Steve Lerch

INNOVATION THROUGH CULTURE: STORIES FROM A DECADE AT GOOGLE

Innovative thinking is changing the modern world faster than at any point in human history, but now more than ever, innovation is not resigned to only the inventors, engineers, and scientists. The greatest innovators of our time are men like Steve Jobs. A man who didn’t invent the first Apple computer (Steve Wozniak) nor the iPod or iPhone (Tony Fadell). Instead, he established a culture of innovation that catalyzed and nurtured new ideas and new ways of thinking.

Steve Lerch will share stories from a decade at Google, where he worked with the world’s most innovative brands like GoPro, FitBit, and Nest. Dive into the history of some of Google’s most iconic projects like self-driving cars and augmented reality glasses, and more importantly, understand the simple, underlying cultural principles that allowed for these innovations. Principles like Launch and Iterate, Fail Well, and Bet on Technical Insights.

THE FEEDBACK IMPERATIVE: BUILDING A CULTURE OF IDEATION AND COLLABORATION

Humble leaders understand that every employee, every customer, and every random person walking down the street could be an asset. Everyone is capable of a great idea. Everyone is capable of having a skill that others might not possess.

In this presentation we’ll learn how to establish a culture and design a system to gather ideas and feedback from every corner of your business and beyond.

INNOVATION LEADERSHIP: EMPOWERING YOUR PEOPLE TO THINK DIFFERENTLY

Brainstorming, creativity, and outside-the-box thinking may seem like unpredictable and unschedulable activities. But when leaders expect new ideas to be randomly birthed from sporadic eureka moments, we fail to recognize our own ability to inspire and motivate our teams. And perhaps most importantly, we forget to remove the impediments and barriers that hinder our employee’s abilities to think differently.

UNDERSTANDING AND INFLUENCING MODERN CONSUMERS

Our collective culture and modern consumer behavior are changing and evolving faster than at any point in history. The way consumers spend their time, gather information, make purchases, communicate, and even the voices they trust look drastically different than they did even 2 years ago. If you expect to sell to these people, to influence these people, to form relationships with these people, you have to start by understanding them and understanding how to talk to them.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN A WORLD OF MEMES, GIFS, AND TRENDS

The digital world is empowering consumers like never before, and armed with new platforms for consuming content, asking questions, and making decisions, these consumers are demanding that today’s brands be more nimble, flexible, and relevant than ever before.

In this presentation we’ll explore how the customers in your brand/industry continue to evolve and the steps you need to take to keep up.

BUILDING TRUST AND CONNECTION IN A DIGITAL WORLD

The best marketers aren’t just the ones telling the best stories. The best marketers are the ones that leverage data, patterns, and insights to tell the most relevant stories to each and every customer. In our modern, digital-first world, there are countless ways to easily collect and analyze this data. In this presentation we’ll explore those opportunities and the amazing stories brands have crafted using these insights.

WHO THE HECK IS MY CUSTOMER?

Whether you’re selling a product, building a brand, recruiting new employees, or lobbying to legislators, your audience is online. This means there are tools and technologies at our disposal, simple and free technologies, that every business leader should know how to use.

TELLING YOUR STORY

Everyone has a story to tell, and in a digital world where consumers have more access to information and more transparency than ever before, it’s more important than ever for every person, every business, and every brand to know how to tell their story in a relevant, compelling, and interesting way.