Mark Bonchek

Mark Bonchek believes that to change what you do, you first must change how you think. 

As the CEO of Shift Thinking, Mark works with organizations to unlearn mental models that have grown outdated, and replace them with new ones that can accelerate growth, engagement and performance.

As a member of the Singularity University faculty, Mark helps leaders embrace an exponential mindset, letting go of incremental change and scarce resources, replacing it with transformative change and the possibility of abundance. He also writes regularly for Harvard Business Review where he has published almost fifty articles. 

For over twenty years, Mark has been a pioneer on the digital frontier with a prescient ability to see where the future is going and make it relevant to the present. His 1997 doctorate in Political Economy was the first PhD awarded by Harvard University on the topic of social media. His research as an associate at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab predicted the rise of social networking, the disintermediation of media, and the empowerment of individuals. 

Throughout his career, Mark has been an advisor, entrepreneur and Fortune 500 executive.  Some of his roles include Director of Research for the Strategos Institute, where he identified patterns of innovation for companies seeking to invent new business models while avoiding the cannibalization of their core and the COO of [email protected], where he developed a model for executive community to understand the implications of emerging technologies on existing business.

As the CEO of Truman Company, he helped leading companies use co-creation to strengthen client relationships, market differentiation and thought leadership. As SVP of Communities and Networks for Sears Holdings, Mark began to experiment with the principles and practices that became Shift Thinking. 

As the Chief Epiphany Officer, Mark has created a new set of conceptual tools for leaders to survive and thrive in a digital age. In strategy, they enable a shift from product to platform.  In marketing, a shift from audiences to communities.  In organization, a shift from hierarchies to networks. A diverse set of companies have embraced Shift Thinking, ranging from SAP, Kaiser Permanente and Accenture Interactive to ABC, Staples, and the American Heart Association.  

Mark is also the originator of the Thinking Styles assessment.  Unlike personality tests, Thinking Styles enables individuals to know how they best collaborate in a team to understand its strengths and weaknesses.  The HBR article on thinking styles was one of the ten most popular articles in 2015.  Take the assessment at www.shift.to/styles.

Mark is a highly-rated speaker known for his engaging style and customization of the content to the audience and event goals.

Expertise

• Navigating digital disruption
• Embracing an exponential mindset
• Building brand orbits
• Crafting strategic narratives
• Accelerating unlearning
• Principles of network leadership
• Business Strategy
• Customer Engagement
• Organizational Design