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Les McKeown    

CEO of Predictable Success, Serial Entrepreneur, Bestselling Author

Les McKeown is the president and CEO of Predictable Success. In this role, he advises CEOs and senior leaders of organizations on how to achieve scalable, sustainable growth and speaks to Fortune 500 companies about his breakthrough strategies.

Prior to founding Predictable Success, Les established himself as a serial founder/owner in the global business spectrum, starting more than 40 companies, in addition to being the founding partner of an incubation consulting company that advised on the creation and growth of hundreds more organizations worldwide. With a portfolio that includes launching businesses like a Pizza Hut master license and a graphic design agency, he has an extensive background in entrepreneurship. It is through this experience that he aids businesses of different sizes and scopes as an in-demand speaker, sought-after advisor, and bestselling author. His clients include major organizations such as Microsoft, T-Mobile, the US Army, and American Express.

Les delivers keynotes to various organizations and businesses around the world. He has presented his ‘Predictable Success’ and ‘Synergist’ model to the likes of Harvard University, Microsoft, United Technologies Corporation, Overture, Pella Corporation, the US Army, and many more. In these engagements, he aims to empower every level of the workforce by educating every individual on the stages of the business lifecycle, their business’ current stance and steps leading to this outcome, and the adopted practices needed to prosper for the future of the company.

As the President & CEO of Predictable Success, Les offers consulting services to fast-growth SMEs as well as Fortune 1000 companies. He has amassed a proven track record of improving leadership effectiveness and organizational performance to deliver significant business growth. His intuitive understanding of why businesses grow and succeed has led clients, including Chiron Corporation, The Canadian Defence Department, and Verisign, to seek his advice. Les has also been involved in creating the European Union’s award-winning Entrepreneurship Program, which has launched hundreds of businesses.

Les continues to receive critical acclaim for his contributions to business literature. His book "Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization on the Growth Track—and Keeping It There" outlines his heralded business growth methodology. In his next installment, "The Synergist: Leading Your Team to Predictable Success," he elaborates more on this concept, specifically addressing the root cause of team dysfunction and presenting the role of the Synergist essential to team success. Moreover, his latest work, "Do Lead: Share your vision. Inspire others. Achieve the impossible," focuses on fostering leadership at every organizational level.

Les has appeared on media outlets including NBC, ABC, BBC, CNN, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, USA Today, and The New York Times. He resides in Marblehead, MA, and frequently travels from Washington, D.C., for speaking engagements and consultations.

Speech Topics


Becoming a Nimble Giant

How your large organization, division, department, group or team can learn to turn on a dime.

With size comes complexity. And complexity slows things down – right? So, large organizations inevitably lose their flexibility and the ability to innovate. That’s certainly the received wisdom, but Les McKeown says it ain’t necessarily so.

A highly successful serial entrepreneur with over 40 businesses under his belt, and an advisor to hundreds more including Microsoft, T-Mobile, The US Army and American Express, in this fascinating and highly entertaining keynote Les reveals the eye-poppingly simple yet immensely powerful model that ‘nimble giants’ use to stay flexible, responsive and innovative.

Watch your audience relax, laugh and nod in recognition as Les describes the difficulties faced by every large organization in conquering complexity, then excitedly scrabble to make notes as he outlines a simple, immediately actionable method for restoring lost vitality, vibrancy and innovation to any organization, division, department, project, group or team.

Be Big, Be Cool

How to scale profitably and still have fun.

Growing businesses often fear the change that comes with growth. What if we scale but lose our culture – or worse, our soul? Is financial return alone a justifiable reason to leave behind the fun?

Les McKeown – a highly successful serial entrepreneur who launched and ran over 40 businesses and advised hundreds more – says it doesn’t need to be that way. In this exciting, example-filled keynote, Les shows how to build a business that can reach any size it industry allows – without compromising on culture.

Your audience will be challenged, re-energized, inspired and motivated by this talk – but most importantly, they will take away a clear, easily-acted-on toolkit for profitable growth that will enable them to scale their organization, division, department, project, group or team without compromise.

Transcendent Leadership

How to lead any organization, division, department, group or team to Predictable Success.

You can’t have enough high-quality leadership in any organization, right? And yet, despite the thousands of books, courses and other leadership resources out there, the demand for leadership in most organizations greatly outstrips the available supply.

But what if you discovered a hidden, untapped pool of highly effective leaders right now – today – lying dormant in your very own people?

In this highly entertaining and revelatory keynote (based on his most recent book, “The Synergist: How to Lead Your Team to Predictable Success”) Les McKeown shows how in his extensive experience (he started over 40 companies in his own right and has advised many hundreds more) over 80% of the leadership pool in most organizations is left untapped.

Les will entertain, inform and inspire your audience, but most importantly they will take away a simple but incredibly powerful, proven technique for unleashing leadership at every level in their organization – whatever its size.

Achieving Predictable Success

How you can grow your business and dominate your industry – in any economy.

Is success in business a transient, hard-to-define combination of hard work, judgment and good luck? Or do all successful organizations follow similar patterns that, once understood, are predictable and repeatable? In this, his signature keynote address based on his Wall Street Journal bestseller “Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization on the Growth Track – and Keeping it There“, Les McKeown draws from his unique experience as a serial entrepreneur (Les started 42 companies by age 35, and has advised hundreds more since then) to demonstrate unequivocally that yes, any organization’s success can indeed be made predictable simply by understanding and following a clear, repeatable pattern – a pattern he calls ‘Predictable Success’

Funny, self-deprecating, brilliantly incisive and most importantly – instantly actionable, Les will have your audience intrigued and engaged from the get-go. And when the keynote is over, be prepared to hear your event attendees tell you it was the most immediately usable presentation they ever attended.

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