Build a culture of sustainable innovation and unlock front-line ingenuity to drive results with leadership keynote speaker Josh Linkner.
Key trends and opportunities that Josh helps leaders navigate
Drawing on his experience in business (30+ years as hyper-growth CEO), science (four books and 20 years of research on innovative leadership), and art (professional jazz guitarist), Josh Linkner delivers strategies that help leaders thrive amidst volatility, change, and uncertainty.
In the age of AI, we’re being called to lead in a new way. Cultivating agility, creative problem-solving, and inventive thinking have become mission-critical, and Josh delivers the roadmap to help leaders unlock this capacity organization-wide. He distills complex leadership challenges into actionable frameworks that empower leaders to create lasting impact.
Navigating Rapid Market Disruption
The Problem: In an era when 52% of companies in the S&P 500 have disappeared since 2000, leaders grapple with nonstop upheavals—from new technologies to shifting consumer behaviors. These disruptions demand that executives respond with agility and inventive thinking, but many report feeling ill-equipped to adapt at the necessary speed.
How Josh Helps: Having founded and scaled multiple tech companies during volatile markets, Josh Linkner knows firsthand how to pivot and experiment rapidly. In his keynotes, he outlines proven frameworks for leaders to drive innovation from within their existing teams while helping leaders confidently embrace uncertainty.
Retaining and Developing Top Talent
The Problem: According to a Deloitte survey, 43% of millennials plan to leave their jobs within two years if they don’t see room for professional growth. Leaders are under intense pressure to maintain a nurturing environment that fosters creativity, engagement, and skill enhancement—crucial elements for retaining the best people in a competitive marketplace.
How Josh Helps: Josh has invested in over 100 startups, consistently prioritizing team culture and creative thinking to keep high-performing talent invested in the mission. His presentations offer playbooks for fostering a dynamic workplace, showcasing how a culture of innovation and growth directly boosts retention.
Overcoming Organizational Silos
The Problem: According to Thomson Reuters, companies with siloed departments can lose up to 20% of their potential productivity. This fragmentation impedes collaboration and slows decision-making, leaving leaders struggling to create alignment across diverse teams.
How Josh Helps: Drawing on his experience as both a proven CEO and acclaimed jazz guitarist, Josh illuminates the path to collaboration and co-creation. He shows leaders how to create alignment, cut through silo-thinking, and foster cross-functional engagement.
Bridging the Innovation-Execution Gap
The Problem: While 84% of executives say innovation is critical to growth, only 6% are satisfied with their team’s innovation performance. Leaders often discover a frustrating gulf between grand creative ideas and day-to-day execution, leading to stalled projects and lost revenue opportunities.
How Josh Helps: Josh’s experience founding, scaling, and exiting five successful ventures demonstrates the power of balancing big thinking with disciplined action. Drawing from his extensive body of published works and real-world leadership experience, his programs teach actionable steps—like setting measurable innovation goals and building accountability structures—that tighten the link between vision and results.
Driving Profitable Growth
The Problem: In an era of brutal competition, rapidly changing market dynamics, and accelerated tech disruption, striking the balance of growth and earnings has never been more difficult and elusive.
How Josh Helps: Josh helps leaders fuel growth through innovative approaches to sales, loyalty, and retention while boosting profits through creative approaches to efficiency and productivity. As traditional approaches to profitable growth falter, Josh delivers a modern leadership framework to accelerate both the top and bottom lines.
I think you’ve started a wave of ‘To Test’ lists across our organization, and for sure have inspired so many of our leaders to get going, flip the script on things, and bring innovation into a practical and realistic view, that can be outworked on the daily.”
Laura Miller
Director, Leadership Development, Thomson Reuters
Hi, I'm Josh.
Josh Linkner — a New York Times bestselling author — is a rare blend of business, art, and science.
On the business front, he’s been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which created over 10,000 jobs and sold for a combined value of over $200 million.
He’s the co-founder and Managing Partner of Muditā Venture Partners - an early-stage venture capital firm investing in groundbreaking technologies.
Over the last 30 years, he’s helped over 100 startups launch and scale, creating over $1 billion in investor returns. He’s twice been named the EY Entrepreneur of The Year and is the recipient of the United States Presidential Champion of Change Award.
A lifetime Detroiter, Josh has deep roots in the automotive world. Growing up in the business (his grandfather was a lifetime General Motors engineer), he developed an early love of manufacturing innovation and design. Over his 30+ year career, he’s worked with senior leaders at some of the largest and most advanced manufacturers, suppliers, and logistics companies to help build a culture of sustainable innovation and unlock front-line ingenuity to drive results.
While proud of his business success, his roots are in the dangerous world of jazz music. He’s been playing guitar in smoky jazz clubs for 40 years, studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and has performed over 1000 concerts around the world.
His experiences in both business and music led him to become one of the world’s foremost experts on innovation. Josh is the co-founder and Chairman of Platypus Labs, a global research, training, and consulting firm.
Today, he’s on a mission to help leaders Find A Way™ through creative problem-solving, inventive thinking, and ingenuity.
Keynote Topics
+ Outcomes
Find A WayTM
Every problem can be solved, and every opportunity can be seized. Through a proven innovative framework, you'll discover new paths to explosive growth, competitive advantage, and sustainable results.
Expand organization-wide capability for creative problem-solving and inventive thinking.
Big Little BreakthroughsTM
Instead of high-risk moonshots, the most innovative leaders cultivate a high volume of ‘micro-innovations’ and build a culture of everyday innovation.
Gain the tools to become an everyday innovator.
The Music of Business
What business leaders can learn about agility, collaboration, creativity, and performance under pressure from the mysterious world of jazz.
Inject artistry and agility into your business through an unforgettable, interactive experience.
*Please note this topic requires additional talent + gear. Accordingly, additional costs apply.
The Innovative Leader
Become an unstoppable force by unlocking your and your team's ingenuity, gaining confidence, and boosting results in times of dramatic uncertainty and disruption.
Elevate your capacity to lead and win in volatile times.
Disciplined DreamingTM
A proven system for driving breakthrough creativity. Learn how to balance raw imagination with business rigor to achieve profound and predictable results.
Boost creativity and rigor simultaneously to achieve better outcomes.
Rethink. Reboot.
Reinvent.
The business you’ll be running in five years will be dramatically different than today. Unlock the definitive playbook on reinvention, relevancy, and sustainable success.
Gain the confidence to venture into the unknown and thrive, no matter what the future brings.
Innovation in the Age of AI
A modern framework to unlock sustained profitable growth at the intersection of technology and human creativity.
Josh shows you how the path forward involves integrating human creativity with artificial intelligence to thrive amidst uncertainty, rapid change, and disruption.
For Leadership Meeting Professionals
5 Ways Josh Turns Your Event Up To "11"
Sparks a mindset & movement.
His authentic, relatable, research-backed content - with real-world case studies and a high-energy delivery - will inspire your audience to uncover and activate new opportunities every day.
Moves your team into action.
Your audience will not only be energized, motivated, and inspired, they’ll become better equipped with specific tools, frameworks, and techniques to drive meaningful results in the months and years ahead.
Handcrafted, not canned.
Josh takes the time to listen deeply before custom-building a keynote experience just for you. This ensures that every minute is on-point, relevant, and targeted to your unique challenges and opportunities.
Real and accessible.
Josh applies Find A Way™ principles in his everyday work as a leader, venture capitalist, musician, and author. Leaders inspired by his keynote often reach out to him for help finding a way in their everyday work.
Impact - 11, Drama - 0.
Coming from a place of humility and service, Josh believes that a great keynote is about the audience, not the speaker. Meeting professionals often call Josh one of the best keynote speakers to work with.