Available to book
Transform your business and stay ahead of the game with Luke Williams, speaker, author, and globally recognized authority on disruptive innovation.
Luke Williams is a leading authority on disruptive innovation and a prominent figure in the field of business strategy. As an author and globally recognised expert, Luke offers a unique perspective on how to transform businesses and maintain a competitive edge in rapidly changing industries. His insights into innovation strategy have made him a sought-after speaker, having delivered lectures in 21 countries and addressed prestigious platforms such as the United Nations General Assembly and the World Innovation Forum. Luke's extensive background in both academia and industry underpins his expertise. He serves as a Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business and is the Founder and Executive Director of W.R. Berkley Innovation Labs. His role as a Fellow at Frog Design, a leading product strategy and design firm, further highlights his influence in the field. With over 30 U.S. patents to his name, Luke has been instrumental in designing more than 100 products across diverse sectors, including transportation, finance, healthcare, and consumer electronics. His thought leadership is frequently featured in prominent media outlets such as Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. Luke is also the author of the international bestseller, Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business, which has inspired countless professionals to embrace innovative thinking. Luke's journey is marked by a commitment to challenging conventional wisdom and fostering a culture of innovation. His work empowers organisations to anticipate and lead industry disruptions rather than merely react to them. By sharing his insights and experiences, Luke equips audiences with the tools needed to drive meaningful change and achieve sustainable success in an ever-evolving business landscape.
Topics, sessions and talks
Successful companies operating in mature industries that embrace incremental change find themselves on a path that gets narrower and narrower. Eventually, they reach the end of the path, and by then, their customers have forsaken them for a new offering that nobody saw coming. In cases where companies do take disruptive risks, it’s often because they’re backed into a corner and there’s no other choice.
As much as we might desire it, the future we face will not be predictable. We are living in a fast-changing and uncertain time and we are entering this new global order with a way of seeing and thinking better suited for a world now several centuries behind us. A world that could be explained in simpler terms, when you could expect and carefully plan for gradual shifts in the status quo.
What does it take to be a disruptive leader? Do You need to be a brilliant agitator like Steve Jobs? A Driven workaholic with a passion to change the world like Tesla’s Elon Musk? Sure, CEOs like that get a lot of press, but there’s more to success than being loud and charismatic. Truly disruptive leaders are like Master Chefs on a cooking show, always looking for ways to take existing ingredients— the same ones everyone else has access to—and combine them in unique ways.
Renowned expert in disruptive innovation, Luke Williams, shares transformative thinking strategies for businesses. With a background in marketing, product design, and innovation at NYU Stern and Frog Design, he brings valuable insights from his global experience and bestselling book, "Disrupt." Attendees can learn to lead and innovate in their industry by attending Williams' keynote on disruptive thinking.
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
Email luke.williams@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Luke's availability and fees. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and a bit about your audience.
Luke Williams structures his sessions around a reframing device, presenting familiar business scenarios — such as incremental change in mature industries — as traps, then introducing a contrasting mental model to replace them. He draws on his background in product design and patent development to ground abstract strategy concepts in tangible examples, such as the Master Chef analogy for recombining existing resources in novel ways.
Luke Williams speaks on disruptive thinking, disruptive technologies, and disruptive leadership, covering how organisations can spark transformation, prepare for emerging change, and thrive under conditions of constant uncertainty. He is a Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business and the author of the international bestseller Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business, with lectures delivered across 21 countries including at the United Nations General Assembly.
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Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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