She is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on strategic inflection points, the topic of her most recent book – Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019). She is the author of 4 other books on leadership, business and organizational management including the best-selling The End of Competitive Advantage (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013). Her work on discovery-driven growth was praised by the late legendary management thinker Clayton Christensen as offering “some of the most important ideas of management and strategy that have ever been developed.” She is currently working on a book full of humor and insight for business leaders aimed at helping organizations become ‘2% less stupid’ by adopting permissionless structures.

Rita regularly sits down for in-depth conversations with high level authors and leaders in business for her popular podcastThought Sparks. She also writes a regular Thought Sparks newsletter and shares insights across social media platforms, including LinkedIn, where she has more than 45,000 followers.

Rita is known for her energy, positivity, storytelling, and ability to connect with audiences. She is also a sought-after corporate speaker, a long-time educator at Columbia Business School, the author and host of the popular podcast and newsletter Thought Sparks, available on Youtube.

Topics

• Seeing Around Corners
• Discovery Driven Planning
• Innovation Should Not Be A Mystery
• The End Of Competitive Advantage & The New Strategy Playbook
• Snow Melts From The Edges
• Creating An Early Warning System
• Learning To Live With Complexity
• Manage Your Portfolio, Manage Your Growth
• Failing By Design
• 3 Approaches To Creating Customer İnsight
• Speed, Stealth And Selective Attack
• The Permissionless Organization
• How To Make A Rainmaker
• Positive Politics For Organizational Change
• Creating And Communicating Your Personal Vision – How To Be Seen As Strategic
• It’s Not About “Fixing” The Women – Creating Gender Balanced Workplaces

Publications

• Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen (2019)
• The End of Competitive Advantage (2013)
• Discovery Driven Growth (with Ian C. MacMillan) (2009)
• MarketBusters (with Ian C. MacMillan) (2005)
• The Entrepreneurial Mindset (with Ian C. MacMillan) (2000)

Awards

• 2021 #2 slot in the annual Thinkers 50 ranking of ‘Management Thinkers’ have been awarded to Rita McGrath.
• Thinkers50 presented Rita with the #1 award for Strategy, the Distinguished Achievement Award, in 2013
• Strategic Management Society ‘Best Paper’ and ‘Runner Up’ Awards in 2001 and 2004
• Maurice Holland Award from the Industrial Research Institute
• Academy of Management Review ‘Best Paper’ Award
• Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice Award for the Best Conceptual Paper (both 1992 and 1996)
• European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research (EFER) Best Paper Award

Testimonials

“Thanks so much for an amazing session. You “wowed” our audience with your stories and insights.”

“Many thanks to you Rita! Your message was relevant, informative and thought-provoking. You were terrific! We’ll definitely work together again.”

“Rita did a great job of getting the message across in 45 minutes, as she is a great speaker and connects well with the audience. Rita speaks from her heart and does not use notes. It is very conversational. In our post-event survey, Rita’s presentation was ranked the highest of all external speakers.”

“We were delighted with Rita’s presentation. The feedback from our delegates was fantastic – they found Rita’s presentation thought-provoking, full of great new ideas, and very relevant to their work and they loved her clear and energetic delivery.”

“Rita is a delight to work with. Incredibly sharp, very thoughtful, personable and highly organized – I have yet to meet another speaker who carries their own clicker, a spare clicker, spare batteries for the spare clicker… She is genuinely interested in her audience, her material is absolutely world-class and she enjoys and excels at Q&A. Rita’s opening talk was a great way to set up this year’s Business of Software Conference, her material both stimulating and directed at the needs and interests of the group. Brilliant minds aren’t always the easiest ones to work with, Rita is a shining exception. I would add her voice is so calm and authoritative that Rita should think about a second career doing satellite navigation voices.”

“Rita was a brilliant and engaging speaker – lots of value to senior executives from large companies, and always a pleasure to work with.”