Ben Casnocha

  • Award-Winning Technology Entrepreneur and Executive
  • New York Times Bestselling Author of The Alliance

Ben Casnocha is an award-winning technology entrepreneur, author, and executive in Silicon Valley. BusinessWeek named Ben “one of America’s top young entrepreneurs" and Human Resources magazine named him one of the top trendsetters in the talent industry for the year 2015. He has led inspiring conversations about the future of work, innovation, and entrepreneurial thinking with large audiences in more than a dozen countries around the world.

Ben is coauthor of the New York Times bestseller The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age, which has become one of the most sought-after management frameworks on how to recruit, manage, and retain entrepreneurial employees.

 

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Past Hosts Include:
  • Oxford Strategic Consulting
  • Society for Human Resource Management
  • Dancik International
  • Center for Leadership Excellence & Economic Development
  • University of Texas at Dallas
  • Lone Star College
  • National Retail Federation
  • National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship
  • Pfizer
  • University of Wisconsin
Rave Reviews About Ben Casnocha
Ben delivered a dynamic, gripping and content-packed presentation that connected directly with the concerns and interests of our delegates. His presentation received excellent feedback from all quarters. Ben was a pleasure to work with throughout, being highly professional, flexible and considerate. He took special care to understand the goals of the conference, our needs as organisers and the desires of the paying delegates. Ben’s attention to this important detail was clearly evident in the overall success of his talk.

More rave reviews

"Everyone who participated in Ben’s presentations in Indonesia, from business students to businesspeople, and from public health students to members of the community interested in learning about entrepreneurship, came away from the events with newfound insights on how to live a more fulfilling life."

-U.S. Consulate Surabaya, Indonesia

"Ben hit it out of the park. Our HR leaders are still raving about his session on the new employer-employee compact and how to recruit and manage entrepreneurial employees. We were very happy to host him at SHRM India!"

-Society for Human Resource Management India

"He was phenomenal. I must have had 30 people come up to me and say ‘what a refreshing speaker’. He was just phenomenal. He had four great points and he talked from the heart. We were so happy, I would definitely recommend him."

-University of Wisconsin

"On behalf of the Worldwide Innovation Team, we wanted to thank you for joining our 6th Annual Innovation Conference last week. Your experiences as an entrepreneur and innovator provided the perfect context for the afternoon portion of our agenda, and your Four Strategies really helped the audience see how they can apply innovation to their work. The feedback on your session and the overall conference has been tremendous. "

-Pfizer

"Ben’s presentation was a refreshing, practical look at the realities youth face as they pursue an entrepreneurial pathway. His presentation was both witty and thought-provoking. Our educators walked away with many ideas on how to better serve the ‘Ben’s’ in their classroom. Well done!"

-Heather Vansickle, Executive Director, National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship

"I highly recommend Ben to any organization looking for a well prepared and thought-provoking speaker to share fresh insights on how to treat their career path as a start-up company. His presentation was exactly what our audience needed to hear. Not to mention, I took down quite a few notes of my own! Ben took the time to learn about our audience’s needs and applied that to his presentation, making for a discussion of utmost relevance to our attendees. To conclude his address, he provided insightful answers to some tough questions asked in the audience Q&A period. Ben also brought a comfortable yet high-energy style to the discussing to keep us all engaged throughout the presentation."

-Eric Olson, Vice President, Education Strategies, National Retail Federation

"It is rare these days when an entire auditorium of students sit without text messaging, and listen attentively while a speaker delivers his message. When Ben Casnocha spoke at Lone Star College – Montgomery, every student listened and afterwards asked pertinent, intelligent questions fueled by one of the most powerful speeches on entrepreneurship I have had the good fortune to witness. "

-James F. Zipperer, Professor of Economics, Lone Star College

"Ben grabs and holds his audience with a rapid fire, succinct, insightful and motivational presentation. Aspiring entrepreneurs in attendance were well served by his insights into the entrepreneurial mind. "

-Robert Robb, Professor, University of Texas at Dallas

"Ben Casnocha provided a viewpoint into entrepreneurial leadership that was dead on. His keen insight into leading Generation Y workers was informational, refreshing, and inspirational. He’s a must for those who want to understand our younger workforce. "

-Justin Rueb, PhD, Executive Director, Center for Leadership Excellence & Economic Development

"Ben Casnocha is a dynamic and engaging speaker. After he spoke at our HR summit, we received a ton of great feedback on him. One of our audience members wants to hire him already! He presented multiple concepts to HR leaders on how to engage employees in today’s marketplace. Ben’s message is thought-provoking and encourages HR Professionals to challenge themselves to transform their organizations to attract and retain top performers. I highly recommend Ben as a keynote!"

-Teri Harrell, Dancik International

"I'm delighted to report that the Strategy Conference was a blast! Ben did a such a great job presenting, and to boot, signing tons of books for our attendees and staff. Recently, Ben connected with me on LinkedIn and he mentioned that many of our attendees had reached out to him as well. That's really, really cool! Thanks for making a way for us to finally bring Ben to our conference stage!"

-Society for Human Resource Management
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Talks & Conversations with Ben Casnocha
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The Alliance: How to Manage Talent in the Networked Age

The employer-employee relationship is broken. Managers face a seemingly impossible dilemma: You can’t afford to offer lifetime employment. But you can’t build a lasting, innovative business when everyone acts like a free agent. The solution: Stop thinking of employees as family or free a ...

 The employer-employee relationship is broken. Managers face a seemingly impossible dilemma: You can’t afford to offer lifetime employment. But you can’t build a lasting, innovative business when everyone acts like a free agent. The solution: Stop thinking of employees as family or free agents and start thinking of them as allies on a tour of duty.

Based on Ben’s recent New York Times bestselling book with Reid Hoffman, founder/chairman of LinkedIn, in this keynote he explains how to recruit, manage, and retain the entrepreneurial employees your business needs to succeed in the networked age. You’ll learn:

  • What all innovative companies do with their best employees.
  • Why it’s possible to rebuild trust and loyalty with your employees even though you can't guarantee lifetime employment.
  • How to manage employees who seek constant career growth by defining unique “tours of duty.”
  • Why it pays to empower your employees to build their personal brands and expand their professional networks.
  • How to develop an employee value proposition that resonates with millennials.

Through keynotes and interactive workshops, this is the management and business framework that will help your company generate Silicon Valley-style innovation, delivered by one of the field’s most engaging speakers.

The Start-Up of You: Transform Your Work and Career with Entrepreneurial Thinking

The career escalator is jammed at every level. Unemployment rates are high. Creative disruption is shaking every industry. Global competition for jobs is fierce. The employer-employee pact is over and traditional job security is a thing of the past. In a keynote based on his #1 New York Times bests ...

The career escalator is jammed at every level. Unemployment rates are high. Creative disruption is shaking every industry. Global competition for jobs is fierce. The employer-employee pact is over and traditional job security is a thing of the past.

In a keynote based on his #1 New York Times bestselling book, Ben presents a blueprint for how to thrive in this new economic landscape. The key: learn to think and act like an entrepreneur. In other words, move up that jammed escalator by running your career like it’s a start-up business: a living, breathing, growing start-up of you.You don’t need to start your own business, but you do need to adopt the mindset and learn the skill set of entrepreneurs.

Why? Start-ups - and the entrepreneurs who run them - are nimble. They invest in themselves. They build their professional networks. They take intelligent risks. They make uncertainty and volatility work to their advantage. These are the very same skills professionals need to get ahead in today’s fractured world of work.

In this keynote, you will learn the Silicon Valley strategies that can jump-start you career. This is a bold presentation on thriving in a world where every professional must be the entrepreneur of his or her own life.

Millennials at Work: Crossing the Generational Divide

Today, four generations are in the same workplace at the same time. This is unprecedented. And it introduces a host of challenges and opportunities. You can’t manage millenials the way you were managed. To bring out the best of your millennial employees, and to create a corporate culture where ...

Today, four generations are in the same workplace at the same time. This is unprecedented. And it introduces a host of challenges and opportunities. You can’t manage millenials the way you were managed. To bring out the best of your millennial employees, and to create a corporate culture where all generations can effectively work with each other, you need to rethink every aspect of how you recruit, manage, and retain employees.

Ben’s background makes him uniquely qualified to deliver this entertaining keynote: as “one of America’s top young entrepreneurs” according to BusinessWeek he speaks credibly on his own generational dynamics while also drawing upon his leading corporate experience.

LinkedIn and the Networked Age: What It Means and Where It’s Going

We live and work in the networked age--the social networking era is just getting started. Ben argues that “network literacy” is the new type of literacy that counts. He explains the hidden power of LinkedIn and other social media, but more importantly, provides a sophisticated perspectiv ...

We live and work in the networked age--the social networking era is just getting started. Ben argues that “network literacy” is the new type of literacy that counts. He explains the hidden power of LinkedIn and other social media, but more importantly, provides a sophisticated perspective on how people networks shape everything we think and do—and how to leverage those networks to solve important business and career challenges.

He’s not another generic “social media guru.” Ben spent two years at LinkedIn in the Office of the Chairman and was named one of the “25 most influential people in the world of internet and politics” by PoliticsOnline.

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Books by Ben Casnocha
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Biography

Ben Casnocha is an award-winning entrepreneur and author from Silicon Valley. He is coauthor with Linkedin founder/chairman Reid Hoffman of the New York Times bestseller The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age, which describes a new framework for managing today’s employees.

He is also co-author with Reid of the #1 New York Times bestselling book The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career. The Start-up of You, translated into a dozen languages, has become one of the most referenced guides on how to thrive professionally in the modern world.

Recently, he served as Chief of Staff in the office of the chairman at LinkedIn. He’s also a multi-time technology entrepreneur. He advises companies on talent issues as a partner at the consultancy Allied Talent.

BusinessWeek named Ben “one of America’s top young entrepreneurs.” HR Magazine named Ben one of the top trendsetters in the human resources industry. And dozens of outlets have covered his work including CNN, Charlie Rose, and The Economist.