Cris Beswick
Innovation Strategy, Leadership & Culture Speaker
Cris Beswick is a global thought leader and strategic advisor on innovation and the bestselling author of ‘Building a Culture of Innovation’.
Originally trained as an industrial designer, Cris Beswick spent over a decade as a successful entrepreneur building an award-winning strategy & design group. He is now recognised globally as a thought leader on innovation strategy, leadership and culture.
As an ex-designer Cris’ understanding of how to communicate innovation and how an innovation-focussed culture is weaved into the very core of an organisation is inspiring. His tell it like it is style is not only infectious its real-world stuff that’s instantly useable and instantly game-changing. As such, Cris has helped some of the world’s most ambitious CEOs, visionary leaders, Fortune 500 companies and Governments solve their most complex innovation challenges.
As one of the UKs foremost thinkers and advisors on innovation, Cris Beswick also sits on think-tanks for both public and private sector organisations and has delivered masterclasses for the likes of Cranfield School of Management, The Centre for Customised Executive Development, Henley Business School and Southampton Business School. He is also a visiting Professor of Innovation at ICESI University in Colombia.
Cris is the co-founder of ‘The Future Shapers’, one of the world’s most trusted innovation thought leadership platforms which brings together a global network of innovation experts, thinkers and practitioners to provide world-class perspectives on the challenges of driving innovation in a rapidly evolving world.
Publications…
Cris Beswick is the author of the bestselling book ‘Building a Culture of Innovation’, voted one of the CMI’s top books on innovation in 2017. As well as authoring, numerous white papers Cris has also contributed to articles for The Times, Financial Times and The Sunday Telegraph to name but a few.
SPEAKING
Cris brings much needed real-world entrepreneur and CEO experience to the subject of shaping the future through innovation. In a down-to-earth and unique presentation style he focuses on the strategy, leadership and culture game-changing innovation capability requires and how, in his own words, “CEOs and senior teams need to become a little more Martin Luther King and a little more Einstein.”
How he presents…
Cris’ absolute passion is obvious as it translates into thought provoking ‘inconvenient truths’ as well as light-hearted stories of what the real journey for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs is really like. In an engaging and interactive style Cris describes what he does as having ‘keynote conversations’ whether that’s for CEOs at private dinners or audiences at global conferences.
Cris’ latest keynote…Why Strategy, Leadership & Culture Should Eat Breakfast Together
Other topics…
• Building a Culture of Innovation
• Corporate Transformation and Change
• Building Next Generation Organisations
• Innovation Leadership in a VUCA World
• Shaping the Future through Innovation
• The Strategy, Leadership & Culture Innovation Requires
• Why we need to build Innovation-led Organisations, Now!
“Cris is a 150mph thinker, a street-clever entrepreneur who gets the world of business in a way most people can only fantasise about. This guy is interesting, dynamic and gets your neurons firing. Cris is the David Blaine of innovation experts, except you won’t find him boxed in for any length of time.”
— Perry Timms Head of Talent & OD Big Lottery Fund
“The Most Practical Content and Applicable tools you Ever Need for The Implementation Of Innovation Culture in Your organisation is what you Get From Cris’ keynotes. The Most Thought-Provoking, and Inspirational Speech EVER! You made our event a HUGE Success Cris”.
— Sepher Tarverdian CEO at Hamayesh Farazan
“A truly down-to-earth yet passionate keynote from Cris Beswick at this year’s MIXPO. Innovation is on everyone’s lips but taking the focus away from just creating new products and refocusing on using it to transform how organisations operate, differentiate and grow was really inspirational. Cris’ different approach is a real insight into how to change and grow for the future.”
— Anna Bateson Director of Marketing YouTube
"Cris is an authority on how to create an innovative organisation. He is an accomplished speaker and facilitator, regularly engaging senior business audiences to tackle the essential issues within the organisational innovation space. His pragmatic and actionable approach fully prepares audiences to take bold steps. The impact of Cris’ interventions are not only immediate, they’re essential.”
— Paul Bennett Director of The Henley Partnership & Client Director of Executive Education Henley Business School
“Our conferences are all about actually learning and doing stuff. Cris is one of these few thought leaders able to bring clarity to what’s confusing and complex, so that folks not only leave with practical insights but with the confidence to actually take that first step or have that conversation once they’re back in the office. Cris does speak the language of all stakeholders involved in innovation, and as such is able to pinpoint what’s really important versus what’s not. Above all, Cris is fun to work with and loves to engage with our audience, which they appreciate a lot.”
— Hans Balmeakers Innov8rs
