Biography

Ben Casnocha is an award-winning entrepreneur and author from Silicon Valley. He is coauthor with Linkedin founder/chairman Reid Hoffman of the New York Times bestseller The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age, which describes a new framework for managing today’s employees.

He is also co-author with Reid of the #1 New York Times bestselling book The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your CareerThe Start-up of You, translated into a dozen languages, has become one of the most referenced guides on how to thrive professionally in the modern world.

Recently, he served as Chief of Staff in the office of the chairman at LinkedIn. He’s also a multi-time technology entrepreneur. He advises companies on talent issues as a partner at the consultancy Allied Talent.

BusinessWeek named Ben “one of America’s top young entrepreneurs.” HR Magazine named Ben one of the top trendsetters in the human resources industry. And dozens of outlets have covered his work including CNN, Charlie Rose, and The Economist.

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The Alliance: How to Manage Talent in the Networked Age.

The employer-employee relationship is broken. Managers face a seemingly impossible dilemma: You can’t afford to offer lifetime employment. But you can’t build a lasting, innovative business when everyone acts like a free agent. The solution: Stop thinking of employees as family or free agents and start thinking of them as allies on a tour of duty.

Based on Ben’s recent New York Times bestselling book with Reid Hoffman, founder/chairman of LinkedIn, in this keynote he explains how to recruit, manage, and retain the entrepreneurial employees your business needs to succeed in the networked age. You’ll learn:

The most important recruiting strategy that innovative companies use to attract their best employees.
How to rebuild trust and loyalty with your employees even though you can’t guarantee lifetime employment.
How to manage employees who seek constant career growth by defining unique “tours of duty.”
Why it pays to empower your employees to build their personal brands and expand their professional networks on LinkedIn and Twitter.
How to develop an employee value proposition that resonates with millennials.
Through keynotes and interactive workshops, this is the management and business framework that will help your company generate Silicon Valley-style innovation, delivered by one of the field’s most engaging speakers.

The Start-Up of You: Transform Your Work and Career with Entrepreneurial Thinking.

The career escalator is jammed at every level. Unemployment rates are high. Creative disruption is shaking every industry. Global competition for jobs is fierce. The employer-employee pact is over and traditional job security is a thing of the past.

In a keynote based on his #1 New York Times bestselling book, Ben presents a blueprint for how to thrive in this new economic landscape. The key: learn to think and act like an entrepreneur. In other words, move up that jammed escalator by running your career like it’s a start-up business: a living, breathing, growing start-up of you.

You don’t need to start your own business, but you do need to adopt the mindset and learn the skill set of entrepreneurs.

In this keynote, you will learn the Silicon Valley strategies that will make you more effective at your current job and jump-start your career for the long term. This is a bold presentation on thriving in a world where every professional must be the entrepreneur of his or her own life.

Millenials at Work: Crossing the Generational Divide.

Today, four generations are in the same workplace at the same time. This is unprecedented. And it introduces a host of challenges and opportunities. You can’t manage millennials the way you were managed. To bring out the best of your millennial employees, and to create a corporate culture where all generations can effectively work with each other, you need to rethink every aspect of how you recruit, manage, and retain employees.

Ben’s background makes him uniquely qualified to deliver this entertaining keynote: as “one of America’s top young entrepreneurs” according to BusinessWeek he speaks credibly on his own generational dynamics while also drawing upon his leading corporate experience.

LinkedIn and the Networked Age: What It Means and Where It’s Going.

We live and work in the networked age–the social networking era is just getting started. Ben argues that “network literacy” is the new type of literacy that counts. He explains the hidden power of LinkedIn and other social media, but more importantly, provides a sophisticated perspective on how people networks shape everything we think and do—and how to leverage those networks to solve important business and career challenges.

He’s not another generic “social media guru.” Ben spent two years at LinkedIn in the Office of the Chairman and was named one of the “25 most influential people in the world of internet and politics” by PoliticsOnline.

Testimonials

He was phenomenal. I must have had 30 people come up to me and say ‘what a refreshing speaker’. He was just phenomenal. He had four great points and he talked from the heart. We were so happy, I would definitely recommend him.
– Anne Mathison, University of Wisconsin Continuing Ed / Adult Learning Program
Ben hit it out of the park. Our HR leaders are still raving about his session on the new employer-employee compact and how to recruit and manage entrepreneurial employees. We were very happy to host him at SHRM India!
– Malina Jacobowitz, Society for Human Resource Management India
Ben delivered a dynamic, gripping and content-packed presentation that connected directly with the concerns and interests of our delegates. His presentation received excellent feedback from all quarters. Ben was a pleasure to work with throughout, being highly professional, flexible and considerate. He took special care to understand the goals of the conference, our needs as organisers and the desires of the paying delegates. Ben’s attention to this important detail was clearly evident in the overall success of his talk.
– Scott Druck, Oxford Strategic Consulting
I’m delighted to report that the Strategy Conference was a blast! Ben did a such a great job presenting, and to boot, signing tons of books for our attendees and staff. Recently, Ben connected with me on LinkedIn and he mentioned that many of our attendees had reached out to him as well. That’s really, really cool! Thanks for making a way for us to finally bring Ben to our conference stage!
– Renee Sumby, Society for Human Resource Management
Ben Casnocha is a dynamic and engaging speaker. After he spoke at our HR summit, we received a ton of great feedback on him. One of our audience members wants to hire him already! He presented multiple concepts to HR leaders on how to engage employees in today’s marketplace. Ben’s message is thought-provoking and encourages HR Professionals to challenge themselves to transform their organizations to attract and retain top performers. I highly recommend Ben as a keynote!
– Teri Harrell, Dancik International
Ben’s presentation about his entrepreneurial life philosophy was insightful and inspiring to everyone in the audience. Ben delivered his presentation with elegance and confidence; he was exactly the right person delivering exactly the right message!
– Deborah Murray, Director, Center for Rural Research and Development, University of Nebraska at Kearney
Ben Casnocha provided a viewpoint into entrepreneurial leadership that was dead on. His keen insight into leading Generation Y workers was informational, refreshing, and inspirational. He’s a must for those who want to understand our younger workforce.
– Justin Rueb, PhD, Executive Director, Center for Leadership Excellence & Economic Development
Ben grabs and holds his audience with a rapid fire, succinct, insightful and motivational presentation. Aspiring entrepreneurs in attendance were well served by his insights into the entrepreneurial mind.
– Robert Robb, Professor, University of Texas at Dallas

Booksby Ben Casnocha

The Start-Up of You

The Alliance

For Meeting Planners

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Blog Posts

 

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