David Kidder

From New to Big: Building an Always-on Growth System in Enterprises

Organizational growth doesn’t happen by chance—it’s driven by a strategic alignment of internal and external forces and a commitment to transforming mindsets. In this keynote, David Kidder shares the growth culture, values, and systems of the Growth OS® developed by Bionic, now part of Accenture Song, which has catalyzed growth transformations across many Fortune 500 companies. Through this powerful framework, Kidder guides organizations to uncover their proprietary gifts, address evolving customer needs, and build an always-on growth engine that thrives amid disruption. This session equips leaders to move from “for” to “with” the customer, applying timely commercial truths that keep teams resilient and aligned in ever-changing markets.

In this keynote, you’ll hear Kidder speak about:

• The values growth leaders need to adopt to foster an always-on growth culture
• Moving from “for” to “with”: Understanding the deeper needs of the customer
• The fundamentals of growth discovery and how to create sustained growth
• Becoming an ambidextrous leader to balance stability with experimentation
• New metrics of resilience that keep teams aligned and accountable

The High Growth Playbook: How to Resiliently Scale a Venture

Building and sustaining growth takes more than vision—it calls for a transformation in how leaders and teams think and work. In this keynote and workshop, David Kidder unveils the high-growth playbook, drawing on insights and systems that help enterprises navigate critical startup stages to move to scale-up with precision. Leveraging the transformative power of GenAI, Kidder guides leaders through the critical phases of growth, revealing how to align capital, timing, and internal resources with external opportunities to maximize returns. This session equips leaders to avoid the pitfalls of premature scaling and empowers them to make better, data-driven decisions that propel resilient, sustainable growth across every phase.

In this keynote, you’ll hear Kidder speak about:

• The phases of startup growth and how to strategically approach each one
• Using AI to accelerate milestones through data-driven insights, predictive models, and automated systems
• Avoiding premature scaling and learning how GenAI tools enable better capital allocation and precision in growth planning.

The Board of Life: How to Create a Personal Board of Directors to Transform

Originating from a TED.Ed talk in 2006 of the same title, The Board of Life guides leaders and teams in discovering and reaching their highest commitments through a powerful growth model that includes establishing a personal board of directors for their life and leveraging AI to tap into history’s greatest minds (think Socrates, Seneca, Steve Jobs, etc.). Through a keynote and workshop, leaders and teams will learn to establish their own board of directors and set higher commitments to unlock their full potential in both life and work. By creating a board of trusted and committed mentors and allies, leaders ensure accountability and drive tangible results, aligning their personal and professional goals with a deeper sense of purpose and performance. 

In this keynote, you’ll hear David Kidder speak about:

• A model for establishing a personal board of directors for your life
• The power of guidance, direction, and accountability structures supported by generative reflection with the history’s greatest minds 
• Unlocking personal and professional commitments for breakthrough growth

The Power of the Premortem

In this transformative keynote and workshop, David Kidder introduces The Premortem, a high-impact experience + model for aligning leadership, teams, and capital allocators around the core assumptions that drive successful growth. The Premortem Model is a unique filtration system that eliminates the noise, sharpens strategic focus, and turns prescient risks into actionable opportunities. Participants will uncover the internal and external forces shaping their business, revealing timely truths that empower leaders to anticipate risks, identify critical growth opportunities, and optimize for market timing. Participants will learn to spot and eliminate “zombie” investments, ensuring that resources focus on initiatives primed for success. With AI-powered insights, this experience provides a structured framework for monitoring real-time metrics, helping teams stay resilient and adaptable. Leaders leave with actionable strategies and tools to build a culture of commercial truth, sustaining growth that’s always on time—never premature, never too late.

In this keynote, you’ll hear Kidder speak about:

• Internal and External Forces: Identifying and aligning on “knowable + controllable” internal factors and “knowable + uncontrollable” external forces to unlock growth.
• Metrics that Matter: Tracking essential metrics that capture real-time commercial truths, keeping teams focused on true drivers of progress.
• Timing for Impact: Achieving precision in timing to deploy resources and scale, avoiding the pitfalls of moving too early or too late.

In this Workshop, Kidder and his team will:

• Surface prescient truths
• Apply The Premortem Model to filter out noisy risks
• Clarify strategic focus for the most critical opportunities
• Define immediately actionable sprints to validate or revalidate truths
• Identify key metrics to monitor 
• Inspire leadership with the confidence to make courageous decisions