Watch Larry in Action
About Larry Keeley
Larry Keeley is a design and innovation strategist who has studied and analyzed companies since co-founding the innovation strategy firm Doblin in 1980. His clients have included American Express, Apple, Boeing, McDonald's and Pfizer, and Doblin is known for pioneering comprehensive systems that materially improve innovation success rates.
Keeley's framework for identifying opportunities and implementing an innovation strategy was codified in his co-authored book Ten Types of Innovation. Using a list of more than 2,000 successful innovations, including Cirque du Soleil, early IBM mainframes and the Ford Model T, the authors applied a proprietary algorithm to determine ten meaningful groupings that reveal how companies actually innovate. The analysis carries a warning for firms that equate innovation with new products: product innovation alone has the lowest return on innovation investment. Keeley widens the frame to include innovation in customer experience, business models, core and enabling processes, channels and brand.
Larry's Keynote Topics
Historically, companies have seen their goal as being to dominate – or at least capture sizable market share in – their own industries. Innovation and growth were geared toward besting similar competitors and amassing wealth and clout as a standalone player. But according to Larry Keeley, the modern digital economy makes that approach obsolete and counterproductive. As major conglomerates built on the old model face decline, innovative powerhouses like Amazon and Alphabet dominate through a new model: navigating a complex, multi-industry ecosystem. The biggest corporate stars of the past decade have been digital platforms that bring together and utilize the efforts of hundreds or thousands of other firms and millions of individuals. And future innovation will depend on companies being able to find their roles in the dynamic “coral reef” of global business. In this presentation, Keeley reveals the realities of the new normal for innovative business models and, tailoring his approach to individual industries and companies, offers tools for implementing the right strategy.
As the pace of change continues to increase, innovation is no longer optional for firms, it’s imperative. Customers demand it. Competitors will outflank you if you don’t achieve it. Talented employees won’t join your firm if you don’t deliver it. Analysts expect it. Investors reward it. And yet most people still believe in primitive myths about innovation that are simply not true. Most people equate “innovation” with “new products.” Through a decade of analysis, Larry Keeley has identified nine other types, and innovators overlook them at their peril. As it happens, product innovation alone has the lowest return on innovation investment. Keeley widens the frame to include innovation in customer experience, business models, core and enabling processes, channels, brand and more. Through these enabling innovations companies have enjoyed sustainable success, such as Wal-Mart’s real-time inventory management systems, Apple’s digital media platform and Target’s customer experience approach. Larry gives a lively account of the hype and reality of making innovation happen.
Books by Larry Keeley
Larry in the Media
The Ten Types of Innovation
How B2B Companies Can — and Must — Innovate
Design Thinking: Beyond Good Design
3 Lessons From a Chicago Innovation Guru for 2016
Innovation Conversation With Doblin's Larry Keeley
Deloitte's Doblin Releases App to Make Innovation More Accessible
Leading Innovation
The Science of Innovation
The Kodak Lie
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