Conference Presenters
Tom Peters
» View Tom Peters' presentation at http://www.tompeters.com
See Tom Peters at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOxxBvmpbZU
When Tom and Bob Waterman produced In Search of Excellence over 25 years ago, they effectively introduced the world of business to the notion of Excellence per se, a state of mind and daily practice not normally associated with enterprise, and an inspiring and profitable aspiration at a time when America's competitiveness was under full-blown assault. In short, then and now, the unwavering pursuit of Excellence, from the finance department to after-sales service, in the car dealership and police department as well as the bank branch and aircraft factory, provides the basis for an unmatchable competitive advantage—and acts on one and all as an ongoing spur to pathbreaking achievement. And in our global village, getting flatter by the day as it is, Excellence is a universal idea-ideal (think Olympics) that translates and transports across all borders.
In 1999, Search was honored by NPR as one of the "Top Three Business Books of the Century"—and ranked as the "greatest business book of all time" in a poll by Britain's Bloomsbury Publishing. Tom followed Search with well over a dozen additional international bestsellers. Among them: A Passion for Excellence (with Nancy Austin); Thriving on Chaos; Liberation Management (acclaimed as the "Management Book of the Decade" for the '90s); and the provocative, colorful Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age. His latest is The Little BIG Things: 163 ways to Pursue Excellence, published in 2010 by HarperStudio. Along the way, several Tom Peters biographies have been written, including: Corporate Man to Corporate Skunk: The Tom Peters Phenomenon and Tom Peters: The Bestselling Prophet of the Management Revolution (part of a four-book series of business biographies on Peters, Bill Gates, Peter Drucker, and Warren Buffet). [READ MORE]
Keith R. McFarland
Author of #1 The Wall Street Journal and New York Times Best Seller – THE BREAKTHROUGH COMPANY: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers, and BOUNCE: The Art of Turning Tough Times into Triumph
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See Keith McFarland at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=334vNLAPr9Q
As a technology CEO, business school dean, consultant and writer, Keith McFarland has provided management insight to organizations for more than twenty years. He writes a monthly online column for BusinessWeek, and is founder of McFarland Strategy Partners (www.mcfarlandstrategy.com), which provides strategic advisory services to companies such as Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, The Los Alamos National Laboratory, Vans, House of Blues, Motorola, and scores of middle market growth firms.
Prior to establishing his consultancy, he served as CEO of two technology firms—most recently Nivo International, the exclusive provider of certification services for Microsoft Office products through 2,000 testing centers in 56 countries worldwide.
McFarland previously served as chairman and as CEO of Collectech Systems, a two-time Inc. 500 company in Westlake Village, CA. He led the transformation of Collectech into the leading customer contact and accounts receivable management service provider for the telecommunications industry. As a result of his efforts, Collectech’s revenues grew from $10 million to $100 million in four years as it secured multi-year contracts with Verizon, AT&T, Direct TV and many other leading telecommunications firms. He successfully sold the Company to buy-out firm Harvest Partners and GE Capital. [READ MORE]
William Testa
Vice President and Director of Regional Programs
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
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Visit Testa's Blog at http://midwest.chicagofedblogs.org/
Bill Testa is vice president and director of regional programs in the economic research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Testa has written widely in the areas of economic growth and development, the Midwest economy and state–local public finance. He directed a comprehensive long term study and forecast of the Midwest economy, Assessing the Midwest Economy: Looking Back for the Future, and has fashioned a series of conferences on school reform.
Testa currently serves as economics editor of the Chicago Fed Letter and on the editorial board of Economic Development Quarterly. His weekly “Midwest Economy” web column, which can be found on the Federal Reserve Bank’s web site, has become a widely read and nationally quoted feature.
Testa also serves in an advisory or director’s capacity to a variety of professional journals, nonprofit organizations, advisory boards and economic development initiatives in the Midwest. He chairs the Board of Trustees of the Illinois Council on Economic Education and serves on the boards of the Global Chicago Center of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Economic Development Council of Chicago. [READ MORE]