Companies
hologram manufacturers)
Nick is an award-winning scientist and the founder of Switch On Worldwide. His ideas, tools and original research are designed to take the pain out of business transformation, blast through the barriers that block innovation, and eradicate the dysfunction of teams so that every organisation can forge the future.
Originally an expert on the ‘outer game’ of business change - leading innovation, customer-driven strategy, branding and marketing for companies like Xbox, Nike, PlayStation, Disney and Microsoft to name a few - Nick realised the hard way that the ‘inner game’ - purpose, leadership, mindset and culture - is where the secret to long-term success resides. Companies that don't get this end up failing the future rather than creating it. Because both global risks and more creative and agile competitors disrupt them eventually, no matter what.
A former medic, Nick uses the latest biology to show that every person is born for breakthrough, but that old thinking and old habits get in the way of the continuous transformations they need to stay relevant in a VUCANS world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous, Networked and Stressed).
Nick has spent 25 years cracking the code on breakthrough change and how to use science, wisdom and entrepreneurial tools to hack through hearts, minds and culture to wrestle breakthroughs from the jaws of chaos.
A polymath, he has forged a rigorous and cohesive pathway, philosophy and toolkit for consciously and strategically unleashing and implementing transformational change called the Switch On Way. It can cut through any treacle to make transformation happen, engage hearts and minds in purposeful change and seize world-changing opportunities to create exponential value before anyone else has even spotted them.
Nick is an advisor to organisations as diverse as Novartis, LEGO, Nike, No. 10 Downing Street, the State Department, Oxfam, Unilever and BBC, which all share the ambition to shape a compelling future for their stakeholders. He hosted his own TV series on BBC TV, has been featured in the Financial Times and The Economist, and taught at London Business School and Yale.
Nick obtained a Triple 1st Class degree in Medicine & Philosophy from University of Cambridge. He is the author of a number of books on creativity, leadership and change, including the international bestseller Switch On: Unleash Your Creativity with the New Science & Spirit of Breakthrough (2015) and Spiritual Atheist: A Quest to Unite Science and Wisdom into a Radical New Life Philosophy to Thrive in the Digital Age (2018), which tackles key issues facing our world; such as how to re-calibrate capitalism, solve our political crises and ensure that technology works for all.
In his keynote, Nick Jankel will explore some of the crises unfolding within our current world, from intense climate change and generational conflicts to the digital revolution, helping us make sense of the many complexities and uncertainties. Introducing a framework for understanding how the future might emerge—and for envisioning a future we would like our organisations play a leadership role in. He suggests that all crises are opportunities for someone as they open up space for much-needed innovation and business transformation. After presenting a map for how to harness a crisis for necessary, lasting, and positive change, Nick will finish by showing that, by taking charge of change as leaders, we can never let a crisis go to waste.