Speaking

Approach

William Higham doesn’t see uncertainty as a threat. He sees it as an opportunity. After watching him speak, so will you.

William gained his reputation as someone who could accurately predict the future. For 20 years, he’s helped organisations like Amazon, Barclays, Vodafone and Walt Disney understand emerging trends, anticipate their impact and prepare for what might happen next.

His passion for helping organisations get future-ready has inspired audiences at events for FT to Barclaycard, BT to Colgate, from Texas to Seoul. His talks have helped leaders face the future without fear, armed with practical ways to handle any challenge they encounter.

Now, as the world becomes less certain, he helps leaders prepare their organisations not for one future but for any future.

He provides his audiences with the inspiration and practical tools to help them get future-ready. Encouraging them to shake off outdated habits, embrace flexibility and respond confidently to whatever comes.

Benefits

William’s talks are provocative, practical and positive. They take audiences from future dread to future confidence.

Drawing on 20 years of experience, real-world business examples and a career spent studying change, William shows audiences how to:

Build readiness: develop organisations capable of adapting quickly when circumstances change.
Turn uncertainty into opportunity: recognise the possibilities that disruption creates.
Think beyond a single future: prepare for multiple possibilities without becoming paralysed.
Create confidence without certainty: give leaders the strength to act when they don’t have all the answers.
Out-adapt the competition: use volatility as a catalyst for innovation, transformation and growth.

Added value

William is passionate about preparing his audiences for the future. So he’s always happy to go that extra mile.

He relishes the chance to get closer to his audiences: interact with them and answer any questions.

He loves to extend his talks into workshops and expanded workshop/Q&A hybrids. Or to enter into stimulating debates on expert panels or fireside chats.

He doesn’t see talks as one-and-done. He’ll work with clients on their socials to help promote the event ahead of time or after the event. Take part in debriefs once the audiences have gone home. And offer targeted follow up talks, seminars and consultancy.

Clients

Testimonials

William's talk was a great way to start our strategy conference. He brought new, provocative insights and inspired the audience to think of new ways to serve tomorrow’s consumer.

Will gave us great insights into how the world is changing, and how companies will need to adapt to succeed.

William has the unique ability to identify the most important trends then translate them into some commercial opportunities for his audience.

William got the brief exactly and delivered just the kind of speech we wanted. The feedback was all really positive, and I found him very easy and a real pleasure to work with.

William was informative and entertaining balancing breadth of interest with practical ideas. It was a diverse, global audience and he provided something for everyone.

Will was engaging, thought provoking and set our agenda for change. It was great working with him.

His insights and expertise were pivotal in shaping the day’s thought-provoking discussions and helped make the event a success.

William was a really great choice. He pitched it at exactly the right level, and the way he communicated to the audience was excellent. We had great feedback on the day.

Keynotes

Get Your Sea Legs

Find your footing and steer confidently through the storm

A third of UK companies now consider uncertainty their biggest barrier to growth. It restricts leaders’ ability to think strategically and make smart decisions.

But William Higham views uncertainty differently: something to be embraced, not feared. If leaders lean into it, it acts like an adrenaline shot: creating the energy to drive innovation, uncover opportunity and fuel growth.

He’s on a mission to make audiences feel the same. They might arrive worried about unpredictability, but leave excited to embrace it.

The talk shows audiences:

practical ways to reduce fear of change
how to make decisions without all the data
how to be a learn-it-all, not a know-it-all leader
the importance of finding and following your North Star
why uncertainty provides more opportunities than stability
examples where it drove success in business, economics and pop culture

It’s Time To Trim Your Sails

Clear the decks, speed up decisions and get your crew pulling together

A major PwC study last year found 57% of organisations are regularly missing out on critical market opportunities because they can’t make decisions fast enough.

Why is speed so important today? Events, trends and needs change faster every year. If you don’t grasp opportunities quickly, someone else will grab them first.

William Higham has spent 20 years helping companies build the systems to make smarter, swifter decisions on the future.

In this talk he gives audiences practical tools to take their companies from slow and siloed to fast and flexible. Showing how to make decisions faster and more confidently through:

flatter hierarchies and self-directed teams
an engaged, change-friendly culture
promotion, hiring policies that reward risk and flexibility
adaptable strategies and workflows
psychological safety that nurtures collaboration and open communication