Kevin Freiberg

  • International Bestselling Author
  • President, San Diego Consulting Group, Inc.
  • Authority on Business and Leadership

Dr. Kevin Freiberg is the president of San Diego Consulting Group, Inc., a professional speaking and consulting firm dedicated to equipping leaders for a world of change. For over 20 years, Kevin has been profiling revolutionary business leaders in some of the world’s most innovative companies. He has successfully turned those profiles into roadmaps that help clients create their own revolutionary strategies for growth.

Named one of the “Top 30 Best Minds on Leadership” by Leadership Excellence Magazine, Dr. Freiberg is among the most influential voices on the speaking circuit today. He helps business leaders better understand the impact of their choices, attitudes and behaviors on employee engagement, corporate culture, innovation, customer devotion and organizational performance. He has challenged corporate leaders all over the world to question the unquestionable, jettison the “incumbent” mentality, look beyond customer imagination for the next big thing and build companies that are hungry for change.

 

 

 

 

Kevin Freiberg headshot
Past Hosts Include:
  • KOA Campgrounds
  • Wayne Automatic Fire Sprinklers
  • Humana
  • National Parking Association
  • Conoco Phillips
  • Infosys
  • Association of KFC Franchisees
  • Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
  • KaiserPermanente
  • KPMG
Rave Reviews About Kevin Freiberg as a Speaker
Simply put, your presentation blew everybody away! As you know, our goal was to kick off our initial CFO Symposium series with a high impact, energetic speaker who would leave the audience wanting more. You fit that to a tee! I appreciate the time you took to learn about your audience prior to your arrival and how you subsequently personalized your presentation to our audience.

Talks & Conversations with Kevin Freiberg
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Innovate or Perish

This presentation has received accolades from business leaders in companies all over the world—primarily because Kevin demystifies innovation and shows you how innovators THINK and what they DO. Keynote Takeaways: Create a culture where people aren’t afraid to question the unquestionable. Build un ...

This presentation has received accolades from business leaders in companies all over the world—primarily because Kevin demystifies innovation and shows you how innovators THINK and what they DO.

Keynote Takeaways:

  • Create a culture where people aren’t afraid to question the unquestionable.
  • Build unlikely partnerships that lead to ingenuity.  
  • Think like an OUTSIDER to load your pipeline with great ideas.
  • Get comfortable being UN-comfortable.
  • Encourage people to think BIG and act BOLD by rewarding intelligent failure.

Be Hungry 4 Change!

This presentation shows you what happens in companies that are passionate about growth. If you want to create a culture where people move with a sense of urgency and say “yes” to new ideas, new relationships, new business models, new products and new markets, this presentation is your kick-starter.  ...

This presentation shows you what happens in companies that are passionate about growth. If you want to create a culture where people move with a sense of urgency and say “yes” to new ideas, new relationships, new business models, new products and new markets, this presentation is your kick-starter. 

Keynote Takeaways:

  • Stand out in a sea of sameness.
  • Say NO to the “incumbent’s mentality” that leads to failure.
  • Challenge teams to use limitations as springboards to creativity.
  • Lead change efforts that are opportunity-led, not crisis-driven.
  • Leverage connectivity to get smarter, better, faster.

When the Business Becomes a CAUSE what Follows is a MOVEMENT

Now more than ever, consumers expect meaningful social impact. In the future, if you can’t demonstrate that you are legitimately doing something to make the world better, you won’t be in business.   Define your business as a cause and watch your people reach higher, move faster and own more—and, mak ...

Now more than ever, consumers expect meaningful social impact. In the future, if you can’t demonstrate that you are legitimately doing something to make the world better, you won’t be in business.  

Define your business as a cause and watch your people reach higher, move faster and own more—and, make brand fanatics of your customers. 

Keynote Takeaways:

  • Every employee wants to belong, to be part of something bigger.
  • The ONE THING that unlocks the door to motivation and engagement.
  • Inspire employees to come to work fully awake, fully engaged, and firing on all cylinders.
  • Give employees a chance to solve a problem that really matters, to change the world.
  • Show how your products and services have social value and positive impact.
  • Invite Customers to buy BETTER VERSIONS of themselves.

Gutsy Leadership

Kevin will unpack the character strengths of gutsy leaders and shows you how these strengths play out in some of the world’s most admired companies. Keynote Takeaways: • Move the organization in bold, new directions to be extraordinary.• Choose service over self-interest: If you didn’t have a title ...

Kevin will unpack the character strengths of gutsy leaders and shows you how these strengths play out in some of the world’s most admired companies.

Keynote Takeaways:
• Move the organization in bold, new directions to be extraordinary.
• Choose service over self-interest: If you didn’t have a title would anyone follow you?
• Mine the story behind the story to discover what truly motivates people.
• Compete on relationship, not product and price.
• Create breakthroughs that challenge the status quo by giving people a voice.

Bochy Ball! The Chemistry of Winning and Losing in Baseball, Business, and Life

Business leaders can draw from the insights and apply the wisdom that turned the failing San Francisco Giant's franchise into a $2B force, with three World Championship titles in five years. You do NOT have to be a baseball fan or sports addict to learn from Bochy Ball. You do have to be a person wh ...

Business leaders can draw from the insights and apply the wisdom that turned the failing San Francisco Giant's franchise into a $2B force, with three World Championship titles in five years.

You do NOT have to be a baseball fan or sports addict to learn from Bochy Ball. You do have to be a person who wants to borrow from what great leadership looks like in the best and worst of times! How does that translate to today's business leaders?

The Giant's success is based upon clubhouse culture, team chemistry, and a championship mindset, all things every business can gain from. Top CEO's understand that an intentional approach to company culture and a willingness to nurture a "champion's mindset" in each of their employees is vital to their organization's success.

            Keynote Takeaways:

  • Why team chemistry is hard to emulate and compete with.
  • Culture counts—recruit people to an environment, not a business.
  • Finding great talent, developing great talent, getting talent to gel.
  • Leadership characteristics of a three-time world champion coach.
  • Getting your players to own it.
  • Managerial courage: Great coaches aren’t afraid to have the tough, uncomfortable conversations.

 

You will get a highly customized keynote that wraps countless lessons from Bochy Ball around your team's performance goals and your meeting objectives.

Lead & Perform Like Champions!

Kevin takes a deep dive into your business and the unique challenges you and your teams face. Then, she will wrap the key lessons & insights from Bochy Ball and her other bestselling titles around your meeting objectives to help people perform at higher levels. Whether you want to:  Reinforce a ...

Kevin takes a deep dive into your business and the unique challenges you and your teams face. Then, she will wrap the key lessons & insights from Bochy Ball and her other bestselling titles around your meeting objectives to help people perform at higher levels. Whether you want to: 

  • Reinforce a Major Initiative... 
  • Stretch People’s Thinking... 
  • Build More Team Chemistry... 
  • Establish a Business Case for Change...
  • Coach People to Perform at their Very Best... Or
  • Inspire a Higher Level of Leadership. 

Her new presentation is filled with benchmark examples anyone can learn and borrow from.

Leadership is a Privilege

If we got rid of your title would people still follow you? Innovation, the will to change and owning the success of a business are the result of leadership. Sadly, the average workplace is well…average. And, you don’t get much of a return on mediocrity. Leadership is a choice, not a position. And ...

If we got rid of your title would people still follow you?

Innovation, the will to change and owning the success of a business are the result of leadership. Sadly, the average workplace is well…average. And, you don’t get much of a return on mediocrity.

Leadership is a choice, not a position. And leadership has the power to turn average into exceptional. This presentation is about the kind of leadership that chooses service over self-interest and sees people’s talents as gifts to mine vs. assets to be managed. Your leaders will be challenged to see themselves as stewards of people’s potential. Your audience will be given countless suggestions for inspiring people to show up to work every day fully awake, fully engaged and firing on all cylinders.

It’s about finding the passion and GUTS to move the organization in bold, new directions, to step out on to the lunatic fringe where new ideas are given birth and new breakthroughs are found, and the GUTS to blow up the old rules and create new ones.

We unpack the character strengths of gutsy leaders and shows you how these strengths play out in some of the world’s most admired companies.

This presentation equips your leaders with multiple ideas for making your company a BEST PLACE, where the BEST PEOPLE, can do their BEST WORK to make the WORLD BETTER 

The ROI of Culture

Right now, your business has a culture. The question is: Is it intentionally–designed with conscious effort‑-or is it accidental? Whether it’s purposeful or accidental, your culture is influencing your organization’s success right now. What you collectively value, how you do things when no one is l ...

Right now, your business has a culture. The question is: Is it intentionally–designed with conscious effort‑-or is it accidental?

Whether it’s purposeful or accidental, your culture is influencing your organization’s success right now. What you collectively value, how you do things when no one is looking, and your commonly held rites, rituals, beliefs and expectations define your culture.

Culture touches everything and affects everything—including the inspiration, ingenuity, innovation and accountability people bring to the game. How your employees interact with one another, the passion they have in doing their jobs and the way they treat customers are determined by culture.

What do the most admired companies in the world have in common? What do the most successful CEOs say is their major differentiator? Culture by design. A world-class culture is a powerful competitive advantage because it is extremely difficult to replicate.

The right culture is a magnet for extraordinary talent. The right talent turns customers into brand fanatics with products and experiences they can’t live without.  Culture makes capital dance.

This presentation is about how leaders THINK and what they DO to create, protect and promote a culture that inspires people to bring their best selves to work and make the business truly stand out.

Culture is not Soft, culture is Hard! Culture is a part of your bottom line and it takes fearless leaders to drive results through culture. A purposeful, strategic culture will drive AMAZING RESULTS from the inside-out!

This presentation offers countless examples of fearless leadership, inspired cultures and the bottom line benefits.

Innovation

  WHAT IF everyone in your organization had the courage to bring ideas to life? What if they refused to be held hostage by history and demonstrated an active bias against the status quo, a bias for action? What if a critical mass of people in your business had an unflinching desire to risk more, fa ...

 

WHAT IF everyone in your organization had the courage to bring ideas to life?

What if they refused to be held hostage by history and demonstrated an active bias against the status quo, a bias for action? What if a critical mass of people in your business had an unflinching desire to risk more, fail faster and transform new ideas into powerful, elegant solutions?

Move innovation from a tired cliché to a powerful competitive advantage by getting everyone in your organization to adopt three critical roles: NOTICE, LEAD and DISRUPT.

Innovators NOTICE because they constantly look—for ways to run the business better, differentiate the business more and grow the business faster. Imagine what can happen in your business if everyone started noticing opportunities for process, product, service, business model and brand innovation.

While others walk past problems that have become “White Noise” or simply stand on the sidelines waiting for direction, innovators LEAD by speaking up and stepping into the breach. They don’t wait for permission or make excuses; they make things happen. Imagine the speed with which your business could get out front if people, at all levels, seized the opportunity to lead.

Innovators aren’t afraid to DISRUPT. They have the GUTS to move the organization in bold, new directions, to step out on to the lunatic fringe where new ideas are given birth and new breakthroughs for growth are found.

Enable all people to Notice, Lead and Innovate

Future Trends

What do companies like Nike, Method, Beringer Wine, lululemon, Volvo and Tom’s Shoes, just to name a few know that you don’t know? How do they develop products, services, marketing strategies and brand appeal that reach WOMEN? Why do women prefer some hotels over others? What do some websites do to ...

What do companies like Nike, Method, Beringer Wine, lululemon, Volvo and Tom’s Shoes, just to name a few know that you don’t know?

How do they develop products, services, marketing strategies and brand appeal that reach WOMEN?

Why do women prefer some hotels over others? What do some websites do to attract women that others don’t? Find out how to get the attention of women—a wealthy and purchase powerful demographic that is under-represented, misunderstood and often ignored.

Does your workforce reflect the demographics of the customers you serve? Are your leaders equipped to inspire multiple generations of workers? Are you relevant to a customer that is becoming more diverse?

With the research and insight of an investigative journalist, the storytelling skills of an Oscar-winning director and the experience of a 20-year entrepreneur, Jackie answers these questions and more with insightful and useful examples from companies that get it and some who don’t.

Your audience will get a front-row seat to how progressive companies all over the globe are cashing in on a market opportunity that is bigger than India and China combined—the $20 trillion SheEconomy.

With more wealth, purchasing power, independence and influence than ever, women have become a major social, cultural and economic force. If you hire her, work with her, market to her or simply want to better understand her, this presentation is more than a future trend it is loaded with strategies worth knowing and using.

In this presentation, you will learn what it takes to… Lead to get her (Lead Together) and earn her favor!

Delight Your Customers!

Are you worthy of the loyalty you desire? A brand is a promise of a pending experience. It says to your employees: Come to work here and this is the kind of culture you will experience, these are the kind of leaders you will rub shoulders with and this is the infrastructure, systems and training su ...

Are you worthy of the loyalty you desire?

A brand is a promise of a pending experience. It says to your employees: Come to work here and this is the kind of culture you will experience, these are the kind of leaders you will rub shoulders with and this is the infrastructure, systems and training support we will give you to succeed.

It says to your guests: Do business with us and these are the kind of competent, impassioned people who will serve you, this is the kind of experience you will have with our products and here’s how our solutions will help you achieve your dreams.

If you deliver on this promise your brand equity goes up; if you don’t it doesn’t.

Powerful brands are created from the inside-out by people who see their work as a cause and live out loud, the values driving the cause.

People; not products and services are the great differentiator because people deliver the brand experience–leaders to employees and employees to customers and guests.

What makes your brand stand out? It’s all about the EXPERIENCE. Borrowing from one of our clients, Vail Resorts, creating the ultimate guest experience starts with employees who…

OWN IT. PERSONALIZE IT. ELEVATE IT.

People Engaged…. Want the WHY!

What if our organizations were as human as the human beings in them? What if we created a culture that deserves the extraordinary gifts and talents our employees bring to the game? What if we could leapfrog engagement for the kind of exhilaration and exuberance that designs world-class products and ...

What if our organizations were as human as the human beings in them?

What if we created a culture that deserves the extraordinary gifts and talents our employees bring to the game? What if we could leapfrog engagement for the kind of exhilaration and exuberance that designs world-class products and creates remarkable customer experiences?

The engagement studies show that in almost every business around the world we have too many…

Dead People Working.

You cannot compete in the world today without innovation and you can’t innovate without a steady flow of fresh ideas from people who are turned on and fired up about what they do. If only one in eight people are fully engaged in and enthusiastic about their jobs, our businesses are screwed.

The fact is, people won’t engage if their work isn’t engaging. People won’t change if there is nothing worth changing for. People won’t levy their voice if no one is listening.

You certainly can’t legislate passion, imagination and initiative; but you can inspire it.

This presentation gives leaders the tools to inspire people at all levels to WANT to make a difference. You will gain insights on what it takes to move beyond WHAT (the job) and HOW (the skills needed to drive results). These days what matters most in driving engagement is the WHY — the mission, purpose and impact of what you do and how you do it. It’s never been more timely than now to reminder your leaders of the three primary questions driving engagement:

Does my manager care? Are my ideas valued? And, is my contribution making a difference?

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Books by Kevin Freiberg
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Biography

Dr. Kevin Freiberg, Co-Author of 8 Award-Winning Books

Concrete Examples • Entertaining Stories • Incredible Energy. These are a few reasons why clients in every part of the world invite Kevin Freiberg to be their featured speaker. Dr. Freiberg is on a short list of global thought leaders that Fortune 1000 CEOs turn to for the kind of disruptive thinking that drives growth and gets people excited about the future.

Regardless of how many speakers you’ve hired, you’ll be hard pressed to find a speaker who does as much customizing as Dr. Kevin Freiberg. If you want a keynote that truly speaks the language of your business and addresses the nuances of your industry, Kevin is the speaker to book. Over 2000 companies in 60 industries across the globe have given Kevin rave reviews. His insights have helped ambitious leaders accelerate innovation, and STAND OUT in a sea of sameness by building companies that are hungry for change.

Author…
His books include: the international bestseller, NUTS! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, its sequel GUTS!, BOOM! (7-timeless choices for inspiring leadership and accountability), NANOVATION (a how-to on innovation), DO SOMETHING NOW and Be a PERSON OF IMPACT, (two quick reads that will change your organization and your life), CAUSE! A Business Strategy for Standing Out In A Sea of Sameness, and most recently, BOCHY BALL!, a book about building team chemistry with Bruce Bochy, manager of the 3-time World Champion San Francisco Giants.

Kevin‘s clients span a wide range of industries and include:

  • Infosys India • Simplot • KPMG • Humana • Kuwait Gulf Link • Kaiser Permanente • ConocoPhillips • QVC •FedEx • Rackspace • Heidelberg • National Business Aviation Association • National Fire Sprinkler Association • Vail Resorts • AARP • MGM Resorts • Microsoft • University of San Diego • CUNA • L’Oréal • Credit Union Association • Kraft • Bank of America • Honeywell • National Life Group • Premier Financial Alliance • American Express • Unisys • AT&T • Beef USA • Sony • Tire Pros • Powder River Energy Corporation • Elanco • Eli Lilly • Tata Motors, India • Autobacs Japan • Maruti Suzuki India • Cubic Corporation • Bayer Crop Science • Wilbur-Ellis • AGCO • Moss Adams • Wayne Automatic Fire Sprinklers • KOA Campgrounds • Tandus Flooring • Mohawk Carpets • Satyam India • Wells Fargo • ConAga Foods • Remax • Intel

Other Credentials:

Named one of the "Top 30 Best Minds on Leadership" by Leadership Excellence Magazine, Dr. Freiberg has appeared on CNBC, CBS Sunday Morning and the CBS Morning News for his views on the critical links between leadership, corporate culture, change, and innovation. Dr. Freiberg is also a Leadership Contributor for Forbes.com.

He has also appeared on the television series Lessons in Excellence for CNBC India. His articles and interviews have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Washington Post, Investor's Business Daily, India's Economic Times, India's Business Standard, India's Financial Times and Capital Business & Finance Magazine of Dubai.

Something Personal...

My interests include sprinting to keep up with my work-out-aholic wife, doing anything adventurous with our three incredible children, compelling conversations with friends over good wine, and a periodic mental lapse into skydiving.

I grew up as a competitive snow skier and water skier. I’ve never won a World Cup, but in both sports I’ve skied with the best in the world. These gifted athletes taught me how to step through fear and adapt to ever-changing competitors, conditions, technologies and geographies. I have learned that if you take enough risks, eventually you will crash. But you only grow by getting out of the comfort zone. It’s also how you strengthen resilience and develop the ability to bounce back. Most of all, I learned that success is never final. I’m still chasing the best in the world, still learning and still getting better.