Embedding Innovation in your Leadership DNA

Speaker: Hollis Kurman

Hollis Kurman: Growth Strategy and Innovation Advisor

One of the ironies of leadership – whether it be for companies, brands, or individual managers – is that once we get to a certain level of success, we tend to spend more time and energy protecting what we’ve achieved rather than actually leading. At best, this means that we risk losing our edge and sliding into a conservative comfort zone. At worst, we also leave a gaping hole in the market for challengers to come in and shake things up for us.

As the bar for creating truly differentiating and sustainable innovation gets higher and higher, we need to challenge and re-shape the rules, sharpen our ‘inquisitiveness’ muscle, and make fresh connections that others don’t make or don’t know how to use. Perhaps most importantly, we do need to be ‘always on’. Not in the Facebook/Twitter/Skype sense of the word – but simply to be able to recognize, capture and leverage the inspiration that is quite literally all around us, at all times. Women, especially, should be masters of this refreshing version of the blurred boundaries between ‘professional life’ and ‘personal life’ – and use it to their advantage.

Our guest speaker, Hollis Kurman, is an independent growth strategy and innovation advisor (as well as an aspiring writer of poetry and children’s stories…) and is currently:

• Advising clients (multinational leaders, challengers, not-for-profits, cultural institutions)
• Serving in a number of advisory- and innovation boards (commercial & academic)
• Member of the Dutch committee of Human Rights Watch
• Expert ‘outside advisor to the Firm’ McKinsey & Co.
• A frequent Workshop- and Co-Creation session- leader, speaker, university guest lecturer

Prior roles include Founder and Managing Director of Auberon, Growth Strategy Consultants; Founder and Managing Director Publicis Consultants (and in parallel Worldwide Account Director Unilever, and SVP Publicis Groupe); SVP Senior Account Director and Multinational Business Development, BBDO Worldwide; and Consultant/Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company in NY, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels. Hollis is originally from New York but has spent most of her adult life living in Europe.

Join us on March 29th as Hollis shares some new perspectives as well as some practical tips and tricks for honing your innovation skills and creativity.

Participants are welcome to network from 19:00 to 20:00.

The program begins at 20:00.

Pre-registration is advised.

Registration and Guest Policy: Registration is required for members (no charge) and guests (guests are welcome at a cost of 25 Euro which includes snacks and drinks). Guests are allowed to attend two EuropeanPWN-Amsterdam functions per year. Please contact Caroline van Leuven, our VP Membership.