Shawn Kanungo
- Former Innovation Expert for Deloitte
- Globally Recognized Disruption Strategist and Bestselling Author
- First innovation expert to have a streaming special, released on Apple TV and Prime Video
As a globally recognized innovation strategist and bestselling author, Shawn Kanungo works at the intersection of creativity, business, and technology. He spent 12 years at Deloitte working closely with leaders to help them better plan for the opportunities associated with disruptive innovation. In his high energy keynotes, Kanungo draws on his extensive experience to provide...
read the restAs a globally recognized innovation strategist and bestselling author, Shawn Kanungo works at the intersection of creativity, business, and technology. He spent 12 years at Deloitte working closely with leaders to help them better plan for the opportunities associated with disruptive innovation. In his high energy keynotes, Kanungo draws on his extensive experience to provide audiences with an optimistic roadmap for the future; one that embraces unexpected approaches to innovation to remain competitive and relevant.
Since leaving Deloitte, Kanungo has worked with hundreds of organizations on their journey to digital transformation. He’s led complex projects incorporating artificial intelligence, cloud technologies, behavioural economics, Web3, and more. Today, Kanungo is a Partner with Queen & Rook, where he advises leading organizations and executives on disruptive trends and invests in early-stage ventures.
Kanungo is the first innovation expert to have a streaming special, released on Apple TV and Prime Video in August 2023. It complements and shares the name of his bestselling debut book, The Bold Ones, a playbook for individuals to become bolder and push their careers and organizations forward. It has been touted as one of McKinsey’s top decision-making books for leaders. Kanungo’s work has also been featured in the Globe and Mail, The Guardian, CBC, and CTV.
A prolific content creator, Kanungo’s content on innovation has garnered millions of views across LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook. He’s been recognized by Edify magazine as one of their “Top 40 Under 40” and was called the “best virtual keynote speaker I’ve ever seen” by Forbes in 2021.
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The business world has fundamentally changed forever. The growth and adoption of new technologies is at a dizzying pace. Customer and employee expectations have been pushed forward 10 years due to the pandemic. We are ...more
The business world has fundamentally changed forever. The growth and adoption of new technologies is at a dizzying pace. Customer and employee expectations have been pushed forward 10 years due to the pandemic. We are now looking for organizations to be fearless in a changing world.
These drivers are forcing everyone to reimagine their entire organizations. How do we survive? How do we disrupt ourselves before someone else does? How do we deliver better experiences to our clients, customers, and teams? Today, we need to be bold, brave, and experimental.
In this awe-inspiring talk, Shawn Kanungo provides an optimistic roadmap for the future. He explores how we can take unexpected approaches to innovation to remain competitive and relevant. ...less
The world is getting weirder, wackier, and wilder by the minute. It has never been more crucial to adapt and evolve with the times. Yet, when faced with radical change, we tend to double down ...more
The world is getting weirder, wackier, and wilder by the minute. It has never been more crucial to adapt and evolve with the times. Yet, when faced with radical change, we tend to double down on what made us successful in the past.
“Bold Ones” is an awe-inspiring and provocative keynote on how individuals can apply the innovations and disruptions occurring around them to become more dynamic and valuable. Specific, actionable techniques — from uncovering “secrets” within your field, to designing experiments, to creating an unstoppable personal flywheel — that will help one evolve and excel will be shared. ...less
We’re entering an extraordinary era where generative AI will automate unprecedented parts of our organizations — making operations faster, smarter, and more efficient than ever before. Yet in our rush to make everything instant and ...more
We’re entering an extraordinary era where generative AI will automate unprecedented parts of our organizations — making operations faster, smarter, and more efficient than ever before. Yet in our rush to make everything instant and effortless, we’ve fallen into “the frictionless trap.” While businesses and governments race to eliminate every point of resistance — deploying AI agents, one-click purchases, and seamless automation — they’re inadvertently sacrificing something far more valuable: trust.
Shawn Kanungo explores a counterintuitive truth: the most successful organizations of the future will strategically choose between two paths. They’ll either commit to being completely frictionless or intentionally embrace friction to create deeper value. Drawing from compelling examples across industries, Kanungo demonstrates why trying to be in the middle leads to what he calls “the black hole of mediocrity.” He challenges leaders to make bold choices about where to optimize for AI and efficiency, and where to deliberately slow things down to build trust, deepen relationships, and create memorable experiences that technology alone cannot replicate.
The most powerful insight? In an AI-powered world where everything is becoming instant and automated, strategic friction isn’t just a differentiator — it’s a competitive advantage. In this awe-inspiring talk, Kanungo provides an optimistic roadmap for the future of AI and human connection. ...less
Are we ready for the next era of the Internet? An immersive, unified, and interconnected digital world is in the making. The metaverse is no longer a science-fiction construct. It will rewrite new models of ...more
Are we ready for the next era of the Internet? An immersive, unified, and interconnected digital world is in the making. The metaverse is no longer a science-fiction construct. It will rewrite new models of interaction, digital-native assets, commerce, and experience. Yet, this is much more than a technological shift, but a cultural phenomenon that will impact human expression and behaviour.
Big tech and gaming companies are arming themselves in this battleground for the future. However, the metaverse may not reach its massive potential without being truly open. Its convergence with Web3, a decentralized internet enabled by the blockchain, and its components (crypto, NFTs, and more) may be the key to building the backbone and connective tissue for this new world.
In this awe-inspiring keynote, innovation strategist Shawn Kanungo dives deep into why the metaverse and Web3 will shape the future, and how it will impact culture, business, technology, and individuals. The future will favour the bold and brave. ...less
Today, we are undergoing a paradigm shift. The world is becoming more dynamic, intertwined, and unpredictable. Organizations must develop an ecosystem approach to innovation, leveraging talent both inside and outside of the company, to navigate ...more
Today, we are undergoing a paradigm shift. The world is becoming more dynamic, intertwined, and unpredictable. Organizations must develop an ecosystem approach to innovation, leveraging talent both inside and outside of the company, to navigate the future.
Shawn Kanungo provides a bold, unique, and contrarian view of the near-term future. He outlines some of the disruptive forces (AI, digital Business Models, etc.) that are impacting every industry. He then explores how organizations can become more adaptable, experimental, and collaborative.
Weaving together storytelling, humour, inspiration, and actionable takeaways, audiences will walk away with a roadmap on how organizations can create a brighter future, together. ...less
For decades, we have designed the public sector to be operationally excellent. Today, the game has changed. We are now looking for government to be fearless and an enabler for radical change. From leveraging automation, ...more
For decades, we have designed the public sector to be operationally excellent. Today, the game has changed. We are now looking for government to be fearless and an enabler for radical change.
From leveraging automation, ecosystem partnerships and the crowd, Shawn Kanungo paints a vision of how governments can be a catalyst for others to help them drive innovation. He will also help to make sense of the rapidly changing demographic, societal, economic, and technological trends shaping the future of government.
Sharing insights from leading organizations and his own experiences on the ground floor of driving transformation in government — Kanungo reveals the technologies, citizen expectations, and service delivery models that will drive the revolution. ...less
We are on the brink of a revolution based on the meteoric rise of ChatGPT and Generative AI. These exponential technologies are transforming the way we communicate, collaborate, and create, revolutionizing industries around the world. ...more
We are on the brink of a revolution based on the meteoric rise of ChatGPT and Generative AI. These exponential technologies are transforming the way we communicate, collaborate, and create, revolutionizing industries around the world. However, when everyone has an AI co-pilot, who will stand out? Shawn Kanungo argues that we need more freaks — leaders that are both unique and bold.
With the rise of generative AI, cloud technologies, and remote talent, we’re entering into an age of infinite leverage where our work can be replicated at no cost, and we don’t need permission to get started. As a result, we can build exponential organizations — a new breed of businesses that can be more nimble, flexible, and highly leveraged.
In this provocative and counter-intuitive keynote, Kanungo dives deep into the age of artificial intelligence and infinite leverage. He explores why this will shape the future, and how it will impact culture, business, technology, and individuals. Ultimately, the future will favour the freaks. ...less
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