Keith Ferrazzi

Biography

Keith Ferrazzi is one of the rare individuals to discover the essential formula for making his way to the top through a powerful, balanced combination of marketing acumen and networking savvy. Both Forbes and Inc Magazines have designated him one of the world's most "connected" individuals. Now, as Founder & CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight, he provides market leaders with advanced strategic consulting and training services to increase company sales, and enhance personal careers. Ferrazzi Greenlight applies experiences gleaned from the careers of its executives spent in the highest echelons of corporate America, as well as principles from Ferrazzi's book, 'NEVER EAT ALONE And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time.'

Ferrazzi has been widely recognized by his peers, is a frequent contributor to CNN and CNBC, and has authored numerous articles for leading business publications, including Forbes, Inc, the Wall Street Journal and the Harvard Business Review. Ferrazzi was an early leader in the quality movement as the youngest examiner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. He has been named a "Global Leader of Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum, one of the top "40 Under 40" business leaders by Crain's Business, one of the most distinguished young Californians by the Jaycees, and one of the most creative Americans in Richard Wurman's "Who's Really Who". Ferrazzi's extraordinary rise to prominence, which includes a stint as the youngest Chief Marketing Officer for a Fortune 500 company while at Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, has even inspired a Stanford Business School case study.

Most recently, Ferrazzi served as Chief Executive Officer for YaYa Media, a leading interactive entertainment consultancy. Prior to that, while at Starwood Hotels, he oversaw all marketing activities for global brands such as Sheraton, Westin, The Luxury Collection, St. Regis, and W Hotels. Previously, Ferrazzi was Chief Marketing Officer of Deloitte Consulting, a leading global management consulting firm, where he developed and managed the industry's first globally integrated marketing organization. His creative marketing strategy drove the ascent of Deloitte's "Consulting" brand recognition from the lowest in the industry to a primary position, and spurred the highest featured growth rate in the industry.

Ferrazzi actively supports numerous civic, charitable and educational organizations, including his service on Yale University's Board of Alumni Governors. He is also a Fellow of the Berkeley College at Yale, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kiski School in Pennsylvania. Additionally, he founded and chairs Equality 1st, a foundation focused on assuring everyone has an equal chance at success. He is particularly interested in the relationship between leadership success and spirituality. Ferrazzi earned a BA degree from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Publications

Who's Got Your Back: The Breakthrough Program to Build Deep, Trusting Relationships:
Keith Ferrazzi’s new book, Who’s Got Your Back, the highly anticipated sequel to his NY Times Bestseller Never Eat Alone, hit the shelves May 19, 2009!

Now, in Who’s Got Your Back, Keith focuses on the necessity of forming even deeper bonds with key people who can act as career counselors and advisors, providing candid feedback to guide our day-to-day actions and long-term goals. Particularly in today’s economy, success requires that we find partners for accountability and bottomless support. Without help in challenging times, it’s easy to lose your sense of direction, making Keith’s takeaways even more potent. Who’s Got Your Back is here to help us seek out and build the support structure that is so vital to success.

Today may be a time of crisis – but it’s equally an opportunity. Control is shifting from large, top-down institutions to passionate individuals empowered by technology. Everywhere you look, you can see groups coalescing around shared interests – working together, effecting change and taking action. This gives incredible power to the individual, but also means that we each need a trusted team if we want to thrive. From administrative assistants to CEOs to professional service providers, we need to create lifeline relationships with people who will refuse to let us fail and propel our success!

Other Publications:

Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

Titles

Managing in a Matrix Environment:
Fosters cross organizational functionality, productivity, and success.

Breaking down silos:
Increases participants’ ability to lead teams and collaborate together in today’s ever-changing, matrix-driven organizations. Deeper internal relationships bust silos, because people adopt a greater level of transparency while simultaneously holding each other accountable for measurable results. Learn to foster a spirit of cooperation that can make it easier to achieve both customer satisfaction and corporate goals.

Relationships for Revenue Growth: Helps bridge the gap for salespeople who find it difficult to balance the desirable and necessary challenge of expanding and deepening connections with the time and energy required to do so.

Executive Relationship Management (ERM): Allows you to create a process to scale intimacy, focus on building deeper relationships with key influencers who will help you succeed, and achieve the full potential of your network. ERM is both a philosophy and a best practice used to plan and develop deep personal relationships with your peers, clients, employees and stakeholders.

Leading in the Grey Zone:
Concentrates on building key skills that enable leaders to lead during times of uncertainty. Successful leaders are able to motivate and inspire their teams during times of change. Often times, leading through times of change means confronting ambiguity, finding creative solutions in unexpected places, and helping your team deliver in an uncertain environment. This keynote is about effectively connecting people and successfully building teams. Engender trust and develop genuine connections with others. Define your values and leadership principles. Lead with passion and purpose. Empower others. Find joy in integrating your personal and professional lives.

Relationships for Group Success:
Helps participants to stop seeing colleagues merely as vice-presidents and lower-level managers and allows them to start seeing their co-workers as human beings. This keynote is great for resolving common, efficiency-crippling challenges that arise from cross-functional collaboration and geographic separation.

Turning a Down Market into an Opportunity for Greater Loyalty and Deeper Relationships:
Mutual Support for Mutual Success – A seismic shift is under way. Our society is moving from an economy driven by large, top-down institutions to an economy driven by passionate individuals, empowered by technology, quickly coming together to form ad hoc tribes capable of tackling all kinds of projects. Everywhere you look, you can see groups coalescing around shared interests – working together, effecting change, taking action. From administrative assistants to CEO’s, we all need a trusted team. We need to create lifeline relationships with people who offer guidance, encouragement and accountability. This talk focuses on the necessity of forming deep bonds with a few key people who provide candid feedback and support to guide our day-to-day actions and fulfill our long-term goals.