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  1. Home
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  3. Corey Phelps
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Corey Phelps

Ph.D.
Professor|Author|Strategic Leadership Speaker
University of Oklahoma Price College of Business
Country or state 
United States (Oklahoma)
Available to 
Global
City 
Oklahoma City
Fee 
Languages 
English
Volunteer
Yes
Timezone 
America/Chicago

Personal Details

Bio

Corey Phelps is a gifted storyteller and speaker who entertains and inspires while empowering audiences with practical and actionable insights that stick. He is an influential and award-winning business school professor and executive educator, as well as a leading authority on strategic leadership and organizational transformation.

Corey has worked with thousands of leaders from hundreds of organizations in more than 30 countries. He understands the challenges of being a senior leader in a rapidly changing industry because he is one. He’s also a low-maintenance, high-performance speaker clients love to work with.

Current position (1)

Professor|Author|Strategic Leadership Speaker

University of Oklahoma Price College of Business

Degrees (1)
Ph.D. in Management
New York University Stern School of Busienss
1996 to 2002

Presentations

Presentations (3)
Cracked It! Solving Strategic Problems

Of all the skills needed to succeed in work and life, research shows that complex problem solving is at or near the top. But for most of us, solving difficult problems and selling the solutions doesn’t come naturally and we haven’t been taught how to do it well. And when we try, a host of pitfalls trip us up. How can we do it better?

In this engaging, story-filled and often humorous keynote, Corey shows how to become a better problem solver and solution seller using a rigorous, practical and proven four-step approach. Based on his widely-acclaimed book – Cracked It! How to Solve Big Problems and Sell Solutions Like Top Strategy Consultants – Corey guides you through each step in the 4S method: from how to state, structure and solve problems to how to sell the solutions. You will leave knowing how you can create value by helping your organization crack the problems that matter the most.

Innovating through Design Thinking

An organization’s ability to innovate – whether it's creating seamless and enjoyable customer journeys, radically new offerings, or breakthrough business models – is critical to long-term success. Innovation is about solving important, challenging problems in creative and value-creating ways.

In this engaging, story-filled, and humorous keynote, Corey shows you how to be a more creative and innovative problem solver using the rigorous, structured and human-centered approach of design thinking. Drawing on his widely-acclaimed book – Cracked It! – Corey brings the process and toolkit of design thinking to life by exploring how to empathize with users and clients to see a problem from their point-of-view, how to use these insights to reveal otherwise hidden opportunities for innovation, and how to transform ideas for innovative solutions into tangible prototypes for testing, refinement and implementation. You will leave with a toolkit to help your organization innovate and grow.

Creating Future-ready Organizations

Because the competitive landscapes in which organizations compete are constantly changing and undermining established competitive positions, strategic leaders must be concerned with the future viability of their organizations.

Developing future-ready organizations requires leaders to manage uncertainty caused by changing competitive environments. This requires strategic innovation – the ability to anticipate how your organization’s competitive context may change and the implications of these changes, the courage to challenge deeply-held beliefs about what has made your organization successful in the past, and the willingness to depart from these assumptions and experiment with alternative business models and approaches to competition. In this engaging and provocative talk, Corey will show you how you can improve your ability to anticipate, challenge and experiment to help your organization become future ready.

Workshops (4)
Cracked It! Solving Strategic Problems
Full day
(View workshop agenda)

Of all the skills needed to succeed in work and life, research consistently shows that complex problem solving is at or near the top. But for most of us, solving difficult problems and selling the solutions doesn’t come naturally and we haven’t been taught how to do it well. And when we try, studies show a host of pitfalls trip us up.

Innovating Through Design Thinking
Full day
(View workshop agenda)

An organization’s ability to innovate – whether it's creating seamless and enjoyable customer journeys, radically new products and services, or breakthrough business models – is critical to long-term success. Innovation is about solving important, challenging problems in creative and value-creating ways.

Strategic Thinking
Full day
(View workshop agenda)

Although strategic thinking is critical to effective leadership, research shows it’s one of the biggest competency gaps in leadership today. Effective strategic thinking requires an ambidextrous mindset – the ability to attend to divergent objectives. On the one hand, strategic thinking involves formulating and executing strategies focused on current customers and competitors while leveraging existing competencies and sources of advantage to realize current objectives. On the other hand, because an organization’s competitive environment changes, often resulting in the erosion of its competitive position, strategic thinking must be concerned with the future viability of the organization by identifying threats to future performance and emerging opportunities for new value creation.

Strategy Execution
Full day
(View workshop agenda)

Organizational strategy addresses the fundamental question of where an organization will compete and how it will compete to win in its chosen arenas of competition. An organization’s answer to these questions represents its theory of strategy. To realize its strategic objectives, an organization must put its theory of strategy into practice by effectively executing it. Research shows that most strategic initiatives fail, typically because of poor execution. In this workshop, we will address the question of how to implement strategy using organizational design. We will focus our attention on how to align your organization’s people, culture, and formal organization structure with its strategy.

Past talks (1)
Strategic Innovation
National Experts Program
Abu Dhabi, UAE
December 5, 2022
  • All (8)
  • Videos (1)
  • Photos (3)
  • Slides (1)
  • Press information (3)
Wolters Kluwer Senior Leadership Retreat
Wolters Kluwer Senior Leadership Retreat
Strategic Problem Solving Workshop
Strategic Problem Solving Workshop
Book Launch
Book Launch
Cracked It! Solving Strategic Problems and Selling the Solutions
This speaker hasn't uploaded any one sheet yet.
"Cracked It!" Co-author Corey Phelps Offers Tips and Tricks to Entrepreneurs
The Right Way to Solve Complex Business Problems
How to solve big problems: Author Corey Phelps

Books & Articles (7)

Cracked It! How to Solve Big Problems and Sell Solutions Like Top Strategy Consultants
Palgrave,
2018
Complex problem-solving: The most important leadership skill you may have never learned
The Expertise Trap: When Experts Fail At Problem Solving
Business Schools and the Problem-Solving Skills Gap
The Most Important Leadership Skill You Probably Never Learned
Should Some Employees Be Allowed to Work Remotely Even If Others Can’t?
Should Some Employees Be Allowed to Work Remotely Even If Others Can’t?

Expertise (21)

Leadership
Business
Leadership Development Business Strategy Strategy Execution Business Problem Solving Design Thinking Innovation and Entrepreneurship corporate innovation Academic Leadership Creative Problem Solving Strategic Execution Strategic Leadership Become a Strategic Leader Strategy Business Model Innovation Strategic Thinking Strategic Transformation Scenario Planning Scenario Thinking Strategic alliances

Clients

Microsoft
Royal Bank of Scotland
Juniper Networks
Societe Generale
MBDA Missile Systems
General Electric
Coutts
Comcast
The Crown Prince Court - Abu Dhabi
CNN International
Boeing
Bayer CropScience
Limagrain
Bank of America
Recommendations
Why choose me? 

I develop strategic leaders by delivering an experience that educates, engages, and empowers.

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