Once upon a time in a career far away, Joe Pine worked for IBM in Rochester, Minnesota. For the launch of the AS/400 computer system he created a group that brought customers and business partners into the actual development process. Because of this innovative activity, customer needs were met more exactly and quality was significantly enhanced – factors that contributed greatly to IBM winning the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1990.

   Two years later, Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition was published by Harvard Business School Press. The Experience Economy was a paradigm changing book on how all of business is theater, and how to apply that framework to your organization. Jim’s latest book  focuses on Authenticity and addresses Green Initiatives.

   While a seasoned stand-up speaker who knows both how to keep an audience entertained and how to impart actionable ideas and frameworks that listeners can use to change their companies, Joe also loves small, intimate gatherings where other people become full participants in coming to grips with the ideas, corralling the frameworks to their own use, and committing to a course of action that benefits their customers, and therefore their businesses.

   That's why he loves teaching so much. Joe started out teaching at the IBM Advanced Business Institute in his last assignment there, and has also taught at Penn State, UCLA, the University of Minnesota, Iowa State, the Harvard Design School, and back at MIT, among others.

   Individual speeches can cover any of a wide variety of topic areas – or focus on a particular area of interest, including:

1) Authenticity in Business
   Pulled directly from Pine & Gilmore’s recent book Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want.  In a world of paid-for experiences, consumers increasingly question what is real and what is not. As a result, Authenticity is quickly becoming the new consumer sensibility – and key business imperative – determining what offerings consumers buy and who they buy those offerings from.

2) Welcome to the Experience Economy
   A look at the competitive landscape through a new lens – going beyond goods and services to stage truly memorable experiences. An overview of the principles and frameworks needed to stage compelling experiences, with relevant, up-to-date exemplars that illuminate the ideas. Based on the book The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre and Every Business A Stage.

3) Going Beyond the Experience
   Once an emerging phenomenon, the Experience Economy is now fully here – with increased competitive intensity and even some commoditization amongst experience stagers. The next step? Using customized experiences to guide individual change via transformations.