The Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association will celebrate its “Sapphire” anniversary during the 45th Annual Convention & Trade Show, October 24-26, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. As part of the Association’s preparations, Entrepreneur…Innovator…Co-Founder of Fast Company, and bestselling author, William (Bill) Taylor has been announced as keynote speaker for STAFDA’s General Session on Monday, October 25.
Taylor has a passion for the ideas and practices that are reshaping how organizations compete, innovate, and win. He’ll address these in his STAFDA presentation: Talent, Culture, and the New World of Work: How to Unleash & Sustain Fierce Execution & Nonstop Innovation.
Business today is about distinctive competitive strategies, game-changing technologies, and creative social media and marketing. But the most successful organizations — those built on fierce execution and nonstop innovation — work as distinctively as they compete. The first question great organizations ask themselves is: What separates us from our rivals in the marketplace? But the next question is: What holds us together as colleagues in the workplace? Both are equally important to achieve overall success.
As a young entrepreneur, Taylor founded Fast Company, the bold business magazine that redefined the genre and chronicled the tech-fueled revolution which transformed business and work. Fast Company won just about every award in the magazine world, from “Startup of the Year” to “Magazine of the Year” to three National Magazine awards. In recognition of Fast Company’s impact on business, Taylor was named “Champion of Workplace Learning and Performance” by the American Society of Training & Development. Past winners include Jack Welch of GE and Fred Smith of FedEx. In less than six years, a magazine that took shape in borrowed office space in Harvard Square sold for $340 million.
Chronicling and learning from free-thinking leaders and game-changing companies is Taylor’s passion. After selling the magazine, he has continued to inspire a generation of executives and company-builders to think differently about leadership, change, culture, and the new world of work.
He’s written three bestselling books filled with examples of new ways to innovate and succeed: Simply Brilliant: How Great Organizations Do Ordinary Things in Extraordinary Ways; Practically Radical; and Mavericks at Work. Taylor also is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review.
In a competitive environment where ordinary is not an option, William Taylor is a natural storyteller who inspires people to transform their organizations and challenge themselves, to make sure what they know doesn’t limit what they can imagine about the future.
Following his keynote presentation, he’ll be in STAFDA Central in STAFDA’s Trade Show from 12:00 – 12:45 p.m. signing copies of his book, Simply Brilliant. The first 50 members in line will receive a complimentary copy of the book.
For more information on the STAFDA Convention & Trade Show or membership, please contact Catherine Usher, cusher@stafda.org, 262/784-4774 or 800/352-2981.
