The former director of communications for Harley-Davidson Motor Company played an active role in one of the most celebrated turnarounds in corporate history. Since Ken Schmidt’s has advised executive leaders of many of the world’s best-known brands, delivered more than one thousand keynote presentations, written two best-selling books, and created a popular business podcast.
He’s widely respected as one of the business community’s most outspoken, provocative, and entertaining thought leaders on competition, loyalty, human behavior, workplace culture, brand management, positioning and reputation management — and how each of those topics impacts the others.
The longtime motorcycle enthusiast’s formal association with Harley-Davidson began in 1985. As a specialist in corporate positioning and financial relations, he was asked to work with the struggling company to help restore its image, improve its competitiveness, create demand for its motorcycles and attract investors. Within a few short years, as sales of its motorcycles rocketed upward, Harley-Davidson became one of the most respected, competitively dominant, profitable and frequently reported-on companies in the world.
Today, Schmidt’s focused on his greatest passions, motorcycling, speaking and helping business leaders to improve their competitiveness. In addition to “Make Some Noise: The Unconventional Road To Dominance,” he also ghost-wrote, “100 Years of Harley-Davidson,” the best-selling motorsports book of all time. In 2021, he launched, “Tailgating With Geniuses,” a highly successful business and entertainment podcast.
Ken Schmidt’s business keynote speech is a fascinating story of how businesses of any size and scope can—by focusing on understanding and harnessing the most basic drivers of human behavior—improve their competitiveness and avoid margin-killing commoditization in even the most difficult marketing environments. The road to building a fanatically vocal customer base, creating a passionately loyal corporate culture, and developing leaders who inspire and motivate starts here. Schmidt challenges audiences to consider what they are willing to do today that is different than what they did yesterday, for the people who can put them out of business tomorrow.
