Profile

Amer Iqbal is an innovation consultant and keynote speaker who has guided dozens of Fortune 500 companies to build the business of tomorrow. He is the author of the upcoming book The 5 Ways to Innovate and hosts the Riding the Wave of Innovation podcast.

He helps organisations think, act and behave more like a startup in order to reimagine their future in a digital economy.

Amer has spent the last 20 years leading innovation at some of the world’s top companies including Meta (Facebook) and Deloitte Digital.

He has been interviewed as an expert on CNBC, he has been featured on the Nasdaq billboard in Times Square and he was a finalist for 2011 Young Executive of the Year. His writing has been published in Fast Company and the Financial Times.

Amer has presented to over 20,000 people on some of the world’s largest conference stages.

Expertise

Talking Points

5 Ways to Innovate

The problem with innovation and how corporates are dealing with it.

Throw a rock and you’re likely to hit an innovation lab. Chances are your company has a team of people walking around in jeans and sneakers, a room filled with VR headsets and IoT tech, or a mysterious incubator for disruptive ideas somewhere in the business.

Every organisation is investing in innovation, but the ugly truth is that very few know where they should be placing their bets. From our experience with hundreds of companies across many geographies, we have observed five typical ways that corporates approach innovation – the problem is choosing which one is right for you.

The 5 Ways to Innovate is a simple framework that helps organisations learn from the world’s best innovators in order to build for the business of tomorrow.

Adopting AI

An immersive deep dive into the world of AI and back again.

With all of the hype surrounding Generative AI, we’ve seen countless organisations dropping their strategic objectives to jump on the AI bandwagon.

But remember just last year it was Metaverse. And before that it was NFT, Crypto and Cloud.

There is always a shiny new thing to chase, but few leaders figure out how to get on top of the trend before it’s too late - and then spend the next decade playing catch up.

Adopting AI is an immersive session designed to take leaders on a journey into the depths of what it looks like to operate at the cutting edge of AI technology, and then bring them back again to the practicalities of putting AI to use. The result is a learning experience that equips leaders with the mindset and practical tools they need to get the most out of AI and get on top of the trend today.

Mastering the art of change from within

Unlocking new capabilities from your internal teams.

What do Balinese coffee and Japanese martial arts have in common?

The pace of change has become exponential. According to Satya Nadella, we saw 2 years of digital transformation in 2 months. Something strange is brewing. Unprecedented times certainly call for unprecedented measures, but is there some common wisdom available to help the business world wake up and smell the coffee?

The innovator’s dilemma showed us that success can make us resistant to change, even when we know it’s in our best interests. This session will reveal some of the secrets used by the most innovative companies in the world in order to reinvent themselves.

Participants will walk away with a simple framework that will help them become black belts in embracing change, co-creating the future and building the business of tomorrow.

Let’s Get Digital

How to get your corporate to think, act and behave more like a startup

Digital transformation is a lot like buying a Ferrari.

Without investing in people, no one knows how to drive it. Without investing in process, there is no manual to service and maintain it. Without investing in data, there is no fuel to make it move.

Without these things, the Ferrari stays parked in the driveway. It looks good, but goes nowhere.

And when everyone is following industry best practice, all of your neighbours have the same Ferrari parked in their driveways too.

Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on digital transformation each year, and yet these investments are still focused on outdated technology procurement principles. We’ve worked for some of the largest digital organisations on the planet and are now able to put their principles in the hands of traditional incumbents in order to outpace their more nimble digital disruptors.

Unlocking the Power of Partnerships

Unlocking the power of partnerships to ride the wave of change

ESG, Web3, NFT, ChatGPT. It’s official, the business world has entered the era of acronym poetry. It’s an era defined by constant change, which begs the question: how can leadership teams get on the front foot and stay ahead of the curve?

One of the most underrated approaches in building the business of tomorrow is unlocking the power of the partnerships ecosystem. After all, why spend years building a suite of capabilities that will soon be outdated when you can borrow those same capabilities from expert partners who are there to support you today?

In this interactive session Amer Iqbal will share stories from his work as an innovation coach to Fortune 500 companies, his time leading transformation efforts at Meta, and his lifelong obsession with NBA basketball. Along the way he will uncover some practical strategies that leaders can implement to make sense of exponential change and how to remain proactive while everyone else plays catch up.

From “Better Websites” to True CX

How to actually put the customer at the heart of your business

What does Customer Experience mean to you? In a corporate world grappling to come to terms with jargon and concepts from the alien field of design, the term CX has come to cover everything from focus groups to website design.

The reality is most organisations are currently investing in some form of customer centricity initiative, and the level of investment has been constantly increasing over the past five years. However, very few leaders are willing to rate their organisation as having achieved a sufficient level of customer centricity.

In order to turn the tide of increasing wasted investment and executive burnout, we explore some practical structural and operational changes that can be made in most organisations to drastically improve the effectiveness of their CX investments and truly put the customer at the heart of their business.

Building a Winning Innovation Team

How to build organisations that change the game

Steve Jobs was the ultimate purist – but whether it was members of Jony Ive’s design team or members of the board, would Apple have been as successful without the pragmatists who balanced him? On the other hand, pragmatism and consensus alone rarely changes the game; as the saying goes, if you search every park in every city in the world, you’ll find no statues of committees.

So when it comes to designing organisations, what is the right balance of purism vs. pragmatism?

Like an elastic band, only when we have two equally opposing forces do we stretch the possibilities. Only when we create tension in the right balance do we generate energy that can be harnessed into corporate innovation. Digital disruptors have created disproportionate impact across numerous industries by finding this balance. What can large corporates learn from the startup world and how can leaders organise their teams for success in a digital economy?

Building a Winning Innovation Business Case

How to make smart investments when the future is unknown

“If it’s so innovative, why aren’t all of our competitors doing it?”

Business schools traditionally teach leaders to de-risk every decision before making a move. This system worked when a game-changing technology came along every 100 years. But in an era where blockchain, Web3, Metaverse and Generative AI have all exploded in the space of just a few years, the leaders of today need a new toolkit.

How can you make intelligent innovation decisions when the next disruption is always waiting just around the corner?

The good news is tech companies, VCs and startups have been navigating this landscape for most of their lives. We have decoded what makes the best of them work in order to help corporate leaders make smarter investment decisions to stay ahead of the curve and not be left behind by their competition.

Step into the Metaverse

A guide for businesses to get real about virtual reality

AR / VR technology isn’t a new thing - Morton Heilig invented the first immersive tech way back in 1962.

So why has the world suddenly gone Metaverse mad? When Facebook rebranded to Meta and announced their $10b / year bet, the Metaverse industry was born and it became a feeding frenzy.

But all the talk of NFT’s, Web3’s and Crypto keys hasn’t helped businesses make sense of what they should actually be investing in.

Amer Iqbal developed Meta’s enterprise readiness model for the Metaverse and through the process he uncovered a series of big myths that are pervading the industry. By clearing the clutter and focusing on a readiness model, this topic helps corporates make sense of what their metaverse strategy should be and develop a pragmatic roadmap in order to move in the right direction.

Lessons From Second Place

Life lessons from a serial entrepreneur who first needed to come second to figure out how to win

I started my first business at age 8, developing computer games and selling them to my classmates. My first pay cheque was advertising revenue I earned from a Metallica fan site I ran while in University. After graduating, my first real job was to rent a house with six of my best friends and become the founder of a tech startup.

I guess you could say I was born to be an entrepreneur.

Fast forward a decade or two and I now travel the globe as a keynote speaker and executive coach to Fortune 500 companies.I’ve built successful businesses at some of the world’s biggest companies including Deloitte and Meta.

But there’s a part of the story that’s usually left out: In 2011 I had been nominated for Young Entrepreneur of the Year and everyone assumed I would win. When I came in second place, I was completely crushed. In the end, it turned out that learning to fail was the one thing I didn’t know I needed in order to win.

This session is a revealing, vulnerable and hilarious talk from Amer Iqbal, former Head of Digital Transformation at Meta and current CEO of 5 Ways to Innovate. Participants will walk away entertained and educated on what it takes to be one of the world’s leading entrepreneurs.

The Disruption

An unforgettable immersive role playing experience that will open your leadership team up to new possibilities.

We’ve all been part of at least one strategy offsite that looks like this: people come in with preconceived ideas, battling to maintain organisational silos in between checking their emails and focusing all their energy only on what matters this quarter. There’s nothing strategic about it.

The Disruption is set to change the game. Designed as a half day session for leadership teams, it combines industry leading learning design with cutting edge technology. Participants are thrown into a simulation that requires teamwork and problem solving in an immersive role playing environment that draws them into an out-of-this world experience. They will emerge with a new mindset, ready to tackle the task of big picture strategic thinking with a new perspective.

The session has been designed by a Facebooker and a Googler, both ex-big four consultants who have run numerous game changing leadership development programs for Fortune 500 companies.

Topics

Business

Innovation

Media

Video

Amer Iqbal | Keynote Speaker Reel

Amer Iqbal is an innovation consultant who has guided dozens of Fortune 500 companies to build the business of tomorrow. He is the author of the upcoming book The 5 Ways to Innovate and hosts the Riding the Wave of Innovation podcast. He helps organisations think, act and behave more like a startup in order to reimagine their future in a digital economy. Amer has spent the last 20 years leading innovation at some of the world’s top companies including Meta (Facebook) and Deloitte Digital. He has been interviewed as an expert on CNBC, his face has appeared on the Nasdaq billboard in Times Square and he was a finalist for 2011 Young Executive of the Year. His writing has been published in Australian Financial Review, Economic Times and WARC. As a keynote speaker, Amer has presented to over 20,000 people on some of the world’s largest conference stages.

Amer Iqbal | GBTA 2024 Full Keynote

Amer Iqbal delivers the closing keynote at the Global Business Travel Association 2024 annual conference. Filmed in Singapore, May 15th 2024

Amer Iqbal | Global Business Travel Association 2024 Annual Conference | Saxton Speakers

Amer Iqbal delivers the closing keynote at the Global Business Travel Association 2024 annual conference.

Amer Iqbal | Innovation Consultant & Former Head of Digital Transformation at Meta | Saxton Speakers

Feedback

We were honoured to have Amer Iqbal as our keynote speaker. He shared an amazing framework on the 5 Ways to Innovate to help organisations learn from the world's best innovators. His enthusi ... keep readingasm was infectious and the audience loved the way he delivered the entire session. Economic Times

Amer, spoke at an industry thought leadership event we hosted at Meta. He was excellent! He has a diverse and eclectic background that he leans on to generate an original point of view. His delivery has a brilliant mix of thoughtful consultant and entrepreneurial flair.