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Rik Vera

Rik Vera

International keynote speaker, author, a futurologist, a business philosopher and a coach. Rik Vera writes and talks about business, business models, leadership and extreme customer centricity.

Category
Virtual Keynotes & Events | Webinars | Online [Live] Coaching, Management & Leadership, Communications & IT
Type
Expert | Thought leader, Business leader | Entrepeneur
Employability
Keynote speaker
Theme
Business and life in the day after Covid-19, The Smart Ecosystem Economy, Curiosity didn’t kill the cat, Managers The Day After Tomorrow
Languages spoken
English Dutch
Travels from
België

Biography

Speaker Rik Vera is an author, futurist, business philosopher, coach and, above all, inspirational keynote speaker. Rik Vera is a renowned guru of customer-centricity, sales-marketing, and change management.
By having over 25 years of experience in sales and marketing, Rik delivers energetic presentations to inspire companies developing solid customer-centric strategies. As a great storyteller, he is capable of igniting the passion in any organisation to help them leading in the New Digital World.

RIK VERA - FROM KEYNOTE SPEAKER TO FUTURIST

Rik Vera knows exactly how you can use the metaverse, AI and data to future-proof your business. It’s not about following digital trends but about making the most of the changing context. He has shared the secrets of future-proof management on more than 1,500 stages in 62 countries. He likes to think alongside businesses to develop new opportunities for growth, and sparks fresh ideas about the future with a healthy dose of (Flemish) humour.

Rik’s keynotes are always energetic, consist of refreshing perspectives and a visually dazzling slideshow. They’re a combination of the power of humour, almost 3 decades of business experience and unique stories told through fascinating visual imagery. Rik stands for entertainment, inspiration, motivation and tons of energy wrapped in an unforgettable keynote that makes a true impact.

Employability

Keynote speaker

Speaker

BOOKING RIK VERA AS KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

Rik Vera is an author, futurist, business philosopher, coach and, above all, inspirational keynote speaker. He writes and talks about companies, business models, entrepreneurship, leadership, marketing, customer centricity, sales and (digital) innovation. He is passionate about why and how companies can stay relevant in the future. Rik has given more than 1500 keynotes and inspired audiences in more than 62 countries.

Rik Vera inspires and enthuses organisations around the world with his gripping stories, visuals and presentations that won’t just prepare you for the day after tomorrow, they’ll also give you practical insights with which you can get started today. Rik brings his unique combination of years of experience, vivid imagination, powerful storytelling, valuable insights, moving statements, entertainment, Belgian humour, hope and authenticity to the stage. There’s no-one like Rik. Rik is Rik.

A LIST OF RIK VERA'S TESTIMONIALS

"Rik Vera delivered a high energy and entertaining keynote at our senior management forum in Tallinn. He managed to unnerve the group, showing what customer centricity really is about – in a way challenging the very essence of retail banking. He successfully created urgency for our management teams to act on the future, and at the same provided the tools to do it as well as the assurance that it is doable." - Mikael Björknert, Head Of Strategic Analysis And M&A @ Swedbank

"Rik Vera held the opening keynote at Telia's annual CIO-event for our largest B2B customers in Sweden. Rik’s focus on how networks will be the enabler for taking business to the next level and the way he highlighted how customer-centricity will define companies’ future success really captivated the audience."- Petra Björkeson, Marketing Manager @ Telia Sverige

"Rik Vera’s keynote was an overall success. Both our Private and Business bankers where confronted with a future that has all ready started yesterday. The way we will have to adapt to a new customer centricity was an eye-opener for many of us and surely made us realise it’s time to act. The best way to make your point is in an entertaining way with great metaphors and lots of humour and I can assure you that’s what Rik Vera stands for." - Dirk Huysmans, Senior Private Banking Expert @ Belfius Bank

Literature

Topics

Business and life in the day after Covid-19

You had been building this amazing 5 year plan. Business was growing, your ambitions were high and then all of a sudden a gigantic meteorite called COVID-19 struck our planet and caused a major standstill of life and business. The world will never re-start in the old mode. You have loads of questions. How will the post-COVID-19 world look like? What can companies do today to survive, strive and win after the harsh winter of COVID-19?

In this keynote, Rik sets the scene and warns leadership to not just freeze a company in a temporary coma, but to act right now and at full force. There never was a better moment to make companies future proof. He shares valuable tips and tricks to prepare every company to be ready for The Day After COVID-19.

The Smart Ecosystem Economy

The business environment has been reshaped dramatically in between 2000-2020 due to technological waves that have changed people and society way faster than most companies were able to cope with.

We have entered the era of the Smart Ecosystems Economy. Smart healthcare, smart logistics, smart retail, smart agriculture, smart food, smart mobility, smart cities, smart education, smart banking, smart insurance, smart utilities,… will become our daily reality.

Big Data, AI and Robotization will lead to a data-driven world in which mass production will be replaced by mass hyper-personalisation and as all companies will be fighting for data, this will lead to a devastating blurring of old industry lines. The new competition will be one between ecosystems. Business leaders and management teams know that they need to become platform players and be part of ecosystems.

In this hands-on keynote, Rik explains the simple rules of the game and how to play it.

Curiosity didn’t kill the cat

Why did Nokia loose the smartphone battle? Why did Kodak fail? What happened to Xerox? Why did Chernobyl turn out a disaster? Change the culture is the key.

The old normal is not fully dead and the new one is not fully born. We have entered the Twilight Twenties: the in-between zone. There are no scripts for that twilight zone and those that travel it based on assumptions, will not survive.

The good old normal culture was inside-out, top-down, balanced scorecard driven, hierarchical, rigid and based on patterns and assumptions. It was killing companies in the past and it will be killing even more companies in this era of lightspeed changes times. Change it while you still can and start very simply by implementing one essential new KPI which is the perfect antidote for the old normal culture: the Net Curiosity Score (#NCS).

The scripts for the New Normal are in the making, the game will be won by those that know how to adapt to the new rules. It will be the curious ones that will re-write those rules. In this keynote, Rik explains the why, how and what of the new culture that companies need to adapt and why curiosity is the leading force to make that change.

Managers The Day After Tomorrow

The Day After Tomorrow will be here soon. Managers shouldn’t be taken by surprise. Having been a managing director in the ‘good old’ textile industry for over 25 years, Rik does understand how challenging these fast changing times are for managers and their teams and why they do ask these questions: “Will my company still be there in 2035 or are we going to be crashed by digital disruption anyway?”; “How are we still going to be relevant to people and society by then?”; “What is real and what is not, what is relevant and what is not in this vast jungle of hypes, buzzwords and new technological developments?”; “Where and how should we start?”.

The answers are simple: Yes, every company can still be around and relevant in 2035. Understanding the physics of the New Normal, is key. Once you ‘think new normal’, it is just a matter of re-composing your assets and building blocks to design the right business model, to develop the right company structure, culture and management style and the right skillset to make your company future proof.

Video