Martin Gutmann
- Professor at the Lucerne School of Business and Senior Lecturer at
ETH Zurich - Regular Forbes contributor on leadership, technology, and history
- Over 2 million TED Talk views
Martin Gutmann’s Speaker Biography
Martin Gutmann is a globally sought-after keynote speaker who brings fresh and urgent insights into how leaders can understand and navigate today’s uncertain world. Combining history, sociology, and organizational psychology, he delivers engaging, story-driven talks that challenge conventional wisdom and offer practical takeaways for leaders and organisations. His ability to bridge the past with the present helps audiences rethink leadership, decision-making, and strategy in an era of rapid change.
A professor at the Lucerne School of Business and senior lecturer at ETH Zurich, Martin’s research and thought leadership have reached over 60 million people through pieces in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Forbes (where Martin is a regular contributor), Inc., Fast Company, and many other popular outlets, as well as appearances on leading management podcasts. His recent TED Talk, Are We Celebrating the Wrong Leaders?, has been viewed over 2 million times.
Martin is also the best-selling author of The Unseen Leader: How History Can Help Us Rethink Leadership. Adam Grant, organisational psychologist and thought leader, describes the book as a: “A provocative look at what history really teaches us about effective leadership. This book will challenge you to rethink some of your core assumptions about what it takes to align people around common goals.”
Born in Sweden, Martin has lived and worked in Japan, the US, Canada, Mauritius, Germany, and Switzerland. From 2016 to 2020, he was the founding Managing Director of the Swiss School of Public Governance, where he launched a program for future global public sector leaders. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, an Executive MBA from IE Business School in Spain, and higher education teacher’s training from Harvard University and ETH Zurich.
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Speech Topics
Why We Need To Rethink Leadership For The Age Of AI
This isn’t a talk about AI strategy. It’s a talk about what it will take to lead through one of the most profound revolutions in modern business. Combining sharp historical insight, witty anecdotes, state-of-the-field research, and actionable foresight, Martin delivers a powerful new lens for understanding AI, not as a technical challenge, but as a leadership imperative. Attendees will gain insights into the five concrete tensions they need to master to lead well in the age of AI: trust, productivity, meaning, clarity, and power.
The Leadership Playbook For An Uncertain World
In his keynote, Martin examines the early pioneers of aviation and the 1927 race to fly across the Atlantic, drawing parallels to contemporary leadership amid uncertainty and rapid change. He highlights three enduring yet counterintuitive principles for effective leadership: subtract rather than add, use a compass instead of a map, and practice humility. Attendees will gain valuable insights into navigating today’s complex challenges with confidence and clarity.
The Secret To Leading High-Performance Teams
What really drives high-performance teams? In this eye-opening talk, Martin breaks with conventional wisdom to reveal the secret behind truly resilient, high-performing teams (hint: the key is balancing relationships and performance). He’ll share the critical role leaders play in making this happen and why this matters now more than ever. Drawing on exceptional teams from sports, such as the Chicago Bulls, and business, as well as cutting-edge research on psychological safety, team dynamics, and humble leadership, this talk delivers surprising insights and actionable takeaways that will change the way you think about leadership and team performance.
Decoding The Age Of Disruption
In this sweeping and thought-provoking talk, Martin unpacks the forces reshaping our world, from artificial intelligence to geopolitical upheaval and economic uncertainty. Drawing on historical parallels, he reveals three unexpected but essential predictions for how these disruptions will impact business and society. With clarity and insight, he highlights the key actions leaders must take to navigate volatility, build resilience, and seize new opportunities. Attendees will leave with a clear framework for understanding today’s most pressing global developments and a roadmap for leading through uncertainty.
Why Do We Celebrate The Wrong Leaders
Based on the TED talk that became a global sensation, Martin challenges your team in this keynote to reconsider their definition of effective leadership, highlighting that true greatness lies in preventing crises rather than responding dramatically to them. Drawing lessons from the disaster-prone explorer Ernest Shackleton and other similarly famous, but consistently unsuccessful leaders, he challenges conventional views and offers a fresh perspective on what makes a leader truly exceptional. Attendees will learn to appreciate the often overlooked skill of crisis prevention and learn to cultivate the three universal traits of effective leaders: fluency in context, a balance of humility and confidence, and a pragmatic mindset.
