Josh Linkner | SpeakerHub

Personal Details

Bio

Josh Linkner – who started his career as a jazz guitarist - personifies creativity, entrepreneurship and disruptive innovation. He has been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which sold for a combined value of over $200 million.

Josh is the author of four books, two New York Times Bestsellers: Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity, and The Road to Reinvention: How to Drive Disruption and Accelerate Transformation, as well as his latest book, Hacking Innovation. He is also the Founding Partner of Detroit Venture Partners, investing in and mentoring over 100 startups.

Josh has twice been named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and is a President Barack Obama Champion of Change award recipient. He is a regular columnist for Forbes, The Detroit Free Press, and Inc. Magazine. His work on innovation has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, CNN, and The New York Times. And yes, he still plays a mean jazz guitar. For more information, visit JoshLinkner.com.

Current position (2)

New York Times Best Selling Author

Platypus Labs

Adjunct Professor of Applied Creativity

University of Michigan

Degrees (3)

Honorary Doctor of Law

Walsh College

2012

Honorary Doctor of Business Administration

Lawrence Technological University

2011

BS, Advertising

University of Florida

1990 to 1994

Presentations

Presentations (6)

HARNESSING INNOVATION: TURNING RAW IDEAS INTO POWERFUL RESULTS

You’ll learn to:
 Use specific techniques to harness your most powerful ideas
 Apply creativity on a daily basis across all business activities and roles
 Break free from the three biggest blockers of creativity
 Apply best practices from the world’s most innovative companies
 Avoid the five biggest creativity killers
 Master the three most powerful brainstorming techniques that you’ve never even heard of
 Build a culture that celebrates fresh thinking and embraces new ideas

HACKING INNOVATION - THE NEW GROWTH MODEL FROM THE SINISTER WORLD OF HACKERS

You’ll learn to:
 Specific tools and techniques from the Five Core Mindsets and Ten Primary Tactics of Hackers
 Fresh approaches to complex problem solving
 How a hacker would approach your work if he or she had your job
 Why unorthodox moves can lead to the best business outcomes
 How to protect yourself and your company from innovation hackers of all sizes and types

THE GRAVITY-DEFYING LEADER: INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO HYPER-GROWTH LEADERSHIP

This presentation will help leaders:
 Challenge assumptions and conventional wisdom
 Build courage to foster responsible risk-taking
 Authentically express your own creativity and tap into the hidden creativity of your team members
 Develop “everyday creativity” to attack business problems of all sizes
 Deploy creativity beyond R&D to reimagine processes, drive efficiency, and improve operations
 Uncover fresh approaches for reinvention and growth

ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRE: THINK AND ACT LIKE A STARTUP (EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT)

Josh Linkner decodes the entrepreneurial DNA to help leaders of any size company in any industry or profession:
 Understand how an entrepreneur would attack their organization with the specific goal of dislodging it
 Reimagine their role through the lens of an entrepreneur
 Harness the ferocity of entrepreneurial thinking
 Embrace “startup speed” to increase velocity in your own organization
 Learn the five best approaches used by startups to create disruption
 Avoid the weaknesses that plague entrepreneurs by exposing the four biggest startup death traps

THE MUSIC OF BUSINESS: TRANSLATING IMPROVISATIONAL THINKING FROM THE JAZZ STAGE TO THE BUSINESS WORL

You will learn powerful lessons inspired by jazz musicians (a/k/a “real-time innovators”) to help you:
 Develop your own ability to improvise, no matter what job title you hold
 Establish team dynamics that foster creative thinking and risk taking
 Uncover fresh approaches to previously unchallenged assumptions
 Break free from traditional thinking and uncover vast new possibilities
 Learn 5 secret techniques used by jazz musicians to foster creativity, which can easily be adapted to your own organization

A STREETFIGHTER’S GUIDE TO REINVENTION – LESSONS FROM THE FRONT LINES OF DETROIT’S REBIRTH

The lessons in this powerful comeback story – still in progress – help you:
 Understand the 4 most common reasons organizations decay
 Connect the dots between urban renewal and business reinvention, and learn how to apply the same approaches to your own organization
 Embrace the 5 unexpected lessons of underdogs and learn to fight out of seemingly impossible situations
 Gain inside perspective from the passionate leaders who are leading Detroit’s courageous turnaround
 Uncover best practices from ‘streetfighter’ mentality – on scrappiness, determination, resilience and conquering adversity