Dependably excellent speaker on customers, manufacturing, leadership and management.


Highlights

John Brandt is an accomplished management innovator and an expert on manufacturing and technology, with unique knowledge of manufacturing in China. He offers audiences world-class advice on how to adapt to new market realities, new corporate structures and new customer expectations.

John speaks on topics ranging from leadership and customer value to management best practices and building world-class communities.

He delivers the equivalent of your own white paper for improved performance: a customized presentation with comparative data on your competition, industry best practices and performance benchmarks, with analysis and recommendations tailored to your audience.

John is founder and CEO of the MPI Group, a firm that offers companies strategic advice based on research and customized benchmarks. The MPI Group also conducts annual proprietary research projects on manufacturing and management performance and maintains one of the largest databases on performance metrics in the world.

As a business leader himself, John has proved his ability to turn organizations around and deliver stellar performance. As a business journalist, he has earned more than 20 awards for reporting, writing and editing. He led both IndustryWeek magazine and the Chief Executive Group, publisher of Chief Executive magazine.

John is an excellent moderator.

John Brandt combines humor and affability with real depth in management theory, strong personal experience, and unparalleled research and analysis resources.

The Expertise

China. No one understands the nature of the Chinese threat in manufacturing and the strategies necessary to meet the challenge better than John Brandt. He’s conducted the first large-scale study of China’s manufacturing capabilities and regularly updates its findings.

Customer value. In one of his most popular speeches, John answers this essential business question: Where is the value in your business?

The MPI Group is a world leader in independent research, advice and performance-targeted solutions in three areas (the 3Ms): manufacturing and management.

The MPI Group

The MPI Group is a world leader in independent research, advice and performance-targeted solutions in manufacturing and management.

• The Manufacturing Performance Institute has conducted the largest annual study of U.S. manufacturing and the first-ever large-scale study of manufacturing in China, which it regularly updates.
• The Management Performance Institute has conducted the largest-ever study of distribution in the U.S.; soon to come, a profitability study.

John uses MPI research to identify the top performers in your industry and/or your region, identifies what differentiates them, and then provides a ‘report’ on best practices and strategic advice on how to improve your own performance.

China

No one has more to offer audiences in terms of understanding the nature of the Chinese threat in manufacturing and the strategies necessary to meet the challenge than John Brandt. The reason: knowledge …

• of China—MPI has done the first-ever large-scale study of Chinese manufacturing; and
• of manufacturing in general—years editing IndustryWeek, manufacturing’s premier journal, and years of experience producing and analyzing the results of several of the most important annual research projects on the manufacturing sector.

China is on everyone’s mind and with good reason—the competitive threat is probably understated. Yet the U.S. still has significant advantages. John Brandt can help your audience position itself for maximum advantage in a dangerous and uncertain competitive environment that is nevertheless ripe with real opportunity.

Creating Value

This is one of John’s most popular speeches: Where is the value in your business and how do you use that knowledge to competitive advantage? John tackles this essential business question from several complementary angles:

• Brand—what does your brand really mean?
• Customers—what do they really want?
• Innovation—how do you create value beyond your product or service?
• The future—where is value migrating?
• Commoditization—how do you avoid pressures to commoditize your offering?

The Story

As Director of Management Development for a hospital system, John helped create a values-based leadership training program. He has also completely transformed several publications.

IndustryWeek. Under his leadership as Publisher and Editor-In-Chief of IndustryWeek, the magazine won more than 70 editorial awards for excellence and more than doubled its revenues, putting it solidly in the black for the first time in more than a decade. He launched an award-winning and profitable web venture that serves senior executives around the globe. He also led the development of several pioneering, large-scale research efforts, including the IndustryWeek Census of Manufacturers, the IW Value Chain Survey, the World-Class Communities Project, the IndustryWeek 1000, and the World’s Best Managed Companies Program. He continues to write an award-winning column for IndustryWeek.

Chief Executive. As President, Publisher and Editorial Director of the Chief Executive Group, publisher of Chief Executive, he transformed the magazine from an also-ran into one of publishing’s most surprising comebacks. He’s been a lifestyle columnist for the Plain Dealer, one of the country’s largest newspapers, and a humor columnist for Shaker Magazine, an award-winning regional publication.

MPI Group. As CEO of the MPI Group, John has been fast expanding the Group’s offerings. MPI has been progressively building proficiency in its three areas of focus, beginning with manufacturing and expanding into management and marketing, designing new surveys and adding scope and depth to its existing surveys, and adding toolkits and other products to make its research more valuable to its clients. Together with John’s business experience and analytical expertise, this expanding knowledge base gives John’s presentations unique and customizable value for business audiences.

Credentials

• CEO, MPI Group
• Former President, Publisher and Editorial Director of the Chief Executive Group, publisher of
  Chief Executive magazine
• Former publisher & editor-in-chief, IndustryWeek magazine
• Member, National Advisory Board, Manufacturing Extension Partnership (appointed by the US
  Secretary of Commerce)
• Former lifestyle columnist, The Plain Dealer
• Former humor columnist, Shaker Magazine
• Recipient, Neal Award, 1998
• Judge, Neal Awards
• Judge, National Association of Manufacturers Awards of Workforce Excellence

Topic Areas

• Innovation—Value Migration and Value Creation for Growth
• Customer value—What do customers value, how can you deliver more value and how can you recognize when value changes?
• Value Bundles—The Key to Avoiding Commoditization
• Leadership Development
• Management Effectiveness
• Manufacturing Performance Improvement—research on comparative performance measures and best practices; advice on benchmark strategies and the competition.
• Management Performance Improvement—research on demographics, operating metrics, financial results, investments and other industry-specific data;
  – Leadership speech: what are the universal factors for best performance
  – Industry & region-specific speech: leading to win from where you are—a Mcompetitive briefing
  
• Regional Development—strategies for corporations, states and regions

Experience and research resources in all industries, all business functions, all regions of the U.S., and international.

John is also an excellent moderator.