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Adam Hartung

  • Worldwide Leading Speaker on Business Growth
  • #1 Leadership Columnist on Forbes.com

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Even the best businesses can fail. Kodak, Hostess and Circuit City were all once market leaders but eventually bankruptcies. Their products became dated, customers stopped caring and soon the former market giants were irrelevant. Why? Because they refused to change.

Excelling at what you want to do doesn’t create business success – instead figure out what people want to buy. Your organization must either adapt with market trends and let go of old business strategies or disappear like Polaroid. What made your company successful five years ago most likely won’t produce the same results today and certainly won’t in five years.

But even when you’re willing to change, how do you decide what to do next?

Winning means thinking and acting outside the box. Adam Hartung’s more than 20 year track record developing and implementing strategies to take advantage of emerging trends has shown companies like Eaton, Hyatt and Integrys Energy how to unleash business growth through innovation. When new competitors and market shifting trends threaten your core business, Adam will show you how to be an industry leader by not asking customers what they want and instead giving them what they need.

 


Adam Hartung headshot
Past Hosts Include:
  • Middle Market Commercial Banking, Charter One Bank
  • Flowserve Corporation
  • Associates In Continuous Improvement (ACI)
  • Fluid Sealing Association
  • Institute of Management Consultants Chicago
Rave Reviews About Adam Hartung
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After seeing Adam speak at a very well-attended ACG meeting, I asked him if he would like to speak at one of our events on the spot. As the incoming President for the 2 year old Chicago Chapter of the Association for Strategic Planning, I wanted to bring in a high-impact speaker to give our members and prospective members a clear sense of the quality of value that we provide as an organization and to draw others to attend. Adam was thoroughly knowledgeable, entertaining, but best of all, very insightful and provocative – I had many people thank us for having him present and I believe it helps our image and growth plans.

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More rave reviews

"Adam Hartung presented a lively and thought-provoking session at the IMC Chicagoland March 13, 2009, meeting. Our members gave Adam rave reviews and commented on the timeliness and relevance of his topic. Overall, we were very pleased to have Adam on our Spring roster and look forward to having him back again."

-Institute of Management Consultants Chicago

"Adam Hartung was one of the best speakers we have had in years. His presentation definitely contributed to the success of our semi-annual membership meeting. We have received nothing but favorable comments from our attendees. Even though it had been a long morning and Adam’s presentation followed lunch – a good time for a nap or golf – no one left the room as Adam spoke. Adam’s entertaining and lively style captivated the audience, while pulling them into his material with real-life cases to which they could all relate. We offered free copies of Adam’s book to our attendees, and everyone stood in line to get their copy and speak briefly to Adam. They obviously found the presentation content valuable. Adam is very knowledgeable about his subject matter, while also being an engaging speaker. He gave our attendees thought-provoking insights to long-term success that could be applied to any market., offering them clear strategic information on how to improve growth. Adam was a pleasure to work with, and we highly recommend his presentation, especially in these tough times."

-Fluid Sealing Association

"First, let me recommend you strongly consider Adam Hartung’s presentation. It was very well received and valued by my two audiences – all 5′s out of 5. I believe that Adam’s presentation couldn’t come at a more opportune time. The challenging of some of our strongly held paradigms and “sacred cows” may end up being just the breakthrough some need. You want to get this man, Adam Hartung in front of your groups and engage with them in some fierce conversations."

-Associates In Continuous Improvement (ACI)

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Excellent job at the FSA Spring Meeting in Savannah, Georgia. Many members came up to me and indicated you were one of the best speakers we have had at any of our meetings. Your topic was very timely and helps all of us clarify the direction we are headed as a trade association. I am so pleased we were able to get you in to talk at this event."

-Flowserve Corporation
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Adam Hartung NACD Why companies miss market shifts - Get Sharable Link
Talks & Conversations with Adam Hartung
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How to identify market trends early so you can prepare for change

How to identify and become a game changer

How to grow revenue while lowering your Status Quo Risk

Single Company Workshops

Adam can focus his workshops entirely on your organization and your industry where you’ll learn to: Understand market shifts in your marketplace Identify Status Quo Risk in your organization Recognize and leverage market trends Identify game changers in your industry Scenario plan using competitors ...

Adam can focus his workshops entirely on your organization and your industry where you’ll learn to:

  • Understand market shifts in your marketplace
  • Identify Status Quo Risk in your organization
  • Recognize and leverage market trends
  • Identify game changers in your industry
  • Scenario plan using competitors and trends
  • Create a game changing plan

Multi-company Workshops

Whether you’re hosting an association or industry convention, Adam can adapt his strategy workshops to affiliate diverse businesses simultaneously. His multi-organization workshops focus on the external market shifts rather than specific attributes from each individual organization allowing a cross- ...

Whether you’re hosting an association or industry convention, Adam can adapt his strategy workshops to affiliate diverse businesses simultaneously. His multi-organization workshops focus on the external market shifts rather than specific attributes from each individual organization allowing a cross-pollination of ideas from different industries to enhance your company’s perspective. These workshops help multiple companies simultaneously understand how to:

  • Reframe the changing marketplace
  • Identify the early game changers and trends in their market
  • Understand the long-term impact of important trends
  • Develop a long-term vision of their industry and unique response to game changers

Board Level Status Quo Risk Management

Board of Directors are vital to guiding a company through a turbulent marketplace. Adam offers workshops for Boards and C-level management teams to understand their Status Quo Risk and develop a response. Identify and assess your Status Quo Risk Pressure test your plans for vulnerability to Status ...

Board of Directors are vital to guiding a company through a turbulent marketplace. Adam offers workshops for Boards and C-level management teams to understand their Status Quo Risk and develop a response.

  • Identify and assess your Status Quo Risk
  • Pressure test your plans for vulnerability to Status Quo Risk
  • Adapt the planning process to prepare for Status Quo Risk
  • Address the risk by learning and experimenting

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Speaker News

Stay informed of the latest news, leadership concepts, and economic trends from Adam Hartung.

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Books by Adam Hartung
Create Marketplace Disruption: How to Stay Ahead of the Competition

Create Marketplace Disruption: How to Stay Ahead of the Competition

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Press & Media
The 10 Telltale Signs That The Future Looks Bad For Wal-Mart - Forbes.com
The 5 Ways Ed Lampert Destroyed Sears - Forbes.com
The 4 Reasons Verizon/AOL Should Buy Yahoo - Forbes.com
How Google Stole the Show from Apple - While Microsoft Took the Gate - Forbes.com
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Biography

Adam’s remarkably consistent track record is built on applying his two proprietary frameworks for predicting business success; The Phoenix Principle and the Status Quo Risk Management Playbook. His keynote presentations and workshops make trends clear and help audiences chart a successful course to a more profitable future in our fast changing world.

Adam has been the No. 1 Leadership columnist for Forbes.com since 2009, written a quarterly column for CIO Magazine since 2010 and been a contributing editor for the International Journal of Innovation Science since its founding in 2008. His columns have boldly predicted highly unexpected declines for market leaders such as Tribune, Sears, and Research in Motion years before anyone else.

For two decades, Adam’s accurate forecasts about market shifting trends and his predictions for industry leading corporations has made him a frequent press interviewee regarding Apple, Microsoft, HP and other tech companies, as well as the automobile, media and retail industries. His insight to business growth and overcoming organizational obstacles have been featured in Inc, Adweek, Washington Times and on BBC television.

Since 2004, Adam has been CEO and Managing Partner of Spark Partners, a strategy and transformation consultancy. In 2010, Adam became the founding CEO of Soparfilm Energy, a corporation that invested early in fracking for oil and gas production. Additionally, Adam has been on the Board of Directors at several successful privately held companies, including Crosfield Electronics and Benchmark Technologies in the U.K., Biometric Access Corp. and Apex Interactive and in the U.S.  Adam provides board advisory services and is a certified Fellow in the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) where he is a regular speaker on risk management.

Adam was formerly an executive with PepsiCo and DuPont and is a Boston Consulting Group alumni. Adam received his MBA from the Harvard Business School with Distinction.  He now travels the globe giving keynotes and leading risk management workshops sharing his insights to how companies and executives can succeed.  You visit his website at adamhartung.com .

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