Award-winning authorEngaging keynote speakerASU professor

A dynamic keynote speaker and recognized technology authority • An award-winning author of eight business books • An advisor to organizations and individuals on strategy, platforms, Big Data, management, communication, technology, and trends • A freelance writer and coach for hire • A frequent contributor to many prominent media outlets, including Harvard Business Review, Wired, CNN, and The New York Times • A faculty member at Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business

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Today the costs of inaction almost always exceed the costs of action.

Books

Analytics

The Agile Way

My eighth book explores how Google, Nextdoor, and an increasing number of intelligent organizations are approaching analytics. Rather than attempting to do everything at once, they are employing Agile methods. In the process, they are seeing results and gaining valuable insights far faster than their predecessors.

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Books

Message Not Received

Why Business Communication Is Broken and How to Fix It

A great deal of business communication just doesn’t work and hasn’t for a long time. My award-winning seventh book examines a pernicious combination: our over-reliance upon one tool (e-mail), as well as our use—and often misuse—of language. It’s high time to examine not only what we say at work, but how we say it.

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Books

The Visual Organization

Data Visualization, Big Data, and the Quest for Better Decisions

Progressive organizations like Netflix, eBay, and the University of Texas have moved well beyond simple spreadsheets, dashboards, and KPIs. They are using interactive dataviz tools, Big Data, and a new mind-set to ask insightful questions and make better business decisions. My sixth book explores how.

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Books

Too Big to Ignore

The Business Case for Big Data

My fifth book looks at the nascent trend of Big Data and explains why it’s such a big deal. In plain English, I describe its genesis, current applications, drawbacks (read: privacy and security), and future. I detail a wide variety of ways in which intelligent organizations are using it today. It’s a jargon-free, very accessible text with more than 40 positive reviews on Amazon.

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Books

The Age of the Platform

How Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google Have Redefined Business

My award-winning fourth book examines the most important business model in business today: the platform. I focus on how four iconic and extremely successful companies have embraced platforms, planks, ecosystems, SDKs, APIs, and external development. In the process, they have achieved unprecedented results.

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Books

The New Small

How a New Breed of Small Businesses Is Harnessing the Power of Emerging Technologies

Up until relatively recently, only large companies could afford state-of-the-art technologies and applications. Not anymore. Today increasingly tech-savvy small businesses can do things that were simply impossible even five years ago. Through the course of eleven case studies, my third book demonstrates that small is indeed the new big.

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Books

The Next Wave of Technologies

Opportunities in Chaos

Organizations are finally getting with the times. They are starting to move beyond simple e-mail, back-office systems, and traditional business intelligence (BI). Many are adopting open-source software, SaaS, mobile technologies, cloud computing, and other promising enterprise technologies. Enterprise 2.0 has arrived in full force. My second book serves as a much-needed primer on navigating it.

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Books

Why New Systems Fail

An Insider’s Guide to Successful IT Projects

More than 60 percent of IT projects break bad. The obvious question is, Why? Culled from the decade I spent implementing new enterprise systems, my first book serves as a no-holds-barred guide on improving this dismal statistic. Via extensive case studies, Why New Systems Fail offers a great deal of advice on how minimize the chance of system failures.

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All companies are tech companies. Some just haven't realized it yet.

Speaking

I speak to organizations of all types and sizes on topics such as Big Data, platforms, technology, effective communication, and management. Since 1997, I have given more than 300 talks, presentations, and workshops to more than 30,000 people on three continents and in eight countries. Recent keynote talks have included EA, Tata, SAS, Cisco, Zappos, and Netflix.

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Phil is an engaging speaker with the rare ability to make what may seem dry, complex topics both compelling and entertaining.
—Joris Evers, Netflix VP, Head of Communications for Europe

I find the signal in the noise.

Services

For nearly two decades, I have worked with individuals and organizations in a wide variety of industries and capacities. At a high level, I do two things today. First, I advise organizations on how to understand and use technology and data better. Second, I help my clients communicate better, whether it’s internally, externally, or both.

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