AI
Throughout history, from the first stone tools that shaped our ancestors' hands as much as they shaped the world, to the printing press that democratised knowledge, humankind has defined itself through its tools, we are inherently toolmakers. Today, as we stand on the brink of true machine intelligence, we face a paradox: our newest tools don't just extend our capabilities, they think, learn, and create. This transformation forces us to grapple with fundamental questions about personhood, creativity, and collaboration. From African concepts of "ubuntu" , where personhood emerges through our connections with others, ancient myths to science fiction's contemplations of robot consciousness, humans have long grappled with questions of intelligence beyond our own. This keynote aims to inspire and educate, giving new frameworks and painting an exciting picture of the weird and beautiful collaborative future.
Pierre Du Plessis Showreel
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Why you should book Pierre.
Watch Pierre du Plessis in action!
