 Speech Topics
Executing Strategically in Challenging Times
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Most companies have the typical “vision, mission and values” statement hanging on the wall. In many cases it’s grand rhetoric – an inspiring abstraction, unconnected to the reality of business. Good times forgive those kinds of disconnects. But tough times punish them ruthlessly. Why? Because connecting a strategy with action is never more crucial than in downtrodden markets. Grand phrases aside, strategy has a very specific meaning: It’s what a company aspires to achieve, where it chooses to compete, how it plans to win and what it will take to get there. Linking an organization’s strategy to its operating reality is the essential foundation of world-class execution. In this dynamic presentation filled with powerful examples of people and organizations that are changing their industries and the competitive landscape, the dynamic storyteller Jeffrey Rayport guides audiences on how to “get it right.” Rayport illustrates how an effective, organization-wide strategy can make the difference between winning and losing in tough times.
Making Service Your Ultimate Competitive Weapon
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When times are tough, businesses must find ways to elevate their game while lowering costs. There’s only one way to make that equation work: with renewed, and relentless, focus on service. Like it or not, every business these days competes on service – which is all about the quality of interactions with customers. It’s the inevitable result of tough times and overwhelming competition. How your frontline professionals and associates deal with customers is the first link in a chain of effects that can sustain – or hobble – your business. Through their attitudes and behaviors, frontline employees are the most powerful lever you have on the present satisfaction and future loyalty of your customers. Getting the front line right doesn’t cost more money; often, it costs less. But Rayport describes what’s needed: a customer service “leap of faith” that puts the people who manage the “moments of truth” with customers in a position to fully grasp how service drives the financial success of your business.
How Automating Services Gets You More for Less
Some decry it as the “end of service” or complain about “voice-mail hell.” But automation has come to services not a moment too soon. Contrary to popular belief, companies can get service automation right. By applying “systems” thinking to how they bring together human talent and technology, many admired brands are finding ways to serve customers better while spending less. Part one of the answer is using technology to make your people more productive. Part two is recognizing that technology can often do more for customers than people alone – and at a fraction of the cost. In a weak economy, it’s imperative to do more with less. In this revealing talk, Rayport, a former Harvard Business School professor and accomplished author, demonstrates how the thoughtful integration of people and technology can deliver operating efficiency, service excellence and strategic advantage. He shares cutting-edge best practices from industry leaders – what is new, what is working and what you can do to adopt these ideas.
Putting Demand-Side Innovation to Work in a Web 2.0 World
Innovation is the watchword of business today. But most companies define innovation only as those activities performed on the “supply side” through research and development or design. Just as important is “demand-side” innovation: How a company goes to market, and how it interacts with its customers, ultimately defines a company and a brand. It’s a question of whether customer experience builds differentiation and induces loyalty or confers commodity status on a firm. Rayport, founder of a strategic advisory business that works with leading brands to reinvent how they interact with customers and markets, shares how as traditional research and development budgets are squeezed, organizations must tap into customer experience as a source of competitive advantage. Social networking and other Web 2.0 tools make it inexpensive as never before to interact with customers in breakthrough ways and cement their loyalty for the long term. But there’s a catch: It requires boldly unleashing the talent and imaginations of the people you already employ.
About Jeffrey Rayport
How you sell is as important as what you sell. Jeffrey Rayport helps business rethink the way it interacts with customers by aligning traditional commerce with the virtual world of information.
Leading Business Consultant: Rayport is founder and chairman of Marketspace LLC, a strategy practice that works with leading companies to radically reinvent how they interact with customers and markets. In this fast paced presentation filled with stunning content Rayport coaches audiences on how to “get it right” by executing successful strategy that is tied to the operational realities.
Academic Powerhouse: Rayport is renowned for his groundbreaking academic initiatives that include the first e-commerce course taught in the U.S. Business plans written by his students resulted in dozens of high-tech start-ups, including Yahoo!. As the only faculty member to be voted Outstanding Professor three times by the Harvard Student Association, Rayport also coined the phrase “viral marketing.” Today, he encourages organizations to put aside the tired myths of automation and push past the supply-side expectation of innovation to tap into customer service as a competitive, innovative, opportunity.
Accomplished Author, Reporter and Journalist: Rayport most recent book is the best selling business book on reinventing service businesses, Best Face Forward: Why Companies Must Improve Their Service Interfaces with Customers (HBS School Press). He is a columnist for Business Week magazine. His has written for a variety of publications, including Business Week, CIO Magazine, Financial Times, Fast Company, Forbes.com, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, MarketWatch.com, McKinsey Quarterly, Optimize, and Strategy & Business.
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