Mike Maddock

Mike Maddock is a serial entrepreneur, author and a keynote speaker. He has founded 5 successful businesses, including Maddock Douglas, an internationally recognized innovation agency that has helped over 25% of the Fortune 100 invent and launch new products, services, and business models and create cultures that know how to innovate. He co-chairs the Gathering of Titans entrepreneurial conclave at MIT, is past president of Entrepreneurs’ Organization and current chairman of Young Presidents’ Organization. Mike currently writes for Forbes and is the author of three books about innovation: Free the Idea Monkey to Focus on What Matters Most. Brand New, Solving the Innovation Paradox and Flirting with the Uninterested, Innovating in a "Sold, not bought," Category.

Latest

The Secret Weapon of the Innovator

If you are a successful entrepreneur or intrapraneur, you are probably an “idea guy” or work with one of these dangerously endearing men or women. Let me introduce you to someone who may be the ultimate idea guy to show you why ideas alone are not enough. (And what’s lacking, as you will see, goes far beyond just execution.)

Why Future CEOs Must Quietly Embrace Social Media

Are you being an antisocial leader? If you opt out of being social, how will you know what your consumers want from you? Said differently, if you are not involved in the conversation, how can you listen?

Why Improving the Customer Experience Matters: A Love Story

Creating a love affair with your customer takes time, patience and empathy. This is a journey that involves new discoveries, exploration and mutual benefit; there will be ups and downs that you, your team and your customers will experience along the way.

Why Improving the Customer Experience Matters: A Customer Loyalty Tale

Have you noticed how many ridiculously bad experiences we put up with as consumers? This article is about how some companies are turning that awfulness into opportunities to grow their profits, brands and customer loyalty while leaving their competitors behind.

3 Secrets to Reinventing Your Industry (Before Someone Else Does)

Your industry is about to change. Best reinvent it before someone else does it for you. And as you reinvent it, ask your team what business will you be in? Which one should you be in?

The Four Questions Great Leaders Ask

Ever notice how great leaders ask the best questions? A masterful leader will sit Yoda-like in a meeting, listening intently to the dialogue and then, with Zen Master timing, ask a question that will change the tenor, the focus and the performance of the entire team.

Happiness Is a Choice

Many of us get the happiness equation wrong. We believe that we must work hard to become successful, make lots of money, get a big title and then, only then, will we be happy. It simply isn’t true.

Invention: The Entrepreneurial Curse

Unfortunately, the death knell for many wide-eyed entrepreneurs is that they consider themselves inventors. More specifically, they confuse being inventive with being innovative. And when they do, they run out of cash, time and customers. In other words, they run out of business.

How the Most Successful Leaders Manage the Brilliant Naysayer

Most every company has a Harold (or Harriet). Typically, he has been with the company for 20-plus years. He knows more about industry norms, the company’s intellectual property, your IT capabilities, what legal will and will NOT go for, interoffice politics, and the CEO’s family than anyone in the building. And unfortunately for you, good old Harold can effortlessly—and with absolutely no malice intended—recite four to six reasons why your idea won’t fly.

What the Most Successful Leaders Know About Creating an Inventive Culture

From Edison to Jobs to Winfrey, pioneering innovators know how to enroll a team that creates and then supports big ideas. They have learned to create organizations that literally pull great ideas through the ranks instead of empowering people to straight-arm them.