Martin Reeves

Founder, BCG Henderson Institute · Co-Author, Your Strategy Needs a Strategy and Like · Three-Time TED Speaker

Martin Reeves turns the external forces leaders cannot control, from AI to geopolitics to tariffs, into competitive openings, giving leadership teams clear strategies for acting when uncertainty invites paralysis.

Business Strategy Growth Strategy Business Model Innovation Corporate Innovation AI Strategy

Piedmont, United States

Videos

Watch Martin in Action

Why Play Is Essential for Business | Martin Reeves | TED

March 2022

Bio

About Martin Reeves

With more than 35 years of experience advising global leadership teams, Martin Reeves helps leaders peek around corners, harness serendipity and turn external forces into internal opportunities. "Many leaders are deeply creative but organizationally trapped," he explains. "When speaking to such groups, pressing the right buttons for seriousness and humor will bring us to interesting places where curiosity, creativity and strategy come together."

Reeves is one of the most published authors in Harvard Business Review and a regular contributor to MIT Sloan Management Review and Fortune. His book Like is an account of the origins of the like button and how innovation really works.

Topics

Martin's Keynote Topics

Leaders increasingly recognize that the latest AI tools can streamline work like never before. But while many rightly see AI investment as essential, they often stop short of the most important question – how will those investments actually create business value? Bestselling author of “Like: The Button That Changed the World” and founder of the renowned BCG Henderson Institute, Martin Reeves explains that the real headline shouldn’t be about excitement over AI’s technological capabilities, but the competitive advantage it can deliver. In this revealing presentation, Reeves, a board member of AI fintech startup Arabesque, brings his creative analysis and sense-making expertise to the AI realm. Through individually designed, purpose-built sessions, he guides leaders who have already explored AI’s nuts and bolts to harness the strategic dimensions of effective deployment. Attendees will leave with a new lens into how AI goes from a technology conversation in the IT department to a strategy session in the C-suite.

There’s no shortage of external challenges impacting businesses today – from emerging technology to geopolitics, tariffs and more. How can leaders go from worrying about uncontrollable forces to extracting opportunity from uncertainty? In celebrated, highly customized presentations, BCG Henderson Institute founder Martin Reeves brings his down-to-earth style to the process of breaking down the competitive possibilities that lie in today’s biggest obstacles. Providing audiences with bold, creative “strategies of resilience,” he helps leaders recognize why being consumed by concern about what might happen only leads to harmful inaction. By understanding the dangers of passivity, executives unlock the ability to shape how unpredictable dynamics can become strategic advantages. Providing a timely big picture look at the current influences at play in the business world, Reeves gives attendees a dose of informative analysis, a frame to see outside variables from a strategic standpoint, and the inspiration to create actionable steps for forging headwinds into competitive opportunities.

There are steady streams of global events, such as the rise of AI, geopolitical instability and tariffs, impacting how executives must make decisions every day. How can leaders stay informed and make sense of it all while keeping up with the competition? According to Martin Reeves, bestselling author of a dozen books – including “Like: The Button That Changed the World” and “The Imagination Machine” – and founder of the renowned BCG Henderson Institute, while specialized subject-matter scrutiny has value, it’s crucial to zoom out to see the larger forces at play to determine how competitive strategy should be shaped in response. In eye-opening presentations that are highly customized to each engagement, he informs, inspires and sets the stage for action to address the various impacts today’s business atmosphere may bring. Thanks to Reeves’ plain-spoken analysis, accessible sense-making and creative frameworks, leaders leave with clear approaches to responding that will boost strategic positioning and bolster organizational resilience.

Research & Writing