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Nilofer Merchant

Leading Business Thinker and Innovator | Bestselling Author

Nilofer Merchant
The Notion of Onlyness
Onlyness and the Black Lives Matter Movement
TEDx -How Power Powers Ideas
Why Trust Matters
How Does Success Work in Modern Times?
Nilofer Merchant
TEDx - Houston
Taking Onlyness to the Next Level
Nilofer
Nilofer Merchant
Nilofer Merchant
The Notion of Onlyness
Onlyness and the Black Lives Matter Movement
TEDx -How Power Powers Ideas
Why Trust Matters
How Does Success Work in Modern Times?
Nilofer Merchant
TEDx - Houston
Taking Onlyness to the Next Level

Even if you don’t know her name, Nilofer Merchant’s ideas have already shaped your world. Her TED Talk, “Sitting is the Smoking of Our Generation”, has been referenced 400 million times and is the reason the Apple watch has a “stand” feature. She shipped the first internet server (Apple) and the first WYSIWIG web-authoring software (GoLive) and coded the first media website (Time). During her 25 years in technology, she personally launched more than 100 products and services — many of which you use daily — netting $18 billion in revenues.

These results reflect the way Merchant thinks — always ahead, always building the shifts that lead to greater value, individually and at scale. She is ranked as one of the most influential management thinkers in the world by Thinkers50 and a top 10 HR thinker by HR magazine. Fast Company named her one of the “25 Smartest People,” and CNBC called her “visionary.”

Merchant is the author of three bestselling books that have established her as a leading thinker on value creation. In New How, she shows how to close the false gap between strategy and execution to turn nascent ideas into new realities. In Social Era Rules, she defines the critical shift from “competitive advantage” to co-creating value. And in The Power of Onlyness, she decoded exactly how to use distributed networks to enable new ideas and higher value creation.

Throughout her celebrated career in tech, Merchant was a leader at several major tech companies. She grew division performance at Autodesk by 50%, and created product and pricing strategies for Adobe that grew the company from $2 billion to $5 billion. She also waged and won a competitive battle with Microsoft, saving Symantec’s Anti-Virus $2.1 billion annual business. Today, Merchant is the co-founder of The Intangible Labs, where she’s working to define metrics for modern work.

Many seek Merchant’s advice to construct their futures, including the CEOs of IBM, Nokia, and Walmart, as well as mid-line managers at Indeed, L’Oréal, and Société Générale. She’s been invited to hundreds of prestigious leadership events including Google, Gartner, and GE, and headlined alongside Bono, Malcolm Gladwell, Simon Sinek, Amy Edmondson, and Brené Brown.

An MBA graduate of Santa Clara University with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Economics from the University of San Francisco, Merchant has taught strategy, management, and leadership at Stanford University and guest-lectured at Yale. She has also served on corporate boards for Nasdaq-traded and private companies, as well as on public governance boards. She was a twice-invited Fellow for the Prosperity Institute out of Rotman in Canada.

Speaking topics

Presentations listed below include in-person and virtual keynotes, as well as workshops, fireside chats, and other presentation formats.

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Client reviews

  • Nilofer was absolutely fantastic, as I expected! I have only received glowing reviews for the talk, including that she was the best keynote MMANC has ever had.

  • Nilofer was amazing. Her talk was not only fantastic, but she was very engaged throughout the entire day, and with many of the participants, speakers, attendees, etc. I’m looking forward to working with her again.

  • Loved her presentation at the 2011 ERE Recruiting Innovation Conference! She is simply inspiring!

  • Nilofer was instrumental in helping us reach a level of clarity and insights though her approach and methodology. She is highly recommended, whether you need her expertise directly or listening to one of her insightful talks on air sandwiches, corporate boxes and murderboarding

  • Nilofer consistently receives rave reviews. Her approach spurs great dialogue as the audience is able to immediately relate to her message with their own experiences. A sign of a good presenter is when the audience stays after the session is over to continue the dialogue amongst themselves in addition to/with the speaker. Nilofer is a great choice if you’re looking for a speaker who is inspiring and yet practical at the same time.

  • Nilofer introduces audiences to the possibility of a more participatory approach to planning than they ever might have imagined. She does this with humor and imagery that sticks in your mind. We all love her ‘super heroes and heroines’ who bring her speaking to life. Whether you are a corporate executive or an MBA candidate, you leave thinking about re-inventing the planning process.

  • Nilofer stood out in elevating the debate on how well-executed collaboration is the key to success. Nilofer’s examples and storytelling were extremely thought-provoking. If you’re looking for someone to energize your audience, I highly recommend bringing her in.

  • Nilofer did an amazing job briefing a team of senior executives on social business trends and insights. She’s incredibly bright and incredibly knowledgeable and not afraid to be provocative. Her fast wit and natural conversational style got the whole audience engaged throughout her presentation and had everyone talking long after she left. I HIGHLY recommend Nilofer.

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