By centering on the source of innovation, “Onlyness,” Nilofer Merchant enables you to unlock new business value.

She literally wrote the book of “new rules” for business in our social era in 2012. As those prescient insights evolved into accepted truths about our connected world, Merchant again lit the path to the next frontier in her latest book, The Power of Onlyness. Few industries or brands will survive unless they understand what Merchant calls “Onlyness” – the experience, talent, perspective, and purpose lying untapped in our own people. She has received dozens of invitations from leaders around the world who want to learn how to use Onlyness to unlock the fresh ideas and vast innovation too often overlooked and left undiscovered in their teams.

During her 25 years in technology, Merchant personally launched more than 100 products, netting $18 billion in sales. She helped launch the first Internet Server at Apple, grew division performance at Autodesk, and created product and pricing strategies for Adobe. Her experience as an operating leader is why boards and CEOs of IBM, JP Morgan, and Walmart seek her advice; her ideas about redesigning work…actually, work.

Thinkers50 said Merchant was the “#1 person most likely to influence the future of management in both theory and practice” when they awarded her the Future Thinker award in 2013. CNBC called Merchant a visionary. Her TEDtalk ranks in the top 10% in the world.

She has served on corporate boards for Nasdaq-traded and private companies, and on public governance boards.

Merchant is an MBA graduate of Santa Clara University and applied economics at the University of San Francisco, and has taught business strategy, collaborative management, and leadership at Stanford University and Santa Clara University, and guest-lectured at Yale.