Larry Keeley

In today’s new economy, leading businesses like Amazon and Airbnb function as digital platforms within a broader ecosystem rather than as standalone organizations. The innovative company of the future will depend on its ability to be connected to hundreds or thousands of other firms of various sizes, and within multiple industries. Straight-talking design and innovation expert Larry Keeley has studied and analyzed companies for nearly four decades. His most recent work has focused on advising organizations on managing this often-bewildering transition from a “lone wolf” idea of the corporation to seeing one’s business as inhabiting a “coral reef” of interactive entities.

Keeley’s framework for identifying opportunities and implementing an innovation strategy was codified in his acclaimed book, “The Ten Types of Innovation and the Discipline of Building Breakthroughs” (Wiley, April 2013), co-written with Helen Walters, Ryan Pikkel and Brian Quinn. 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—the Ten Types of Innovation—that provide insight into corporate transformation. More recently, Keeley has zeroed in on ways companies can manage seamless orchestration across ecosystems of other firms. He urges his clients, which have included such brands as American Express, Apple, Boeing, McDonald’s and Pfizer, to see their role as being not to compete in a “winner takes all” environment but rather to cooperate for mutual benefit. As companies like Amazon rise to dizzying heights by aggregating fellow businesses large and small, Keeley’s prescriptions become increasingly relevant and prescient by the day.

Keeley is co-founder and former president of Doblin Inc., an innovation strategy firm known for pioneering comprehensive systems that materially improve innovation success rates. Doblin is now a unit of Deloitte Consulting LLP, where Keeley previously served as a director. Bloomberg BusinessWeek named Keeley one of seven Innovation Gurus who are changing the field, and specifically cited Doblin for having many of the most sophisticated tools for delivering innovation effectiveness. In 2010, they also selected Keeley as one of the 27 most influential designers in the world.

Keeley teaches graduate innovation strategy classes at the Institute of Design in Chicago, the first design school in the U.S. with a Ph.D. program, where he is also a board member. He lectures in executive education programs at Kellogg Graduate School of Management and is an adjunct faculty member for their core MBA and Master of Manufacturing Management program, where he was recently named a Distinguished Fellow. Keeley also serves as a member of Mayo Clinic’s External Advisory Board which, combined with Doblin’s applied innovation tradecraft, has been credited with helping Mayo Clinic to create advanced innovation initiatives to transform one of the world’s leading healthcare providers in the midst of radical industry shifts.

Keeley’s keynotes and presentations can be tailored to any industry, as his own career as an analyst and consultant has never been confined to a single field. An indispensable advisor to companies across the business spectrum, Keeley is renowned for his highly entertaining, “tell it like it is” speaking style, exhibiting a refreshing degree of clarity and relatability in a world filled with incomprehensible jargon. His speaking and advisory services help organizations chart their own path toward innovation and growth in a radically changing world.

Larry Keeley is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers & Advisors, a division of Stern Strategy Group^®.