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Bio Topics
Testimonials Bio Former personal assistant to Ross Perot and student of W. Edwards Deming, consultant and business leader Andrew Bennett presents inspiration as a critical strategy for achievement. Sharing stories from his own life – a life of contrast between great personal loss and impressive achievement – Andrew weaves together a compelling case about the need for inspiration in our work. Andrew founded Bennett Performance Group in 1997 to work with leaders building inspiration into the fabric of organizations in order to achieve critical goals like growth, innovation, and profitability. For over 20 years he has been working in, and studying, organizational cultures at Abbott Laboratories, The City of Detroit Health Department, The Deming Institute, Ford Motor Company, Host Marriott, Lockheed Martin, Motorola, and Sun Microsystems, to name a few. He’s learned that most organizations spend their time on daily operations, neglecting the powerful force of inspiration. During his years at EDS, Andrew was selected at age 28 to manage expansion into Australia. During this assignment his team grew annual revenue by 1300% from $5 million to $65 million over two years without adding resources. He did this by creating a new business model based on a partnership of risk and reward-sharing with his client. He returned to the US to teach this paradigm-busting model to hundreds of managers. During this time Andrew attended New York University where he studied quality management and systems thinking under W. Edwards Deming. After working inside corporate structures for 10 years Andrew experienced a personal wake-up call as he struggled to reconcile financial success with success as measured by feeling that the work we do has meaning – that our work matters. He had observed many people over the years wrestling with the same questions. As he worked to find answers, Andrew learned about the close relationship between financial success and inspiration. He realized that these two drivers are not mutually exclusive. In fact, financial success and inspiration support each other in a virtuous cycle. There are major differences between motivation and inspiration. While motivation is required at times when we need a kick in the pants, inspiration is about building enduring, positive energy into your organization’s culture, connecting the hearts and minds of customers, employees, suppliers, and communities, and creating compelling reasons for working with your organization. Achieving a shift in performance as the result of one presentation is a pretty tall order, yet the organizations Andrew works with regularly report notable changes after he speaks. That’s because he has been presenting for over 35 years. Andrew began presenting at age seven as a magician, and today, as a member of London’s prestigious Magic Circle, he uses world-class magic as a metaphor for the principles he teaches and to punctuate and energize his presentations. In high school Andrew was Michigan State Champion in public speaking in 1977 and 1979. In 1992 he was awarded the EDS Great Communicator Award for being the best business speaker within the 70,000-person company. He is gifted when it comes to developing trust and rapport, enabling audience members to relax, have fun, and open up to new ways of thinking and acting.
Andrew has been getting paid as a professional speaker since 1992. He’s the right speaker for you if you’re working to…
“Your performance and presentation provided the perfect ending to an intense and information
packed meeting. You’ll be happy to know that you received very positive feedback from our associates.
We feel confident that the message we discussed prior to the meeting, excellence, teamwork, leadership
and communication, was enhanced and supported by your performance. It’s always a pleasure to work with
a pro!” “No matter what the setting is, Andrew hits the mark. His personality comes through to all. The quiet passion he has for the message is evident. He captures people’s attention with his magic, relates and connects it to the message being delivered, and makes that message real and useful on a personal and business level. Many times, when a meeting or conference is announced in my organization, the first question I
am asked is, ‘Will Andrew Bennett be there?’ Such is the following he has enlisted in our
organization over the years.” “Andrew’s broad experience was evident during his presentation. He is very knowledgeable about
the aspects of the role of leadership, personal mastery and the difficulty that managers face in their
dynamic roles. His audience was captivated with his use of magic to make salient points. He also has
a warm, interactive and entertaining presentation style that delivers the point! The managers found
this to be a very informative and helpful presentation. The course evaluations were very positive and
requested that we bring Andrew back for additional presentations.” “I found Andrew to be an extremely motivating and uplifting spirit. He provided a sense of ‘possibilities’ about our future and presented his information in a way that uplifted our entire organization. His experience and insights helped us clarify both our strategies and our tactics in our organizational search for culture and vision. I found Andrew to be able to relate to people at all levels of the organization and to speak to people in a way that they could understand and appreciate. Andrew’s efforts with our organization had a profound and lasting impact. Additionally, as a
consultant, Andrew was able to come across as someone more interested in the best interests of our
organization rather than in creating a relationship in which we would be dependent upon him and his
consulting for our future success. His ability to make us better and more self-sufficient is something
I find to be a rare combination in consulting.” ”His innate business savvy and charismatic personal style perfectly complement his passionate commitment to professional excellence and make him a pleasure to be around. Each of the managers who has worked with him greatly appreciates his unique and very effective contributions. Andrew works with both small and large groups with the company – anywhere from roughly twenty to six hundred employees – and every time he develops a quick rapport with his audiences. He livens up the room and he has a knack for putting people at ease. By encouraging an atmosphere of openness, Andrew has helped to build trust among our employees, a mainstay of our company culture. Andrew is an innovative persona with a special talent for delivering information in a way that
managers and others from a broad range of backgrounds can understand and use. He possesses a natural
gift for relating to people, and, as a result, our employees feel a greater personal connection to
the company and know they work around people who care about the company and one another.” “It was during our first interaction and performance that I know Andrew to be a ‘true’ individual of his word and commitment. He is an exceedingly dedicated individual to his clients. He has taken the time to learn about our College and its employees. He personalizes every component of his work to LCC; he goes beyond expectation in visiting with staff and answering their questions to following up with the College after each event for feedback. LCC continuously looks for avenues to include him. Evaluations and comments from LCC staff regarding Andrew’s presentations have been exemplary. He
has made an astounding impression. His knowledge, energy and commitment to individuals and
organizations are outstanding. The loyalty and professionalism that he displays goes beyond mention.
Andrew is truly a dynamic and charismatic individual.” “From our initial meeting I knew he was a very special person. I can honestly say that I have never met anyone with more integrity and respect for his fellow man than Andrew. His versatility is a key quality he brings to every training or presenting opportunity. It doesn’t matter if he is teaching a class to entry level service technicians or presenting a keynote to senior executives, he understands and relates to his audience very well. Andrew’s sense of humour and love of magic made him very human and approachable. He made the sessions fun! Andrew made it a point to get to know any specific details that would help him relate to his students. When he came here to Canada to present he made sure that he understood differences in the culture and work environment. An important part of our culture here at Sun Microsystems is our values. We entrusted Andrew
with introducing and teaching our values to new employees. He did an excellent job. It was evident,
when watching him teach, that he believed in our values and put his heart and soul into the sessions.
He was inspirational and truly motivated our people.” “Your presentation on successful leadership pulled diverse areas together into a cohesive focus on leadership. We really appreciated the fact that, unlike many keynote speakers who come in, give a speech, and then leave, all without ever speaking with the participants, you came up early and made a very concerted effort to meet with as many Academy members as possible in order to tailor your address. You presented material which was clear and important and you were able to combine the academic foundation of the work, with the showmanship of magic, a wonderful combination. By your presentation style you held the audience and increased their learning. Thank you again for working so hard and producing a product which went our participants away
seriously thinking about the implications of their style and effectiveness as leaders.” “Andrew was our grand finale speaker and was able to quite skillfully cast a promising and
challenging light upon this new decade of rapid change. Andrew is an engaging and dynamic speaker
with a message that rang true to all in attendance. I would not hesitate to recommend Andrew to
other organizations undergoing critical self-examinations or strategic planning sessions.” “Andrew is an engaging speaker that brings energy, relevance and lots of
fun to an audience. He is able to convey a requested message using techniques
that generate lots of audience participation and learning at the same time.
Every time I have used his services the audience feedback forms have all been
outstanding.” “Andrew is not only knowledgeable about his subject matter, he is passionate and shares his hear
with the audience.” “He is such a delight. I hope we’ll be able to have him back.” “Andrew did a great job in advance to learn about his audience and the challenges they are
facing. This allowed him to relay very relevant material to the group. His magic was mind boggling
and left the group with a very lasting impression.” For more information about this speaker and/or
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