We turned the SAC Annual Meeting format upside down and inside out and came up with something, well, innovative.
The 2019 meeting was designed to be an immersive, hands-on-experience, where participants would leave established beliefs behind and consider how to accelerate their business in 2020 by thinking and acting more innovatively.
In two days, attendees participated in a series of related discussions and activities about innovation in consulting, including:
- Innovate to Accelerate – Why Speed Matters: Alan Weiss
- What IS Profitable Innovation For A Consultant Anyway? Amanda Setili interviewed by Lisa Anderson
- Channeling Your Internal Poet For Innovative And Effective Writing: Libby Wagner
- The Circle Of Artistry: Elevating And Accelerating Your Practice: Interactive Workshop led by Steven Morris and Owen O’ Suilleabhain
- Put Me In Coach – Innovative Approaches To Building A Coaching Practice: Constance Dierickx, Joanne Irving, and Dorie Clark
- Accelerating Growth Through Multiple Revenue Streams: Dorie Clark
- Presentation of the Inaugural Advancing Consulting Awards: Lisa Anderson and Linda Popky
- How We’re Accelerating Our Practices: Award winners and Pam Harper
- If You Can Make It Here, You Can Make it Anywhere…How New York City Innovates: Jonathan Bowles interviewed by Lisa BingLisa A. Bing will interview Jonathan Bowles, Executive Director, Center for an Urban Future to highlight key emerging trends in New York City. They will discuss implications for policy makers, government and industry alike. Jonathan will share in-depth research on important shifts that are significant for quality of life, economic stability and industry growth in New York City. They say if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Come ready to explore potential opportunities the hard lessons of New York offer for helping your clients and innovating your business into the future.
- Putting it All Together—Your Immediate Action Plan: Linda Popky
About the Presenters
Lisa Anderson – SAC Executive Director
Award-winning business performance expert Lisa Anderson, the founder and president of LMA Consulting Group Inc., specializes in manufacturing strategy and end-to-end supply chain transformation that maximizes the customer experience and enables profitable, scalable, dramatic business growth. Lisa is President of the Inland Empire Chapter of APICS (national trade organization supply chain), one of the most active and innovative chapters in the United States. She has been instrumental in engaging students and has fostered the environment that has earned national recognition for the students from Harvey Mudd College and Cal Poly Pomona.
As an experienced organizational development practitioner, executive coach and skilled leadership team builder, Lisa Bing works with leaders and organizations of all kinds. The Brooklyn born entrepreneur boasts over 25 years experience and is known as an engaging speaker and pragmatic problem solver. She is an adjunct professor at New York University and spent years holding various management positions for industry giant Prudential Financial prior to Bing Consulting. Lisa has won numerous awards for business and service, has been profiled in the media, and is currently a regular panelist on TV talk show Brooklyn Savvy.
Jonathan Bowles is executive director of the Center for an Urban Future, a leading NYC-based think tank that focuses on expanding economic opportunity in New York City. During his 20 years at the Center, he has been the architect of the Center’s policy agenda and is responsible for making it one of New York’s most innovative and influential organizations. He has written extensively about a range of topics that are important to New York’s future, including spurring more middle class jobs, upgrading the city’s aging infrastructure, boosting community college graduation rates, helping more New Yorkers access tech careers, and scaling up more of the city’s small businesses.
Dorie Clark is a professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the author of Entrepreneurial You, Reinventing You and Stand Out, named the #1 Leadership Book of 2015 by Inc. magazine. A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, the New York Times described her as an “expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives.” Dorie is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, consulting and speaking for clients including Google, Microsoft, and the World Bank. She is also a producer of a multiple Grammy-award-winning jazz album. You can download her free Entrepreneurial You self-assessment workbook and learn more at dorieclark.com/entrepreneur.
Constance Dierickx, The Decision Doctor® helps boards and senior executives in crisis, with high-stakes decisions, and when strategic shifts are critical. An expert on mergers and acquisitions, she has worked with companies across the globe in dozens of industries. Her M&A clients succeed 400% more often than the average. Executive coaching clients call her “the secret weapon.” Constance is a contributor to Harvard Business Review and Forbes. She is the author of High Stakes Leadership: Leading Through Crisis with Courage, Judgment, and Fortitude and co-author of The Merger Mindset. She is board chair of the Partnership Against Domestic Violence and a member of the Advisory Board of Executive Women of Goizueta, Emory University.
Founding partner and CEO of Business Advancement Inc., Pam Harper is a strategic growth expert who enables visionary CEOs, boards, and senior executives of successful companies to get to the heart of complex strategic leadership issues to accelerate momentum for game-changing results. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book Preventing Strategic Gridlock®, and was cited as an acknowledged expert in Alexandra R. Lajoux’s 2019 book The Art of M&A 5th Edition. Pam is co-host of Growth Igniters® Radio, featuring best-selling authors and mid-market CEOs who are transforming the face of business. She founded and for over 5 years chaired the Association for Corporate Growth NJ’s Corporate Growth Conference & Awards, one of the association’s signature events. Pam is also the Founding Chair, of SAC’s Advancing Consulting Awards Committee.
Dr. Joanne Irving helps senior executives improve business outcomes and their quality of life by bringing out the best in themselves and the people around them. Joanne, a psychologist for three decades in the Washington D.C. area, has worked with influential leaders from a wide variety of organizations, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the White House. Her corporate clients have included executives from AARP, Atlantic Health Systems, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Pfizer, and Sutter Health. Because of her deep understanding of human dynamics and motivation, Joanne is able to help executives solve problems that they had previously found to be unsolvable. She teaches them how to stay centered and lead with agility. Joanne is certified on the use of Cultural Transformation Tools, Leadership Agility, and Hogan Assessments. She is a certified Action Learning consultant and coach.
President of Mth Degree, and a partner in the Studio, Steven Morris is a globally recognized brand and business evolution expert, consultant, speaker, writer and artist. He’s worked with more than 250 global brands, such as Samsung, NFL, Habitat for Humanity, New Balance, LG, Sony, and over 3,000 global business leaders, including leading consultants in technology, finance, nonprofit, education, and coaching. Steve is a regular speaker at both corporate and academic events. In the past year he’s been a guest on more than 50 podcasts and radio shows across the US and Europe, as well as a celebrity guest host on BISTalk Radio on ESPN. He is the author of two books, Brand Love and Loyalty and Humanizing the Customer Journey. His forthcoming book is The Beautiful Business: An Actionable Manifesto to Evolve Your Business, Culture and Brand.
Owen Ó Súilleabháin is a singer and composer from Ireland, who draws on his background in the arts, philosophy, mythology, and peace studies to inspire creativity in individuals and organizations. Owen works with leaders to unlock the sensibilities of listening into areas where it’s most in need. As an artist, Owen has performed in more than a dozen countries and collaborated with director Steven Spielberg, violinist Nigel Kennedy, actor Russell Crowe, and Irish traditional music legends The Chieftains. Owen has released eight albums of both ancient and contemporary song. As a leadership coach, his clients include a senior leader in Ebay, a CEO of one of the largest insurance brokers in the US, and many individuals on thresholds of great creative change.
Linda Popky – SAC Executive Director
Award-winning marketing expert Linda J. Popky, the founder and president of Leverage2Market Associates, transforms organizations through powerful marketing performance. Her clients range from small businesses and consultants to mid-sized companies and large Fortune 500 enterprises. Named one of Silicon Valley’s Top 100 Women of Influence and a member of Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Consulting® Hall of Fame, Linda J. Popky has extensive experience in marketing – in industry, agencies, and consulting. She is the former president of Women in Consulting and certified as a master mentor in the Private Roster Mentoring Program. Linda is the author of Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage With Marketing That Matters.
Amanda Setili is president of strategy consulting firm Setili & Associates. An internationally acclaimed expert on strategic agility®, she gives her clients – including Cardinal Health, Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot, UPS and Walmart—unbiased advice on how to respond quickly and intelligently to a changing marketplace. Amanda was previously an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, a chemical engineer at Kimberly-Clark, and served as an executive with two successful disruptive technology startups. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Harvard Business School and has taught at Emory’s Goizueta Business School. Amanda is the author of Fearless Growth: The New Rules to Stay Competitive, Foster Innovation, and Dominate Your Markets and The Agility Advantage, How to Identify and Act On Opportunities in a Fast-Changing World.
Libby Wagner is a poet, teacher, writer and speaker who helps organizations large and small, and leaders across the globe, bring beautiful cultures to work. Libby’s work has shaped many organizational cultures, including Diageo, Philips, Nike, KeurigDrPepper, Oak Ridge National Science Lab, and numerous others. She is one of the only poets working in organizations today, and she inspires others to access and express their leadership artistry – even when they might not normally describe themselves as creative or innovative. Along with artist-entrepreneurs Steven Morris and Owen Ó Súilleabháin, Libby founded The Studio, a change consultancy that utilizes the principles of artistry to foster innovation and build highly engaged organizations. She is a founding faculty member of the Institute of Conversational Leadership and Invitas with poet David Whyte, and she was honored as a Nellie Cashman Woman Business Owner of the Year in 2014. Each year she works one-on-one with a limited number of entrepreneurs, solo-practitioners, and small business owners to create the work and lives they love.
Million Dollar Consultant Alan Weiss, president of Summit Consulting, has been called the “rock star of consulting.” He’s published over 500 articles and 60 books on consulting, is an inductee into the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame® and the concurrent recipient of the National Speakers Association Council of Peers Award of Excellence. He has been named a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants, one of only two people in history holding both those designations. The founder of SAC, Alan has developed the premiere global community for solo consultants.
See Highlights from our past annual conferences.